If your iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro Max hotspot won’t work, there could be a number of different culprits causing the problem.
Personal Hotspot is an incredibly convenient feature that comes bundled into your iPhone; it lets you share your iPhone’s data connection with other devices, effectively transforming it into a wireless modem, as long as it has service from your carrier.
As convenient as it might be, it can sometimes come with headaches from not working as expected. In this piece, we’ll talk about some common troubleshooting steps for problems related to Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone Pro Max.
To begin, Personal Hotspot can be used one of three ways:
- Over Wi-Fi
- Over Bluetooth
- Over USB connection<>
All three of these ways can run into their fair share of problems, but it’s typically the wireless options that see the most of them.
If your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro hotspot isn’t working, here’s how you can try to fix it.
How to troubleshoot iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro hotspot that won’t work
If your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro hotspot isn’t working, run through this troubleshooting list to figure out why.
Make sure you can use Personal Hotspot
The first thing’s first: you need to have Personal Hotspot capability enabled through your carrier. It’s completely possible that your carrier is blocking your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro Max from using Personal Hotspot on your current data plan, and if that’s the case, you might need to change data plans or switch carriers to use the feature.
So before you start troubleshooting with the steps below, ensure your plan supports Personal Hotspot. If it does, and it’s still not working, then you should keep reading…
Make sure your iPhone’s internet connection is working
Go to your iPhone’s settings app and check to make sure your cellular data is switched on. You should also try to use the internet on your iPhone to make sure you’re not in an area with slow or bad reception.
You should also check and make sure you haven’t exceeded your cellular data limit for the month if you’re on a prepaid plan with a limit, your data speeds will be throttled when you pass it, rendering your hotspot essentially useless. To solve this issue, contact your data provider.
Make sure the Wi-Fi of the device you’re trying to connect to is working
If your device won’t connect to your iPhone, it could actually be a device issue. Try connecting to your iPhone’s hotspot with another device. If it works, the problem is likely not your iPhone.
Turn the Wi-Fi on your connecting device on and off and see if that fixes iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro Hotspot not Working issue. If not, try restarting your device. If you still have issues, you may need to take it in for repairs.
Make sure the password is right
If your hotspot is password protected, look at the password on your iPhone and make sure you’ve entered the password correctly on the device you’re connecting with if it’s not, you won’t be able to connect.
If you’re still having trouble, you can also change the password to something that will be easier to enter without mistakes.
Disable low power mode
Low power mode works by limiting certain non-essential functions on your iPhone to conserve battery life. This isn’t supposed to include limiting your iPhone’s ability to connect to a hotspot, but all software gets buggy from time to time. This is an issue that is known to occur, especially on iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro.
Turn your iPhone’s Wi-Fi on and off
Speaking of bugs in the system, even though your iPhone’s Wi-Fi isn’t usually the victim of them, it’s not impossible for that to be the case. If it doesn’t seem to be working, try switching it off and back on again and see if that fixes the iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro personal hotspot not working issue.
iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro personal Hotspot not working? Pair using Bluetooth or USB
Wi-Fi isn’t the only way to connect devices to your hotspot. You can also pair your iPhone and computer using Bluetooth or a USB cable.
To connect to an iPhone’s cellular network via Bluetooth, turn on Bluetooth on your iPhone, connect to it from your other device, and confirm the connection on your phone.
See also: Hotspot Not Showing In iOS 14? Fix
Try restarting your iPhone
Sometimes if your iPhone is on for too long, especially if several programs are running in the background, your phone can begin processing slower or even experiencing bugs and it becomes more likely to happen if the battery life is low.
In that case, it’s possible the iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro hotspot not working issue could easily be simply solved by restarting your phone.
This is about all you can do to fix iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro personal hotspot not working issue. If none of these troubleshooting options solved your problem, there could be a bug in a software update, or you might need to take your iPhone in to be looked at bye Apple technician.
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