How to fix the "lost" Personal Hotspot on iPhone

December 11, 2015

Lost the Personal Hotspot on your iPhone? Here's the solution.

The Personal Hotspot feature on iPhone is very convenient and useful because it turns your iPhone into a mini Wi-Fi hub that allows you to connect to the Internet on other adjacent devices. Under normal circumstances, using it is as simple as going to Settings>Personal Hotspot and turning it on.

However, in some cases, it has been observed that, after an iOS upgrade or after a jailbreak of the device, the personal Hotspot has mysteriously disappeared. Below are 8 ways to restore it.

1 Restart iPhone

Yes, we may be getting tired, but rebooting the iPhone usually fixes most of the glitches. A good restart clears the caches (cashes) and restores all functions to their standard conditions. It probably won't work as a solution for most people though, but it doesn't hurt to start there. It's simple, quick and easy and who knows ...

2 Test the data settings

Another point to check for Personal Hotspot, apart from the obvious, is in the data settings.

Go to Settings>Data

Tap Personal Hotspot (a little further down).

Check if it is on (green). If not, turn it on. If it is, turn it off and turn it on again.

Go to Settings>Personal Hotspot which should now have appeared as an option under Data. If you see it, all is well. Tap it and confirm it's enabled.

3 Reset to network settings

In some cases, it is the general network settings that are malfunctioning and the personal Hotspot also has a problem. So, a reset of the network settings can solve the problem.

Go to Settings>General

Drag all the way down and tap Reset

Tap Network Settings

Please confirm the question and provide your password if needed.

The iPhone will restart, and the network settings will return to their factory default state. Check again in Settings to see if the Personal Hotspot option appeared. If it did, you're good to go.

Keep in mind that you have to configure your networks again from the beginning (Wi-Fi, passwords, etc.) because they are all lost after the reset.

4 Check the phone name

Every iPhone has a name. It usually looks like "Mitsos user's iPhone" or something similar, but you get the idea. While it doesn't play much of a role, however, it can affect the appearance or not of the personal hotspot.

Go to Settings>General

Press Information

Look at the name of the iPhone.

If it differs, tap the Name and correct it to the correct one.

Look in Settings again to see if the Personal Hotspot option has appeared.

5 Upgrade the provider's settings, if any

While this doesn't happen as often as Apple issues iOS updates, sometimes your provider may upgrade its settings. If this happens, you should apply this update to your iPhone as well.

Go to Settings>General>Information

If a prompt for upgraded settings to be applied appears, tap it and follow the instructions.

6 Update the APN (Access Point Name) settings

This is where we get into the deep end, as they say, and things get a bit more complicated. This step doesn't apply to iPhones with new versions of iOS, so, move accordingly.

Go to Settings>Data

Tap the Mobile data network

If there is any text in the APN field, please note it. If not, go to the next step.

Drag down to the Personal Hotspot menu, and fill in the text you saw before in the corresponding APN field.

If there was no text in the APN field, enter whatever you want in the Name and Password fields.

Go back to the main Settings page and check if the Personal Hotspot has appeared.

7 Restore from a backup

If nothing has worked for your problem so far, then you need to go for the "big guns": restoring from a backup. This will erase all settings and data from your iPhone and replace them with older ones. Hopefully the older version will have the Personal Hotspot settings intact though. Just remember that anything you don't save will be lost, so save what you need before you do the reset.

8 Contact Apple

If none of the above worked, then you have a rather complex and serious problem with your iPhone. Your best bet is to contact the Apple Help Desk. Information can be found on the Apple website in the Support section. Follow the instructions.