How to enable Personal Hotspot on iPhone and share internet?

23.04.2024

No access to fixed internet, but you have an iPhone? Turn your smartphone into Personal Hotspot to share traffic with your MacBook, iPad, or devices of other brands. We’ll explain how to enable the hotspot on iPhone and share the internet using any of the three available methods.

Turning iPhone into Personal Hotspot

The first thing you need to do is check if you can share the internet from iPhone or not. Not all carriers support this feature, some charge an additional fee, and the number of devices that can be connected at once may vary.

To begin with:

Go to “Settings” > “Cellular” > “Personal Hotspot” or “Settings” > “Personal Hotspot”.
Slide the switch next to “Allow Others” to the on position.

If the “Personal Hotspot” option is not available in the “Cellular” section, contact your carrier to add the hotspot capability to your plan additionally. It’s important to remember that traffic is transmitted from the SIM card you are currently using for communication (important for those with dual SIM cards).

The easiest and fastest way to share traffic is through “Control Center”. Simply swipe down from the top right corner and long press on the control center block (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, airplane mode, cellular data) to bring up the modem shortcut.

If all devices are connected to the same ID, they will sync automatically — without a password. You don’t even need to slide the switch next to “Allow Others”.

What to do if iPhone refuses to share traffic?

When figuring out how to connect iPhone to a computer or another smartphone, you may encounter a situation where the smartphone refuses to share anything. If the issue isn’t with the carrier and plan, do the following:

Restart iPhone and the receiving computer, tablet, watch, or other device.
Check if the current iOS version is outdated.
Go to settings to find “General” > “Transfer or Reset [device]” > “Reset” and tap “Reset Network Settings”. This helps reset networks and Wi-Fi passwords, VPN, and APN data.

After each action, check if the mobile router is working or not.

Method 1: Sharing traffic via Wi-Fi

How to share internet from iPhone using Wi-Fi? Enter router mode (see “Turning iPhone into Personal Hotspot” block) and check the Wi-Fi password, phone name. If everything is fine, stay on this page and wait for the connection to be established.

How to receive internet? Go to “Settings” > “Wi-Fi” and find the smartphone in the list that shares. All that’s left is to tap on the desired network and enter the password if required.

Before sharing traffic, set or change the Wi-Fi password on the phone. Then no one else can use your traffic. Usually, when starting up, the smartphone automatically generates a password, but you can do it manually:

Go to “Settings” > “Cellular” > “Personal Hotspot” > “Wi-Fi Password”.

When choosing a code, consider two things. First, the characters should be taken from the ASCII table, namely: the Latin alphabet, numbers from 0 to 9, some punctuation marks. The minimum allowed is 8 characters, but you can use more. If you don’t follow these rules, you won’t be able to connect someone else’s smartphone or PC to the traffic.

Wi-Fi is “broken”. What to do?

Take the iPhone and switch to Personal Hotspot (see “Turning iPhone into Personal Hotspot” block):

Double-check that the switch in the “Allow Others” menu is green.
Make sure you correctly remembered the network name and password.
If you have an iPhone 12 or later, launch “Maximum Compatibility” and set up the connection again.

Don’t close the page until the connection is established.

Method 2: Connecting via Bluetooth

Bluetooth connection is usually not as fast as desired, which is explained by communication protocols. But it works even with old computers. The main thing is to have a Bluetooth adapter at hand. Let’s figure out how to share internet from iPhone to a laptop or other device via Bluetooth.

First, switch to mobile router mode on the phone (see “Turning iPhone into Personal Hotspot” block), then go to settings:

Find Bluetooth, turn it on, or make sure it is turned on.
Turn on Bluetooth on the laptop, PC, or any other receiving device.
Wait until the device detects iPhone and can pair. Then verification codes will appear on the screens of the devices. This ensures that you are not trying to connect to a completely unfamiliar device. If everything matches, you can breathe a sigh of relief.
On a MacBook, tap on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar, select iPhone, and get your traffic.

Method 3: USB to the rescue

This method is relevant when an old computer or laptop needs traffic, and you can’t “befriend” it via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Bonus: your smartphone will also get charged.

To share internet on a MacBook, you need to take a Lightning – USB-C or Lightning – USB-A cable depending on what comes with your PC:

Switch the smartphone to router mode (see “Turning iPhone into Personal Hotspot” block).
Connect the cable. If this is the first connect, you will see “Trust This Computer?” on the screen. Confirm that the PC is trustworthy.
Open the Finder app or iTunes (for older models) to see if the mobile router is there.
If nothing has changed, open “System Preferences” > “Network” to disconnect and then reconnect iPhone USB.

Wondering if you can share internet from iPhone via USB to a computer of another brand and how to do it? If the cable doesn’t fit the PC port, simply use an adapter.

USB isn’t working. What to do?

If you’ve done everything right and it’s still not working, try:

Updating macOS.
Reconnecting, finding iPhone in Finder or iTunes.
Choosing Apple menu on the PC > “System Preferences” > “Network”.
If the phone is not listed in the list of network services, add it. If it’s there, select iPhone USB, disconnect, and then reconnect.
For earlier versions of macOS, the steps would be: iPhone USB > “More” > “Deactivate Service” > “Apply” > “More” > “Activate Service” > “Apply”.

Automatically connect all family members

Who usually asks for a bit of traffic more often? Right, family and close ones. To avoid complex manipulations every time, you can automate the process through “Family Sharing“. The instruction on how to share internet from phone to phone in this case is maximally understandable:

In settings, find “Personal Hotspot”, go to “Family Sharing” and activate the option (green switch).
Choose a relative and specify whether to request confirmation from them (“Request Confirmation”) or give traffic immediately and unconditionally (“Auto”).

Apple has provided three ways to share mobile internet from iPhone. This is very convenient because it allows not only instantly sharing the internet with current devices but also connecting old laptops and PCs, including any other brands, that for some reason cannot “befriend” via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

If you’re having trouble doing it yourself, come to iSpace. We’ll not only quickly set everything up but also teach you to understand technical nuances. And if you’re planning to buy a new iPhone or Mac, we’ll introduce you to the novelties. They are displayed in our stores openly: you can test and compare them yourself.