iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone hotspot won’t show up on other devices

[mrochester]

Unless I am on the personal hotspot screen on the iPhone.

I’ve tried turning WiFi and Bluetooth off and restarting all the devices but I can still only connect my other devices (iPad and Mac) when the iPhone is on the personal hotspot screen.

Other than signing out of and back into my iCloud account on all devices is there anything else that might fix it?

Many thanks.

M.

 

[chabig]

Are your iPad and Mac signed into the same iCloud account? That’s a requirement. In iCloud settings, try turning on Passwords and Keychain.

 

[mrochester]

Yeah they’re all the same account.

 

[lindros2]

I've found this too.
TL;dr - it's somewhat arbitrary, affects older (2+ year old phones), and started happening in iOS 16, I believe, as a security measure.

I don't necessarily have to be on the "personal hotspot" screen, but my screen does have to be on. And if my screen is off/blank, it takes a moment for the hotspot to appear.

Note that some trusted devices (my MacBook Pro and iPad Pro) will get on the hotspot arbitrarily when there's no other connection (i.e. I'm driving in my car) and I've allowed background activity (wake for network access [always] AND low power mode [off]).