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poorcody

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 23, 2013
1,319
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DeanL

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2014
1,297
1,237
London
Has anyone played with the new Automatic and Persistent Hotspot features? I have always found it a pain to have to manually activate Personal Hotspot every time I opened my iPad. Apparently this will allow the iPad to now auto-connect and stay connected during sleep. This alone will be worth the upgrade to me. Just wondering if it is working well already...

Details:
https://www.cultofmac.com/629118/iphone-hotspot-wifi-ios-13-ipados/
https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-13-preview/features/

You never has to manually activate the Personal Hotspot. If your device is signed into the same iCloud account, then it doesn't need to be activated manually.
 

poorcody

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 23, 2013
1,319
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You never has to manually activate the Personal Hotspot. If your device is signed into the same iCloud account, then it doesn't need to be activated manually.
I've heard that said, but have never found it to work across multiple iPhones and iPads. What is this new iOS 13 functionality then if not that?
 
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Feenician

macrumors 603
Jun 13, 2016
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I've heard that said, but have never found it to work across multiple iPhones and iPads. What is this new iOS 13 functionality then if not that?

Family sharing (others in your family accounts can join automatically, or with optional approval) and "allow others to join" to allow/disallow other users.
 

poorcody

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 23, 2013
1,319
1,557
Family sharing (others in your family accounts can join automatically, or with optional approval) and "allow others to join" to allow/disallow other users.
From the link to Apple's website that I quoted above:

New features available with iOS 13.

Automatic personal hotspot

Automatically connect to your nearby iPhone personal hotspot when there’s no internet connection available.

Persistent personal hotspot
Remain connected to your nearby iPhone personal hotspot even when your device sleeps, so you can receive incoming messages and push notifications.
 
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gavroche

macrumors 65816
Oct 25, 2007
1,455
1,574
Left Coast
You never has to manually activate the Personal Hotspot. If your device is signed into the same iCloud account, then it doesn't need to be activated manually.

I'm in the same boat as the OP... My iPad never auto connects. I always have to go to settings on iPhone and go to personal hotspot, and wait there until the iPad connects. If IOS 13 eliminates that necessity, I'm a happy camper.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
15,750
11,103
You never has to manually activate the Personal Hotspot. If your device is signed into the same iCloud account, then it doesn't need to be activated manually.
Except this is a hit-or-miss for me back then, cause I never connected to my iPhone PH using Mac without entering password before.

With iOS 13, this automatic hotspot works better than before now. And persistent hotspot works as advertised.
 

noshooz

macrumors member
Sep 15, 2007
80
29
Central Maryland
I also am having issues with using the personal hotspot on my iPhone XS Max on public beta 4. My 2018 MBP on Mojave won't connect for more than two seconds before it drops. My 2018 iPad Pro will stay connected for about five minutes, then drops.
 

EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,084
11,847
With iOS 13.3, the Personal Hotspot connection is better than it was before, but Auto-Join / Automatic Personal Hotspot still doesn't seem to work properly.

With iOS 13.0 Hotspot just seemed broken when I tried to connect my iPad Pro 10.5" to my iPhone 7 Plus, as the connection often wouldn't work and occasionally I'd have to resort to trying a reboot. It's much, much better in iPadOS 13.3 / iOS 13,3, although occasionally I still can't connect the first time. When I select the Hotspot on my iPad Pro, it usually connects quickly, although not 100% of the time.

However, the main problem is that it never connects automatically the first time. I MUST manually select it from the list. Is this Automatic Hotspot working for the rest of you? I have "Auto-Join" selected. Furthermore, my iPhone often isn't listed in the Control Center WiFi menu. I have to go into the actual Settings in order to see the iPhone.

I wish that Auto-Join worked for tethering as seamlessly for tethering as it does for standard WiFi, but it just doesn't for me. Is it working for anyone here?
 

EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,084
11,847
I was on the train today, tethering my iPad Pro 2017 to my iPhone 7 Plus. Hotspot would work but after a while, I’d periodically lose the hotspot connection. And if the iPad slept for a while, when I went back to it the hotspot would have disconnected. I’d have to manually reconnect.

I’m starting to think Apple really doesn‘t want to make Automatic and Persistent Hotspot work properly, in order to push cell iPad sales. Maybe that’s for the best anyway. Tethering off my iPhone really killed its battery. The iPhone was always warm during hotspot usage, and I used up perhaps 40% of the battery in a matter of hours. Here’s hoping the next iPad Pro is 5G.
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,028
I was on the train today, tethering my iPad Pro 2017 to my iPhone 7 Plus. Hotspot would work but after a while, I’d periodically lose the hotspot connection. And if the iPad slept for a while, when I went back to it the hotspot would have disconnected. I’d have to manually reconnect.

I’m starting to think Apple really doesn‘t want to make Automatic and Persistent Hotspot work properly, in order to push cell iPad sales. Maybe that’s for the best anyway. Tethering off my iPhone really killed its battery. The iPhone was always warm during hotspot usage, and I used up perhaps 40% of the battery in a matter of hours. Here’s hoping the next iPad Pro is 5G.

It is working. I went Cellular with my Air 3 for the above reasons. :(. While I like the freedom and tethering abilities to the iPad, it definitely costs more.
 

Dibabloethane

macrumors newbie
Nov 13, 2019
1
0
On iOS 13... this doesn’t work for me
[automerge]1582706383[/automerge]
With iOS 13.3, the Personal Hotspot connection is better than it was before, but Auto-Join / Automatic Personal Hotspot still doesn't seem to work properly.

With iOS 13.0 Hotspot just seemed broken when I tried to connect my iPad Pro 10.5" to my iPhone 7 Plus, as the connection often wouldn't work and occasionally I'd have to resort to trying a reboot. It's much, much better in iPadOS 13.3 / iOS 13,3, although occasionally I still can't connect the first time. When I select the Hotspot on my iPad Pro, it usually connects quickly, although not 100% of the time.

However, the main problem is that it never connects automatically the first time. I MUST manually select it from the list. Is this Automatic Hotspot working for the rest of you? I have "Auto-Join" selected. Furthermore, my iPhone often isn't listed in the Control Center WiFi menu. I have to go into the actual Settings in order to see the iPhone.

I wish that Auto-Join worked for tethering as seamlessly for tethering as it does for standard WiFi, but it just doesn't for me. Is it working for anyone here?
Nope! Doesn’t work
 
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