The Apple iPhone 6s Plus can also be used as a portable router to share Internet connection with your other devices. This is made possible with the iPhone’s Personal Hotspot (Mobile Hotspot) feature. With Personal Hotspot, you can connect to the Internet over cellular data, which has to be enabled on the source device.
Once you have set up and enabled Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 6s Plus, you can now start sharing Internet connection on other devices through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB. This process is commonly referred to as tethering in mobile devices. Considering that everything is properly configured on both the source and connected devices, it should work as intended. Nevertheless, there are some other factors that can affect the Personal Hotspot functions on your iPhone. These are the underlying causes of pertinent issues such as unstable or intermittent Internet connection over Personal Hotspot, connection failure or no connection at all.
This post will tackle the common culprits as to why personal hotspot fails to work as intended on your iPhone 6s Plus. Potential (generic) solutions and applicable workarounds are also highlighted to assist you further in troubleshooting the problem. Read on to find out such problems occur when using Personal Hotspot on your iOS device and what options you have to remedy the situation.
But before anything else, if you have a different issue with your device, visit the troubleshooting page we’ve setup for the iPhone 6s Plus. We list down every problem we address each week in that page so try to see if we’ve already addressed your concern before. If we did, try to use the solutions we suggested and if they won’t work, then you may contact us by filling up this form.
Common reasons as to why issues arise when using Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 6s Plus
It is important to know the possible causes when troubleshooting a problem in mobile devices. Doing so will not only help you get started on what to work on but also increases your chances of fixing the problem in no time.
When dealing with issues on Personal Hotspot, it will help you to start checking on the service requisites. Among the things you need to verify first include your iPhone’s cellular data settings, network and account status.
If Cellular Data is not enabled on your device, then most likely that’s the main reason as to why you cannot get Personal Hotspot to work in the first place. Again, please note that a personal hotspot allows you to share the cellular data connection on your OS device to activate Wi-Fi and Cellular Data connections when you don’t have access to a wireless network.
There are also other cases when you couldn’t get to use Personal Hotspot on your iPhone simply because it is not included or not supported in your plan. This is most likely the cause if you don’t see the option for Personal Hotspot on your iPhone. To verify this matter, you will need to contact your carrier and have them add or activate personal hotspot service on your plan.
Other issues on Personal Hotspot can be linked to transpiring network (Wi-Fi) problems, Bluetooth errors, and faulty USB connections or ports. Sometimes, a pertinent problem also occurs when using an incorrect Wi-Fi network, password errors, or when exceeding the limit on the number of connections you can have.
Another major culprit to consider is a faulty update. It is typical for software updates to contain some bugs that can affect other iPhone services like Personal Hotspot once the update is implemented. You can put the blame on iOS bugs if the problem occurs right after installing an iOS update on your device. In this case, you may opt to try some applicable workarounds to try to remedy the issue but if the problem persists, you next best option is to escalate the problem to Apple Support for further assistance and recommendations.
Possible Solutions to Personal Hotspot Problems on iPhone 6s Plus
Before considering problem escalation, there are still some workarounds and potential solutions you can try on to fix the problem on your end. Now that you already have the determined the possible causes, you can start working on each of the aforementioned factors to troubleshoot the problem. Highlighted below are possible solutions and workarounds you can use to deal with various issues when using Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 6s Plus. Feel free to give any of these methods a try and then see what happens. Be sure to test your device after completing each method to determine whether the problem has been fixed or not. Proceed to the next applicable solution if necessary.
First Things To Do:
- Verify and ensure that Personal Hotspot is enabled. There are two places for you to look. You can check this information on Settings-> Personal Hotspot or Settings-> Cellular-> Personal Hotspot. If you cannot find or enable Personal Hotspot on your device, contact your wireless carrier and verify if the feature is supported or enabled by your carrier on your wireless plan.
- Try to switch internet connection. For example, if you are using a Wi-Fi connection, try to switch to a Bluetooth or USB connection instead.
- Restart your iPhone (source) and other connected devices.
- Check and ensure that your iPhone and other devices are running on the latest versions.
- Reset the Network. On your iPhone 6s Plus or device that provides Personal Hotspot, go to Settings-> General-> Reset-> Reset Network Settings. Doing so will reset the network settings and use the default settings for network access.
What to do if you can’t connect to Personal Hotspot using Wi-Fi?
The first thing you have to check on your iPhone 6s Plus or the device that you want to connect to is the Personal Hotspot settings. Personal Hotspot has to be enabled or turned on for it to work as intended on your devices.
- To check, head over to Settings-> Personal Hotspot-> toggle the switch to turn it on if necessary.
