All iPads Long-Term iPad Wifi Hotspot usage questions

[mk313]

I didn't see this mentioned in the forum & google searches that I've done, but I'm hoping that someone else has experience with this & can give me some pointers. I'm running into an issue using my iPad as a wifi hotspot on a long-term basis.

I posted a thread about this issue on this forum earlier: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/way-to-remote-into-ipad.2276328/. I'm posting a new thread instead of continuing the old one, as with further testing, the issue appears to be different than the topic I originally posted.

The issue I'm running into is that I am trying to use my iPad as a wifi hotspot to provide cellular internet to a security camera on a property we own about a 90 minute round trip from our house. It appears to work fine for a while, but then stops working. I have the setup as this: iPad Pro 9.7 on Sprint (and earlier T-mobile service). I have hotspot enabled and have a nest security camera and two lights attached to wemo smart plugs attached to the hotspots. A couple of days ago, I added a third wemo to the setup to turn the nest cam on & off.

The issue I'm running into is that the hotspot goes down occasionally & I can't get it to come back up unless I physically go over there. It seems to happen randomly, every 2-7 days. After the last time it happened, I added the third wemo to the nest cam, because I thought that by power-cycling the cam, I could reconnect to the hotspot (as that is my first move every time I go over there). It happened again last night & I tried the power-cycle to no avail. I also noticed that two of the wemos (both lights) were no longer accessible through the wemo app, although the third one (the camera) was.

Once I got over there, I saw that the camera's light was blinking (indicating that it wasn't connected to wifi). As soon as I turned the iPad on & typed in my password, everything (camera & memos) immediately reconnected to the hotspot.

It appears that the issue lies with the iPad or the hotspot feature. I'm wondering if anyone has any other suggestions on ways to make this work. I've gotten some suggestions to try a different device (a mobile hotspots, etc) and that may be the way I have to go, if I can't figure this out. Today, I turned off the auto-sleep on the iPad, so in theory at least, it should stay on permanently & never go to sleep or lock. I can't say for sure that is what is causing the issue, but it's the only other variable I could think of to try to change. I'm hoping that something happens when it's locked & asleep that is causing the issues. I also turned off all iCloud, notification & cellular data by apps other than the wemos & the nest app, in hopes that might help.

Long story short, I guess my question is, has anyone else used their hotspot for long-term usage (weeks at a time) and come across this issue & a way to resolve it.

Thanks in advance.

PS-I should also add that I don't think the unit is overheating, as the house is kept at 50 Degrees when we are not there, and even when the hotspot stops working, the unit is visible when I use the Find My app.

 

[AutomaticApple]

I didn't see this mentioned in the forum & google searches that I've done, but I'm hoping that someone else has experience with this & can give me some pointers. I'm running into an issue using my iPad as a wifi hotspot on a long-term basis.

I posted a thread about this issue on this forum earlier: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/way-to-remote-into-ipad.2276328/. I'm posting a new thread instead of continuing the old one, as with further testing, the issue appears to be different than the topic I originally posted.

The issue I'm running into is that I am trying to use my iPad as a wifi hotspot to provide cellular internet to a security camera on a property we own about a 90 minute round trip from our house. It appears to work fine for a while, but then stops working. I have the setup as this: iPad Pro 9.7 on Sprint (and earlier T-mobile service). I have hotspot enabled and have a nest security camera and two lights attached to wemo smart plugs attached to the hotspots. A couple of days ago, I added a third wemo to the setup to turn the nest cam on & off.

The issue I'm running into is that the hotspot goes down occasionally & I can't get it to come back up unless I physically go over there. It seems to happen randomly, every 2-7 days. After the last time it happened, I added the third wemo to the nest cam, because I thought that by power-cycling the cam, I could reconnect to the hotspot (as that is my first move every time I go over there). It happened again last night & I tried the power-cycle to no avail. I also noticed that two of the wemos (both lights) were no longer accessible through the wemo app, although the third one (the camera) was.

Once I got over there, I saw that the camera's light was blinking (indicating that it wasn't connected to wifi). As soon as I turned the iPad on & typed in my password, everything (camera & memos) immediately reconnected to the hotspot.

It appears that the issue lies with the iPad or the hotspot feature. I'm wondering if anyone has any other suggestions on ways to make this work. I've gotten some suggestions to try a different device (a mobile hotspots, etc) and that may be the way I have to go, if I can't figure this out. Today, I turned off the auto-sleep on the iPad, so in theory at least, it should stay on permanently & never go to sleep or lock. I can't say for sure that is what is causing the issue, but it's the only other variable I could think of to try to change. I'm hoping that something happens when it's locked & asleep that is causing the issues. I also turned off all iCloud, notification & cellular data by apps other than the wemos & the nest app, in hopes that might help.

