Why can't I use my own HotSpot on my iphone?

What happens when you attempt to connect another device to your phone’s hotspot?

NOTE: Your Hotspot is not used to connect to a Wifi network, it is used to connect another device to the internet via YOUR phone.

Hotspots use cellular data not WiFi. It’s impossible for someone to use your Hotspot and you not use your cellular data. It’s one and the same.

Do you even have your hotspot turned on? By default it’s turned off on most devices . Why are you turning on a hotspot and letting strangers use your data that you may be charged for?

Eateries do not use hotspots. It’s a public connection to their WiFi.

As stedman1 explains, hotspot is a way of using your phone's mobile data on another device. I use it with my iPad. When my phone has a mobile/cell connection I can connect my iPad to my iPhone's hotspot via WiFi so that the iPad can connect to the internet.

You can use another person's hot spot if your phone has no mobile/cell connection, but they have to give you the password for their hotspot. When you use a hot spot you are not using the WiFi of the other device, you are using its mobile data, so the other phone has to be connected to mobile data - i.e. have a mobile/cell signal.

How to set up a Personal Hotspot on your iPhone or iPad – Apple Support (UK)

Can't give definitive answer but, in no particular order,:

1. have you got a mobile data plan and is there any data left on it?
2. is there a mobile signal at all?
3. have you enabled mobile data for the apps you want to use
4. is mobile data turned on
5. are you in your home country or are you roaming? If you are roaming have you turned roaming on in Settings
6. 
   

If I understand you properly, When you are outside, You can use mobile data connection, or use hotspot to use wifi of others.

But if you want to use your hotspot on another mobile, you should check password and refresh the connection to get connected.

Regards

Ehab

[Edited by Moderator]

No one can use your hot spot without you giving them your password. If you haven't got a mobile signal on your phone then no one can use your hotspot even if you gave them your password.

If it's true that everyone around you can access the internet and you can't then there's something wrong with your phone or your network. Next time just ask someone which network they are attached to. If it's WiFi and you can't see it then you need to work out why. If it's a mobile network that's different from yours then maybe you should get a different network if the coverage of the one you're on isn't good for your area.

Ltlmrs wrote:

Thank you all for that information.

Stedman1: I can connect my Mac Mini to my Hot Spot. I have no other devices, except my Apple watch.

There are times, when I'm sitting in an eatery waiting to be served, there is no available WiFi or internet connection. There may be no Hot Spots showing up on my phone, or there might be but, as Zurarczurx mentioned, a password is required to use them. (I guess I could stand up and ask who the Hot Spotter is and request their password, but I'm not quite that forward.)

So, there I sit, playing Solitaire while seemingly everyone else is Internetting - maybe using my Hot Spot.

This isn't logical in my brain.

Wait, I just had a thought. My Apple watch. Does it have a Hot Spot and if so, is it separate from the iPhone HS, so I could connect my phone to my watch? That would solve the problem.

There would be NO benefit to using your hotspot on your iPhone. As others are trying to explain, when you hotspot your phone to another device, they can access the internet, but it is using YOUR phone's cellular data. Semantically, you ARE using your hotspot if you are out and about, without access to Wifi, because you are using your cellular data to access the internet.

When you can’t get on internet are you inside or outside? How many bars of cellular signal does your iPhone show? Inside can be problematic because cellphone signal doesn’t go very far through concrete, steel, brick etc.

Ltlmrs wrote:

So, when I am not able to get on the internet, does that mean my cellular data is not working?

It should automatically switch to cellular or do I have to do something manually?

Open the Settings app. Tap Cellular. Make sure Cellular Data is turned on.