Also try to verify if the Wi-Fi password and name of the phone are correct. Stay on the same screen until you are able to connect to your other device over the Wi-Fi network. Once connected, follow these steps on the device that needs to connect to Personal Hotspot:
- Verify that you are using the correct Wi-Fi network. The network name has to be the same with the iOS device providing Personal Hotspot (source device). You can check this information on your iOS device in the Settings-> General-> About menu.
- If you see a password error when attempting to join Personal Hotspot, verify that the Wi-Fi password on the source device is correct. To do so, go to Settings-> Personal Hotspot menu on the source device.
- Check the number of devices that are currently using the same Personal Hotspot by looking in the Status bar of the source device or your iPhone 6s Plus. Make sure it does not exceed the limit or number of connections allowed.
- Turn Wi-Fi off and back on, on your iPhone 6s Plus or device that provides Personal Hotspot.
What to do if you can’t connect to Personal Hotspot using USB?
You can connect to a Personal Hotspot device through USB or physical connection. This is commonly the setup used in computers. This means that every time you plug your iPhone with Personal Hotspot into your computer to charge, the computer will connect to Personal Hotspot.
Steps to connect your Mac computer to Personal Hotspot with USB:
- Connect your computer to your iPhone 6s Plus or iOS device that provides Personal Hotspot using the supplied USB cable. Make sure that iTunes recognizes your iOS device and that it updated to the latest version available.
- Go to System Preferences-> Network menu on your computer.
- Select iPhone USB. If you don’t see this option, click the + sign and then add it. If you already have an existing network connection, your Personal Hotspot connection might not activate until you uncheck the option to Disable unless needed located unter Status.
- Click the dropdown arrow next to the wheel icon.
- Select Make Service Inactive from the given options.
- Finally, click Make Service Active to enable the service.
Steps to connect your Windows computer to Personal Hotspot with USB:
- Connect your computer to your iPhone 6s Plus or iOS device that provides Personal Hotspot. Use the supplied USB cable to connect both devices.
- Wait until the computer recognizes your iOS device.
- After you connect your iPhone to the computer, you can view and access its settings in iTunes.
Steps to connect your device to Personal Hotspot with Bluetooth:
- Pair your devices and connect to Personal Hotspot over Bluetooth connectivity on your iPhone 6s Plus.
- To pair your devices, go to Settings-> Bluetooth menu on your iPhone 6s Plus or source device. Make sure that Bluetooth is enabled or turned on.
- While on the same screen, go to the device that needs to connect to Personal Hotspot and then enable Bluetooth on it.
- On iPad or iPod touch, go to Settings-> Bluetooth-> then tap the source device to pair your devices. Remember that you cannot share your cellular data connection with another iPhone using Bluetooth.
- On a Mac computer with OS X, go to the Apple Menu, click System Preferences-> Bluetooth-> then click Pair next to the source device and follow the onscreen instructions. To connect your Mac computer to Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 6s Plus, click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar on your Mac, select your iPhone 6s Plus or source device, then click the option to Connect to Network. To confirm your connection, go to System Preferences-> Network. That status should say Connected.
- On a Windows computer, click the Bluetooth icon in the Notification section, select the option to Add a Bluetooth device then follow the onscreen instructions. To connect your Windows computer to Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 6s Plus or source device, click the Bluetooth icon in the Notification section and select the option to Join A Personal Area Network. Right-click your device and hover your mouse pointer over Connect using and then select Access point.
If you still can’t connect to Personal Hotspot with Bluetooth on your iPhone 6s Plus, try to turn Bluetooth off and then back on on both of your devices. Afterwards, check if you can already connect. If you still can’t connect, reset the Personal Hotspot settings on your devices that needs to connect to your iPhone 6s Plus Personal Hotspot. Here’s how:
- On the iPad or iPod touch, go to Settings-> Bluetooth-> tap the (i) information icon beside the name of the source device (iPhone 6s Plus), then tap the option to Forget this Device. Restart your iPad or iPod touch.
- On your Mac computer, click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar, click Bluetooth Preferences, select the source device (iPhone 6s Plus) and click the X icon to remove it. After doing so, restart your computer.
- On your Windows computer, click the Bluetooth icon in the Notification section, click on Show Bluetooth Devices, select the source device and click Remove then OK to confirm. Restart your computer afterwards.
- Restart your iPhone 6s Plus (device that provides Personal Hotspot).
- Pair your devices and try to connect to Personal Hotspot again.
If none of the aforementioned solutions is able to fix the problem and that you are still unable to use or connect to Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 6s Plus, at this point you should consider escalating the problem to Apple Support or your wireless carrier. You may opt to do a more advanced troubleshooting with their help and tools or heed to their recommendations.
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