Apple Acknowledges Personal Hotspot Issues Affecting Some iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 Users

by

In an internal document distributed to Apple Authorized Service Providers this week, obtained by MacRumors, Apple has acknowledged that some iOS 13 or iPadOS 13 users may experience issues with Personal Hotspot.

personal hotspot 1
Apple has told Authorized Service Providers to expect customers who are unable to connect to a Personal Hotspot or experience frequent disconnection from one. Customers may also experience general issues with data performance.

Some users have been reporting problems with Personal Hotspot as far back as iOS 13.1.2.

As a temporary workaround, service providers have been instructed to toggle Personal Hotspot off, and then back on. This suggests that there is likely to be a fix in a future software update, but it is unclear if the issue has been resolved in iOS 13.4, and the latest GM release notes do not mention any Personal Hotspot fixes.

Apple recommends that customers keep their software up to date and said that this is not a hardware issue.

Tag: iOS 13
Related Forum: iOS 13

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Where's the New Apple TV?

Monday December 22, 2025 11:30 am PST by
Apple hasn't updated the Apple TV 4K since 2022, and 2025 was supposed to be the year that we got a refresh. There were rumors suggesting Apple would release the new Apple TV before the end of 2025, but it looks like that's not going to happen now. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said several times across 2024 and 2025 that Apple would...
Read Full Article • 187 comments
apple intelligence black

Report: Apple's AI Strategy Could Finally Pay Off in 2026

Tuesday December 30, 2025 9:01 am PST by
Apple's restrained artificial intelligence strategy may pay off in 2026 amid the arrival of a revamped Siri and concerns around the AI market "bubble" bursting, The Information argues. The speculative report notes that Apple has taken a restrained approach with AI innovations compared with peers such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta, which are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in data...
Read Full Article • 170 comments
apple fitness 2026 1

Apple Teases 'Something Big' Coming Soon to Apple Fitness+

Tuesday December 30, 2025 2:11 pm PST by
The Apple Fitness+ Instagram account today teased that the service has "big plans" for 2026. In a video, several Apple Fitness+ trainers are shown holding up newspapers with headlines related to Apple Fitness+. What's Apple Fitness+ Planning for the New Year? Something Big is Coming to Apple Fitness+ The Countdown Begins. Apple Fitness+ 2026 is Almost Here 2026 Plans Still Under ...
Read Full Article • 101 comments
iPhone Top Left Hole Punch Face ID Feature Purple

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Next Year With These 12 New Features

Tuesday December 23, 2025 8:36 am PST by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another nine months, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we have recapped 12 features rumored for the iPhone 18 Pro models. The same overall design is expected, with 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch display sizes, and a "plateau" housing three rear cameras Under-screen Face ID Front camera in...
Read Full Article • 100 comments
maxresdefault

Hands-On With a Rough iPhone Fold Mockup

Monday December 29, 2025 10:55 am PST by
Apple is rumored to be introducing a foldable iPhone in September 2026, and since it will bring the biggest form factor change since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, curiosity about the design is high. A 3D designer created an iPhone Fold design based on rumors, and we printed it out to see how it compares to Apple's current iPhones. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Read Full Article • 143 comments
iphone 17 pro dark blue 1

iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max Users Report Static Speaker Noise While Charging

Tuesday December 30, 2025 10:39 am PST by
iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max owners are having trouble with the speakers of their devices, and have complained about a static or hissing noise that occurs when the iPhone is charging. There are multiple discussions about the issue on Reddit, the MacRumors forums, and Apple's Support Community, where affected users say there is a noticeable static noise "like an old radio." Some people report...
Read Full Article • 137 comments
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Adds These 8 New Features to Your iPhone

Monday December 22, 2025 8:47 am PST by
Earlier this month, Apple released iOS 26.2, following more than a month of beta testing. It is a big update, with many new features and changes for iPhones. iOS 26.2 adds a Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics in Apple Music, and more. Below, we have highlighted a total of eight new features. Liquid Glass Slider on Lock Screen A new slider in the Lock...
Read Full Article
airpods color prototypes

Apple Tested AirPods in Bright Colors

Saturday December 27, 2025 6:06 am PST by
Apple reportedly tested a version of the first-generation AirPods with bright, iPhone 5c-like colored charging cases. The images, shared by the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami," claim to show first-generation AirPods prototypes with pink and yellow exterior casings. The interior of the charging case and the earbuds themselves remain white. They seem close to some...
Read Full Article • 83 comments

Top Rated Comments

Shanghaichica Avatar
Shanghaichica
76 months ago
Been like this for years
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Quu Avatar
Quu
76 months ago
I've had to use this a lot recently and it is quite buggy. I've had to turn it off and on many times to get it to show up in my Windows computers list of available WiFi networks and often you can stay connected for a few hours then it just stops working. You're still connected to the phone but no data is moving requiring you to turn the hotspot off and on again.

Quite annoying when you're in the middle of a conference call on your computer or something like that and you disconnect for 30 seconds.

I mean I know this is a mild inconvenience but when you label a phone as Pro and charge over a thousand dollars for it I expect it to just work properly for those of us trying to get work done.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
insomniac86 Avatar
insomniac86
76 months ago
Last week I sat with 160 odd staff and showed them how to hotspot to their work supplied iPhone to test VPN and remote access for working from home due to the pandemic.

iPhone 8 Plus and 11’s are the models we provide to staff.

The personal hotspot failed to function reliably on about 1/3 of the iPhone.

Not good enough Apple.
Improve your QA team. ?

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mi7chy Avatar
mi7chy
76 months ago
That's how Apple achieves better battery life at the expense of throttling everything from turning off hotspot, display dimming under use, lower GPS update frequency causing inaccuracies, etc.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
chucker23n1
75 months ago
Personally, I'd say it's mostly fine. It does disconnect now and then.

But… the feature is inherently complex (you need two devices, one of them needs to create a Wi-Fi hotspot, etc.). And you know they could have reduced the need for this? By making cellular an option on the new MacBook Air this week.

Instead, they made an ad for the iPad Pro that pokes fun at Mac and Windows laptops typically not having cellular. Ouch?


Ever since Craig Federighi was put in charge of iOS & MacOSX the stability & quality of both have plummeted. There's always a .1 release near immediate after a .0 release that tries to fix bugs in .0 but always adds more. There's persistent crashes, security issues. The list goes on. Scott Forstall needs to be brought back to fix them both.
I don't understand this deification of Scott Forstall. I see little evidence that his org shipped inherently higher-quality code than Craig's.

Now, if we go further back to Bertrand Serlet, maybe? But at the time, Apple had a lot less code in total, so it was also easier to manage.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
now i see it Avatar
now i see it
76 months ago
I've got an old iPhone on iOS 9 and will never "upgrade" it because it's a flawless personal hotspot device. Works perfectly. So much for progress.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments