iPhone Personal Hotspot Not Showing in Big Sur

[Vlad Soare]

Hi guys,

In Catalina, when I clicked on the wi-fi icon in the menu bar, in addition to the available hotspots I would also see my iPhone (provided it was close enough to the computer). Both devices are logged in to the same iCloud account.
In Big Sur this doesn't happen anymore. I must unlock the phone and manually turn on the personal hotspot feature, and it's only then that the computer acknowledges its existence.
Does this feature still work for you? Am I doing anything wrong? Is there a setting in BigSur or in iOS 14 that I'm missing?
I loved being able to use the personal hotspot feature so easily, whenever I wanted to, without having to reach for the phone and to fiddle with it each and every time.

Thank you.

 

[chscag]

Still working for me in Big Sur. I just tried it to make sure before answering. It even still shows when the phone is locked. (This is with an iPhone 8)

 

[Vlad Soare]

Hmm... This is strange. I can see my daughters' iPhones (which are logged into their own iCloud accounts, both of which are part of our family account), but not mine.



So it doesn't appear to be a Big Sur issue. It may have something to do with my phone. Mine is the only one that has been upgraded to iOS 14.3. Theirs are still on 14.0. Maybe there's a bug in iOS 14.3.

 

[chscag]

Both my iPhone 8 and my wife's iPhone 11 are on 14.3 and each shows up as a hot spot in Big Sur. I don't think it's 14.3 causing your problem.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I just tested as well and I got the same results as @chscag.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Hmm... This is strange. I can see my daughters' iPhones (which are logged into their own iCloud accounts, both of which are part of our family account), but not mine.

View attachment 1710168

So it doesn't appear to be a Big Sur issue. It may have something to do with my phone. Mine is the only one that has been upgraded to iOS 14.3. Theirs are still on 14.0. Maybe there's a bug in iOS 14.3.

Go into settings on the phone and try the reset network settings option. That may solve the problem. You will need to re-enter your password after the phone resets.

 

[MLMcMillion]

Go to System Preferences > Apple ID > Overview on your Mac and make sure you don't need to sign back in. I did this and it fixed it for me.

 

[Vlad Soare]

No, it appears I'm correctly logged in, and it doesn't say I need to log in again.
Besides, I can see all the other iPhones in the household in the personal hotspot list, just not my own. So it must be something wrong with my phone, not with the Mac.

 

[robkat]

No, it appears I'm correctly logged in, and it doesn't say I need to log in again.
Besides, I can see all the other iPhones in the household in the personal hotspot list, just not my own. So it must be something wrong with my phone, not with the Mac.

I am on iOS 14.4 and no problems seeing my phone on Big Sur.

 

[nebojsak]

Well, that occured as the first major Big Sur problem on my MBA for testing purposes. Cannot connect to the personal hotspot.

 

[BlueTide]

Any updates? As the world is opening up, this is a real annoyance. Big Sur does not show the hotspot for me to select on a M1 MacBook Air.

 

[Vlad Soare]

I'm sorry, I forgot to come back with an update. In my case a restart of the Macbook solved it.

 

[BlueTide]

I'm sorry, I forgot to come back with an update. In my case a restart of the Macbook solved it.

Ah. No such luck here. Oh well, goes to my to-do list to figure out somewhere after Safari not scrolling on second screen anymore.