iPhone 8/Plus iPhone "Personal Hotspot" - Does not meet field worker requirements.

[tonyhes]

Hello MacRumors,

I'm hoping you will be able comment....


I am helping to support a group of field workers. These workers are supplied with a corporate phone and for cost saving reasons the corporate laptop has had cellular services removed.

The users work very dynamically. At one point they may be sitting in a vehicle for an hour working. At another point they may walk away from the vehicle for an hour taking their smartphone with them and while their laptop sits in the vehicle.

I note here we are not concerned with power saving on the iPhones and data use is not a concern either as usage for business is not problematic. All the devices are newer models iPhone 8 and higher with o/s 13. I have advised staff to upgrade to 13.7, 14 is off the books for the time being.

Users are complaining they expend significant time reconnecting the iPhone hotspot. Essentially, at any point a user toggles the Hotspot on & off to reconnect is wasting employee resources/cycles.


***I note that Samsung Android devices include an option to turn mange "Hotspot Timeout"***
This includes an option for Never Timeout.

How do we get an iPhone hotspot to stay on…. always.


Thank you,
Tony H.

 

[now i see it]

It will always disconnect when a device is let idle. I've never experienced otherwise.
In my case, when it disconnects, I have to turn off WiFi and Bluetooth in Control Center and Personal Hotsot in settings, then count to ten, then turn Personal Hotspot back on and allow it to turn on WiFi & Bluetooth automatically.

On the tethered device (usually my Mac laptop running Catalina) I have to turn off Wifi before turning on Personal Hotspot on the iPhone. Usually then it will reconnect, sometimes it never will and I have to reboot my Mac.

Yes it's really lame.

 

[rui no onna]

Only way that's possible is if the laptop never disconnects from the hotspot. That means no hibernate, no standby, no power savings, and always within connecting distance of the iPhone.

Frankly, this is why I have a cellular iPad instead of just tethering to my phone. The cellular iPad is connected to the internet as soon as it wakes up from sleep. No waiting to connect to hotspot (which can get super annoying if you're doing it multiple times in a day).

 

[mainelyme]

I give my field workers cellular iPads. They use these to view plans and other contract documents, for Zoom calls, email, daily field reports--almost everything they need to do while in the field. When they do want or need to use a laptop, they'll also use their iPads as mobile hotspots, and as far as I know, the iPads work just as well for this purpose as the dedicated hotspot devices that they replaced.

I should point out that most of my field workers use Windows laptops, as some of the web apps and software that we and our clients use are Windows-only. In the Personal Hotspot settings on their iPads, they'll enable the "Allow Others to Join" setting and connect their laptops like it's an ordinary wifi network. As long as the laptop is set to reconnect automatically, it can be put to sleep or turned off, and when it's brought back up, it will reconnect to the iPad. Likewise the Allow Others to Join setting can be toggled off on the iPad, and when it's turned back on, the laptop will automatically reconnect if it hasn't found another network to join in the meantime.

With a Mac, the personal hotspot is enabled automatically and is always available when the two devices are associated with the same Apple ID. Connecting in this manner seems to work differently and requires frequent reconnecting. I would suggest trying the other method instead if this is possible.

I'll also mention that I have found that our Macs use a lot more mobile hotspot data than Windows laptops, which can be a problem as hotspot data is typically limited even on unlimited data plans. I expect it's because every time it connects to a network, a Mac will synchronize all messages, photos, notes, reminders, etc. A little too much ecosystem integration. It would be nice if Mac OS had a low data mode.

 

[tonyhes]

Thank you for the replies.

mainelyme
Can you elaborate. Your field laptops... have you done anything special for "Reconnect Automatically", in windows 10 that I see this is automatic (Always reconnect) unless specified otherwise.

FWIW -

I have spoken to Apple Consumer support who advised the behavior is by design and to suggest a change via apple.com\feedback.

I have now also spoken to Apple Enterprise support who concurred the behavior is by design and to suggest a change via feedback. They also advised when the hotspot is enabled it is visible for 5 minutes and then stops being discoverable. (This timeout seems to be true). After this 5min any connected device will remain connected. If any connected device loses connection the hotspot will have to be toggled on and off.


Thank you,
Tony

 

[now i see it]

I wish all that was required was toggle the hotspot off then on in iOS settings. That's never worked for me in 6 years - ever. For my devices, reconnecting always requires jumping through hoops and over barrels and barking three times.

 

[jschnee21]

Cellular iPad, USB cellular modem, or Jetpack/Mifi/hotspot type device.

 

[rui no onna]

I wish all that was required was toggle the hotspot off then on in iOS settings. That's never worked for me in 6 years - ever. For my devices, reconnecting always requires jumping through hoops and over barrels and barking three times.

That sounds super annoying. For me, just toggling Personal Hotspot on the iPhone or iPad is good enough for the Windows laptops to auto connect.

It's the iOS devices that can get gummed up. Sometimes it works but when it doesn't, I go through the same hoops toggling bluetooth, wifi and personal hotspot on and off. It happens with enough regularity that I'm willing to pay for cellular iPad + service.

 

[tonyhes]

My post on Apple Forums looks like it is going no where. Looks like this is small fish for Apple.

iPhone "Personal Hotspot" - Does not meet… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[mainelyme]

Thank you for the replies.

mainelyme
Can you elaborate. Your field laptops... have you done anything special for "Reconnect Automatically", in windows 10 that I see this is automatic (Always reconnect) unless specified otherwise.

No, it's just the default setting. Other comments suggest that iPads behave differently as hotspots. I didn't know this.

 

[rui no onna]

No, it's just the default setting. Other comments suggest that iPads behave differently as hotspots. I didn't know this.

Nah, they behave the same way.