Accessing iPhone Hotspot via my iPad

[NSquirrel]

I have been having broadband problems recently, so I set my iPhone 8 up as a hotspot and connected my iPad to the internet via the mobile hotspot. One thing I noticed was that when I turned off the iPad and then a little later used it again I had a long delay to reconnect to the hotspot. I even went to disabling/ enabling the hotspot to get the iPad to see it.

As my broadband has gone very slow again today, and not I think due to anything to do with me, I enabled the hotspot. Again the same delay to see the hotspot, so a little search produced the solution on imore.

My hotspot’s name is automatically set by the iPhone as Nick’s hotspot. Removing the apostrophe, or in fact in my case I changed the Nick’s to my initials, it now sees the hotspot instantly. (Settings, general, about, name)


I hope that this helps others.

 

[twerppoet]

The iPhone’s hotspot will shut down (or go to sleep) if nothing is connected to it. This is to save your iPhone’s battery, which will drain quickly with non-stop hotspot use.

I don’t see how changing the hotspot name would make a difference, espcially if it worked before. I’m not saying it this did not make a difference, just that it doesn’t make sense; which would indicate some kind of bug.

What might make a difference is if you had the iPhone plugged into power. There would be no need for the iPhone to put the hotspot to sleep if it was plugged in.

 

[NSquirrel]

Well it worked for a while and then reverted back to normal.

The iPhone 8 is connected to the charger; the hotspot is active on the iPhone all the time. The iPad sees the hotspot and I access it with no problems until I have done enough and put the iPad to sleep. On waking, the iPad now does not see the hotspot in the network list. If I disable and then enable the hotspot, on the iPhone, it reappears in the iPad network list.

And I thought that I had found the solution; oh well ....

 

[twerppoet]

Too bad. I’ve no idea what mine would do. My iPad is cellular, and uses the same data as the iPhone, so I never have a reason to do this. I have used a laptop with the iPhone hotspot, but not often or long enough to notice any issues.

 

[NSquirrel]

Thanks. As I came across other postings concerning this, I will post a bug report to Apple (but will probably do much good?) As Apple are going to concentrate on improving the s/w, rather than rush out more flaky issues, it would be nice to hope that many of the long standing issues will be resolved.

My iPad is cellular, too, but rathen than top up my sim, I decided that it would be more cost effective to use the iPhone hotspot as most of the time now the iPad is on home wifi. When we go abroad, etc., putting a regional sim into the iPad will no doubt be better.

 

[twerppoet]

It costs me $10 a month to add my iPad to my iPhone’s data plan. It’s convinient. On the other hand, I pay for way more data than I use in a typical month. It’s saved me once or twice, when my normal connection is gone, but most months I’m wasting $20-$30 worth of data.

My mother’s phone and (when she had one) iPad are also on the plan; which is one of the reasons I added a lot of padding.

This month I’ve stayed at home more than usual, so I’ve barely dented the data.

I should probably consider trimming my plan, but it is nice to ‘almost’ never have to worry about running out of data.

Note: A couple of moives while out and about does make a ‘huge’ dent; 2-3 GB a shot.

 

[Wing rider]

What you’re describing in connecting to the iPhone hotspot is what I experience when connecting my laptop to my iPhone hotspot. I’m a field technician and live off the hotspot. What I’ve been doing for a long time is when I’m not in need of the hotspot connection, I turn it off on the iPhone. When I need it I turn it on then fire up the laptop. I’ve also found it helpful to put the iPhone a few feet away from the laptop rather than right next to it.

 

[NSquirrel]

Twerppoet>>The iPhone’s hotspot will shut down (or go to sleep) if nothing is connected to it. This is to save your iPhone’s battery, which will drain quickly with non-stop hotspot use.

>>What might make a difference is if you had the iPhone plugged into power.


I tried experimenting, using my PC to monitor the wifi signals. It appears that even with the iPhone on charge, after several minutes of the iPad going to sleep, the iPhone senses no connection and turns off the hotspot.

Your laptop, Wing rider, will no doubt be connected all the time, hence the hotspot remains active.

At least I now have a better understanding as to what is going on. Hopefully I will not need the hotspot again for a while as my broadband connection has returned to normal.

Thanks for the above comments.

 

[twerppoet]

I hadn’t considered that the iPad was going to sleep as well.

Yes, the hotspot, by design, is likely to shut down if it is not being used. Again, a battery/data saving feature that is ‘normaly’ a good thing; but not if you trying to use it as a full wi-fi net replacement.

Glad your normal broadband is buck up to the job.