Long story short, I guess my question is, has anyone else used their hotspot for long-term usage (weeks at a time) and come across this issue & a way to resolve it.

Thanks in advance.

PS-I should also add that I don't think the unit is overheating, as the house is kept at 50 Degrees when we are not there, and even when the hotspot stops working, the unit is visible when I use the Find My app.

I cannot rely on hotspot long-term for that reason. Unfortunately, it isn't reliable for that kind of stuff. Try to find an alternative.

 

[rui no onna]

It's been a while, but apart from Mobile Hotspot, I remember Android being more reliable for this as well.

 

[mk313]

I cannot rely on hotspot long-term for that reason. Unfortunately, it isn't reliable for that kind of stuff. Try to find an alternative.

Thanks! sort-of glad to hear that it isn't just me

 

[mk313]

It's been a while, but apart from Mobile Hotspot, I remember Android being more reliable for this as well.

Thanks. That's also good to know. It sounds like there isn't a magic bullet here. I have one last trick to try if it drops the connection again (actually one that you got me thinking about so that's for that). If this doesn't hold, I'm going to try putting my hootoo travelmate as a go-between (hook up the wemos & the camera to the hootoo's wifi, then use the hoodoo to bridge the iPad's hotspot connection. It's possible that the hoodoo might hold on to the iPad's connection better than the camera (one wemo was still attached to it when I went over there today, despite the camera & 2 other wemos not working). If that doesn't work, I'll probably just get a wireless modem, but if I can find a cheap android tablet, I might give that a try as well. Thanks for the heads up on that.

 

[Marshall73]

Thanks. That's also good to know. It sounds like there isn't a magic bullet here. I have one last trick to try if it drops the connection again (actually one that you got me thinking about so that's for that). If this doesn't hold, I'm going to try putting my hootoo travelmate as a go-between (hook up the wemos & the camera to the hootoo's wifi, then use the hoodoo to bridge the iPad's hotspot connection. It's possible that the hoodoo might hold on to the iPad's connection better than the camera (one wemo was still attached to it when I went over there today, despite the camera & 2 other wemos not working). If that doesn't work, I'll probably just get a wireless modem, but if I can find a cheap android tablet, I might give that a try as well. Thanks for the heads up on that.

Get your hands on a 4g modem/router and put your data sim into that.

 

[mk313]

Get your hands on a 4g modem/router and put your data sim into that.

I think that's gonna be the next step. I was hoping to use the iPad because it's super simple to set up, but it doesn't look like it's gonna work for any length of time. A cellular modem will be my next step.

 

[mwidjaya]

Get your hands on a 4g modem/router and put your data sim into that.

Yep, this should have been the obvious choice from day 1.

I can't think of a good reason to waste an expensive iPad Pro just to deploy cellular connectivity.

Not when the dedicated solution is way cheap and more robust.

 

[mk313]

Yep, this should have been the obvious choice from day 1.

I can't think of a good reason to waste an expensive iPad Pro just to deploy cellular connectivity.

Not when the dedicated solution is way cheap and more robust.

I'm not sure anything was obvious from Day 1. I had an iPad at home, haven't been using it much since COVID hit, using the hotspot has always worked great for me in the past & using it is super-simple (much mores than setting up a cellular modem would be) so it's a more obvious choice to use what I already had & that has worked great for me in the past.

It seems more wasteful to go out & buy another device if you already have one that can serve the purpose you are using it for.

It does indeed look like a dedicated cellular modem is a better solution, but that definitely wasn't obvious from the get-go. I did a lot of searching & couldn't find anyone posting about issues with iPad hotspots dropping the connection after long-term usage. If I had seen that, I would have gone another route from the beginning.

 

[mk313]

I hate to even post this as I might jinx myself, but I did want to post an update in case anyone searches this in the future. As a last ditch effort before using an LTE Modem, I swapped out iPads. I actually ordered a Modem, but the iPad connection dropped & I needed to go back over & reset the iPad to get it running until the modem came in. While I was going over there, figured I would try swapping machines. I was using a 9.7" iPad Pro, and I swapped it out for an 11" iPad Air. I'm not sure what exact version (I forgot to note it and it's now over at the other property), but it's about 2 years old.

Since I switched everything over, I've had zero issues & it's been running non-stop for over a week (the longest it's ever gone). I'm not sure what the issue was, but it appears to be related to the 9.7" iPad Pro & not a general iPad issue. It was also not software related, as I wiped the 9.7" iPad 2X while trying to figure things out. So not sure what caused the issue, but if someone searches this in the future, using a different iPad solved my issue.