iPhone 11 Pro Max Personal Hotspot Tethering keep disconnecting

[youngmac]

Hi all.

I have my work windows laptop connected to iPhone 11 pro max through a personal hotspot but i keep reconnecting 4 to 5 times a day. Very annoying when you working. "Allow Others to Join" is set to on all the time. I think it happens when i don't use the laptop for few minutes but sometimes it happens when i'm using it but rarely.
Anyone had this issue and how did you solve it? Anyone working from home through their mobile hotspot?
I don't want to get a dongle as I have unlimited data on my mobile.

 

[aue123]

i think that’s just the nature of iphone, it’s kinda stupid honestly. if the connection isn’t active it gets terminated

 

[rui no onna]

The Personal Hotspot mostly turns off to preserve iPhone battery. If you only need to connect one laptop, then connect the iPhone to laptop via USB and use USB tethering.

I often need an always on LAN so what I've also done when traveling is to use a palm-sized nano-router to serve as bridge. Devices get wifi from the nano-router while the nano-router gets internet from the iPhone (via wi-fi Personal Hotspot). This works for us so other devices and users still have access to a local Plex server (on laptop) and stuff even when I leave the rental condo and take my phone with me.

More recently (well 2019), I bought this:

GL.iNet GL-MT300N-V2 (Mango) Portable Mini Travel Wireless Pocket VPN WiFi Router - 2X Ethernet Ports | USB 2.0 | OpenWrt | OpenVPN/Wireguard for Public & Hotel Wi-Fi | Easy to Set up via Admin Panel

Mango (GL-MT300N-V2) is an upgraded model that features the new MT7628NN chip, which has doubled the RAM capacity from 64MB to 128MB, ensuring smoother performance. With a maximum Wi-Fi speed of 300Mbps, this router offers improved Wi-Fi stability through the MTK driver and faster OpenVPN encrypt...

www.amazon.com

Instead of wifi bridge, I just USB tether the iPhone so it's also trickle charging at the same time.

 

[now i see it]

It's designed to disconnect if there's no active connection. If the tethered device's (laptop) screen logs out , it'll always disconnect. Idle use = disconnect.
Having the Personal Hotspot toggle set to ON and wifi on is no guarantee it will connect again. On my iPhone it never will. I've got to turn Personal Hotspot and wifi OFF then on again to make a new connection any time I stop using it for a short while

 

[secretk]

Now with working from home sometimes I end up using all of my traffic and have to rely on my company iPhone 8 to tether to the laptop. I do use USB connection as the company laptop does not have Bluetooth. I have also used it with my iPad. With the iPad the experience is a bit better - easier to connect, not a lot of interruptions. With the laptop, it does reconnect. IMO it is some bug.

I connect the iPhone to the laptop through USB so the iPhone is charging. Also the connection sometimes goes away during a work call so I am sure that it is not like the laptop is not using the internet connection. On top of it, having to toggle off/on is not enough. I have to reconnect it from USB and WIFI, then toggle on again and connect through USB and WIFI to make it work. It really is annoying.

 

[now i see it]

I thought id add a Hotspot discovery I made accidentally-

Normally my hotspot connection between iPhones or Mac would disconnect very quickly if I didn't keep the tethered device active and constantly in use. The moment the lid was shut on my MacBook, the connection would disconnect and never reconnect again without toggling Personal Hotspot and wifi off then on again. Total pain.
I recently got a used old LG Android tablet and once that thing gets tethered and is put to sleep, my personal hotpot never disconnects any more on the tethering iPhone. It doesn't draw any significant power from the LG laptop either when its locked/sleep.
So now I keep the old LG Android tablet on and locked 24/7 and tethering now to my other Apple products finally works great. No more disconnects. No more resetting hotspot and wifi on off all the time,
Android as a whole might suck, but this old device made my life soooo much easier

 

[secretk]

Android as a whole might suck, but this old device made my life soooo much easier

Well when it comes to hot spot and tethering Android just works. It is simple and stable and it works. iOS - not so much.

