Mobile Hotspot observation

[gman901]

I discovered something interesting about using a Galaxy S7 Edge with a 2015 Macbook... up to just recent, I was using my iphone 6S plus as my mobile hotspot and was always bothered by the fact that my Macbook would never automatically connect to my phone. I always have to manually connect it, even after my Macbook screen goes off, I still have to manually connect. Now that I have the S7 Edge, my Macbook automatically connects quickly and stays connected even when my screen goes out. I thought it was weird that the S7 can do that but not the iphone (which I assumed would work perfectly with the Macbook).

 

[evamoree]

Was the network set to automatic?

 

[jamesrick80]

All of the galaxys since the S5 have had great easy to connect mobile hotspots......

 

[satinsilverem2]

I think the iPhone has it set to if there is no network activity for a certain period of time then it shuts the hotspot off to save battery life.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I think the iPhone has it set to if there is no network activity for a certain period of time then it shuts the hotspot off to save battery life.

I think he means as soon as you turn the mobile hotspot on.

This is something I noticed too. If there are no other networks for my MBP to connect to, as soon as I enable hotspot from my S7 edge or any Android, my MBP autoconnects. But it doesn't autoconnect to my iPhone hotspot.

I haven't tried this recently, but I used to have issues connecting my iPad to my iPhone hotspot, but no issues connecting to an Android phone hotspot.

 

[gman901]

I think he means as soon as you turn the mobile hotspot on.

This is something I noticed too. If there are no other networks for my MBP to connect to, as soon as I enable hotspot from my S7 edge or any Android, my MBP autoconnects. But it doesn't autoconnect to my iPhone hotspot.

I haven't tried this recently, but I used to have issues connecting my iPad to my iPhone hotspot, but no issues connecting to an Android phone hotspot.

I'm glad I'm not the only seeing this as an issue. It's so irritating when I'm at work and my MacBook goes to sleep - I have to wait a while for my wifi to see my iPhone and manually connect it again. I wish it would work like Android where you just turn it on and it connects automagically.

 

[mi7chy]

I wonder if it has to do with ad hoc on iOS vs infrastructure mode on Android which is closer to a real WIFI access point.