iPhone Personal Hotspot Not Working
An iPhone's Personal Hotspot shares its cellular connection with another device. If a laptop cannot see the hotspot or joins it without internet access, check the phone's mobile data connection, hotspot visibility and client compatibility separately.
Confirm cellular data works on the iPhone
Turn off Wi-Fi temporarily on the iPhone and check whether it can load a website over cellular data. Personal Hotspot cannot provide a working internet connection if cellular data itself is unavailable. The mobile operator and plan must also support Personal Hotspot. If the hotspot option is absent or disabled, check cellular service and plan support rather than repeatedly changing Wi-Fi passwords.
Make the hotspot discoverable
Open Settings > Personal Hotspot, or the equivalent Cellular/Mobile Service path used by your device, and check Allow Others to Join when connecting a device outside your own Apple Account or Family Sharing arrangements. Keep the Personal Hotspot settings screen open while making the initial Wi-Fi connection when troubleshooting discovery. On the laptop, verify the exact iPhone network name and password, then reconnect.
Try Maximize Compatibility only if needed
On iPhone 12 and later, Maximize Compatibility restricts Personal Hotspot to 2.4 GHz and WPA2 Personal. This can help an older client connect, but can reduce Wi-Fi performance and security compared with the default hotspot settings. Use it when a compatibility problem is demonstrated, and switch it off again when it is no longer needed.
Compare Wi-Fi and USB connections
If hotspot Wi-Fi fails but cellular data on the phone works, try USB tethering where supported. Connect the iPhone with a suitable data cable and approve Trust or accessory prompts if shown. On a Mac, check its Network settings for the iPhone USB connection. A successful USB test points toward hotspot Wi-Fi discovery or compatibility rather than a general carrier outage.
Restart before resetting
Restart the iPhone and the connecting device, install available software updates and retry. Reset Network Settings is a later option, not the first step: Apple's reset also removes saved Wi-Fi settings/passwords and changes cellular, VPN and APN settings. Be sure you can restore any necessary configuration before using it.
What the symptoms suggest
| Symptom | First check |
|---|---|
| Hotspot option unavailable | Mobile data and carrier/plan support |
| Network name invisible | Allow Others to Join, proximity, compatibility |
| Client joins but no internet | Test cellular data on iPhone, operator service |
| Older laptop fails to join | Maximize Compatibility where supported |
| Wi-Fi connection fails but USB works | Wi-Fi compatibility/discovery path |
Personal Hotspot is cellular tethering, not a general-purpose Wi-Fi repeater. Some Wi-Fi-specific device features may be unavailable on a hotspot.