 

[aRByJr]

The Personal Hotspot mostly turns off to preserve iPhone battery. If you only need to connect one laptop, then connect the iPhone to laptop via USB and use USB tethering.

I often need an always on LAN so what I've also done when traveling is to use a palm-sized nano-router to serve as bridge. Devices get wifi from the nano-router while the nano-router gets internet from the iPhone (via wi-fi Personal Hotspot). This works for us so other devices and users still have access to a local Plex server (on laptop) and stuff even when I leave the rental condo and take my phone with me.

More recently (well 2019), I bought this:

GL.iNet GL-MT300N-V2 (Mango) Portable Mini Travel Wireless Pocket VPN WiFi Router - 2X Ethernet Ports | USB 2.0 | OpenWrt | OpenVPN/Wireguard for Public & Hotel Wi-Fi | Easy to Set up via Admin Panel

Mango (GL-MT300N-V2) is an upgraded model that features the new MT7628NN chip, which has doubled the RAM capacity from 64MB to 128MB, ensuring smoother performance. With a maximum Wi-Fi speed of 300Mbps, this router offers improved Wi-Fi stability through the MTK driver and faster OpenVPN encrypt...

www.amazon.com

Instead of wifi bridge, I just USB tether the iPhone so it's also trickle charging at the same time.

Yep the USB cable is how i get mine to stay connected, when I try “wi-fi” or a wireless connection even if I’m still in the process of uploading images from my laptop it keeps disconnecting, so i tried connecting thru a USB cable and all was good...

 

[yticolev]

Well when it comes to hot spot and tethering Android just works. It is simple and stable and it works. iOS - not so much.

If that is true, then battery life will suffer from maintaining the hot-spot.

But an easy fix is to have your laptop run an app that pings it to keep it awake. Jiggler is one such free app for the Mac, no doubt there are many for Windows machines as well. Then the iPhone hotspot will persist. Getting an Android for this one simple thing seems a bit drastic.

 

[secretk]

If that is true, then battery life will suffer from maintaining the hot-spot.

Well to be honest the moment I decide to use my phone as a hotspot I know that my phone battery would not last long. I still need the hotspot though. And I make conscious choice to use the phone as a hotspot at the expense of the battery so I do not need Apple to make optimisations for me. I know when to turn it on or off on my own.

But an easy fix is to have your laptop run an app that pings it to keep it awake. Jiggler is one such free app for the Mac, no doubt there are many for Windows machines as well. Then the iPhone hotspot will persist.

Nah, that's not an easy fix. That is convoluted fix because iOS's implementation for hotspot is mediocre. Android turns itself off as well but when the device disconnects, not when it loses connection for like 1 minute or even seconds. Not only iPhone stops the hot spotting on its own, but it also does not allow devices to connect reliably. On Android you turn on hotspot and you can connect - no need to turn on WIFI and Bluetooth and use USB. The phone does it for you. On iOS this fails constantly. I have to switch on/off every time the toggle for Allow others to join to make it work.

I am working from home now and have to use tethering almost every month. It is PITA the way it is done on iOS. It works great and seamless between iOS devices, but it does not work well with my Windows laptops.

Getting an Android for this one simple thing seems a bit drastic.

Getting an Android phone just for that is a bit drastic. Knowing how Android works and wanting iOS to work the same way though is actually quite good. There are things from Android that work better and I would not complain if they come to iOS (notifications management, settings app organisation, tethering). Competition is good.

 

[Spetsgruppa]

Well to be honest the moment I decide to use my phone as a hotspot I know that my phone battery would not last long. I still need the hotspot though. And I make conscious choice to use the phone as a hotspot at the expense of the battery so I do not need Apple to make optimisations for me. I know when to turn it on or off on my own.

Nah, that's not an easy fix. That is convoluted fix because iOS's implementation for hotspot is mediocre. Android turns itself off as well but when the device disconnects, not when it loses connection for like 1 minute or even seconds. Not only iPhone stops the hot spotting on its own, but it also does not allow devices to connect reliably. On Android you turn on hotspot and you can connect - no need to turn on WIFI and Bluetooth and use USB. The phone does it for you. On iOS this fails constantly. I have to switch on/off every time the toggle for Allow others to join to make it work.

