iPhone13 - iOS 18.1 Hotspot only works with Apple devices

Question

iPhone13 - iOS 18.1 Hotspot only works with Apple devices

I have an iPhone13 Mini running IOS 18.1, and am enabling the personal hotspot on the phone. I verified my carrier supports the hotspot at around 50 Mbps, and I can get my wife's iPhone13 Mini to connect through my hotspot. However, that's the only device that can connect to it. I've tried 2 different Windows PC's, and 3 different Amazon Fire TV's, and they all time out or report no internet connection or report a connection problem. I've even tried the "advanced" connection set up - specifying the 172.20.10.4 for the other device, 172.20.10.1 for the gateway, 28-bit subnet prefix, 8.8.8.8 as the first DNS server, etc.

Nothing seems to get the connection operational, except for my wife's iPhone13 Mini, which has the same IOS 18.1 as my phone.

It's tough not being able to get any more details than "the connection failed" or "network connection problem". I wish they would tell us what the real issue is.

I tried watching the connection attempt from a PC, running Wireshark, but as soon as the WiFi connection drops, Wireshark is unable to capture any data, of course.

Is the 172.20.10.0/28 subnet a standard for hotspot usage ? Why don't the other devices seem to know that ?

Anyone else had this problem with a newer IOS than 14 ?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 13 mini, iOS 18

Posted on Jan 5, 2025 10:46 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 5, 2025 08:32 PM in response to sj56stevejackson

sj56stevejackson wrote:

3 different Amazon Fire TV's, and they all time out or report no internet connection or report a connection problem.

If your TV does not have an option for using mobile data, it means that it lacks the necessary built-in functionality to directly connect to the internet using cellular data. As a result, you may encounter limitations when attempting to utilize the hotspot feature from your iPhone.

The hotspot feature on an iPhone allows you to share your mobile data connection with other devices, such as a TV, that can connect to the internet. However, this process typically requires the TV to support specific wireless connectivity options, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which enable it to establish a connection with the iPhone's hotspot.

In the absence of a mobile data option on your TV, the TV's connectivity capabilities might be limited to traditional methods, such as wired connections (e.g., Ethernet) or connecting to a Wi-Fi network.

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Answer 2

Jan 5, 2025 08:35 PM in response to sj56stevejackson

I am not clear how would it help by entering manually 172.20.10.0/28 subnet. Did you try to find out if the SIm is connecting to the correct IP.

Please get the SIM changed.

You can check it out by creating 2 shortcuts as shown below

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Answer 3

Jan 6, 2025 09:00 AM in response to SravanKrA

that is not a helpful response, especially since there are at least dozens of complaints about this exact issue on the Apple forum.

I've not seen a TV with a Cellular Data option in the US. Maybe they sell them somewhere else, but I would not be trying to use the Apple iPhone Personal Hot Spot if the TV had cellular connectivity.

I expect the iPhone Personal Hot Spot to appear as a WiFi network for my laptops and Fire TVs.

They are simply looking for a WiFi SSID, password, and DHCP address and default gateway, and DNS server.

I can't monitor the network traffic on the WiFi between the iPhone and the other devices, but they all have the same issue, that the only devices that can connect to the iPhone Personal Hot Spot are other Apple devices.

Clearly they are not following the standard settings that all the non-Apple devices expect.

If Apple can provide a workaround, by specifying settings in the iPhone or on the non-Apple devices to make them compatible, that would be helpful. Otherwise, I guess like so many other commenters, it must be time to switch to an Android mobile phone.

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iPhone13 - iOS 18.1 Hotspot only works with Apple devices

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