I am working from home now and have to use tethering almost every month. It is PITA the way it is done on iOS. It works great and seamless between iOS devices, but it does not work well with my Windows laptops.

Getting an Android phone just for that is a bit drastic. Knowing how Android works and wanting iOS to work the same way though is actually quite good. There are things from Android that work better and I would not complain if they come to iOS (notifications management, settings app organisation, tethering). Competition is good.

play spotify in the background.works for me.yes i know its not a fix but at least it works.thats what i do.

 

[secretk]

play spotify in the background.works for me.yes i know its not a fix but at least it works.thats what i do.

This is a good idea! Spotify on Windows however can hog system resources. I usually need this tethering for work so I tend to stop Spotify to be able to have all the system resources I need for work.

It is a solution when I am on my personal laptop doing other stuff you know.

 

[Spetsgruppa]

This is a good idea! Spotify on Windows however can hog system resources. I usually need this tethering for work so I tend to stop Spotify to be able to have all the system resources I need for work.

It is a solution when I am on my personal laptop doing other stuff you know.

yeah spotify is kinda heavy on windows but it gets the job done. haha. im not sure if just opening spotify without playing a music will help but you could give it a try.

 

[secretk]

yeah spotify is kinda heavy on windows but it gets the job done. haha. im not sure if just opening spotify without playing a music will help but you could give it a try.

Yeah, I am not sure either. I might try to test and see .

 

[youngmac]

play spotify in the background.works for me.yes i know its not a fix but at least it works.thats what i do.

Ahah good idea.
I understand the battery draining. But you should be able to disconnect whenever you want like on android phones.
I admit it is quite annoying. My wifi is quite terrible and I have a great unlimited 4g connection and working from home, I'm not worried about the battery.
Tethering doesn't disconnect from my Mac as much.

 

[yticolev]

And I make conscious choice to use the phone as a hotspot at the expense of the battery so I do not need Apple to make optimisations for me. I know when to turn it on or off on my own.

Yesterday AT&T internet wifi was down so I used my iPhone as hotspot. Enabled Jiggler and played a bridge game online for 2 hours. Connection solid the entire time. Could wander away between hands with a long break and come back everything fine. Jiggler also stops my laptop from going to sleep (which would require logging into the game site again).

 

[secretk]

Yesterday AT&T internet wifi was down so I used my iPhone as hotspot. Enabled Jiggler and played a bridge game online for 2 hours. Connection solid the entire time. Could wander away between hands with a long break and come back everything fine. Jiggler also stops my laptop from going to sleep (which would require logging into the game site again).

Thanks for the info but if I understood correctly Jiggler is a MAC app. I use Windows machine. That being said I can try to find another app like that.

The reason I am annoyed is that I use iPhone hotspot during work hours. And it sometimes stops itself during a video calls in Teams that definitely uses data. I maybe encounter some bug. No idea but for me nothing screams more usage than being in a video call in Teams.

 

[now i see it]

The only sure way I've been able to keep the hotspot phone from cutting off is to have two devices tethered to it via wifi and one of them streaming something (iOS) or just connected once and left to sleep (Android).
Then the 2nd tethered device will stay connected

 

[homberger]

I was haunted by these disconnects for months, but I finally found a solution:

Turn off Auto-Lock on your iPhone/iPad. If you set Auto-Lock to "Never", the Personal Hotspot will stay active. Even when the screen is locked for hours.

No more disconnects after 1 to 5 minutes.

 

[youngmac]

I was haunted by these disconnects for months, but I finally found a solution:

Turn off Auto-Lock on your iPhone/iPad. If you set Auto-Lock to "Never", the Personal Hotspot will stay active. Even when the screen is locked for hours.

No more disconnects after 1 to 5 minutes.

Aaha thanks I learned something new from you.
However, I stopped using the hotspot after all these annoyances with the disconnections.
I was using the hotspot while working from home temporarily and end up working longer from home.