Is there a recommended process for reliably connecting a Mac to an iPhone Personal Hotspot network via Wi-Fi?
Here is the method that I have been trying:
- turn on WiFi and Personal Hotspot on iPhone
- turn on WiFi on Mac
This works maybe 25% of the time, and the other 75% of the time the Mac scans the Wi-Fi networks but does not see my iPhone hotstpot network. I keep repeating the above process until it connects.
If I connect instead via "Join other Network…" and input my network name, security, and password, that sometimes works, and other times says "No network found."
If I connect via USB cable or Bluetooth, that reliably works every time.
I tried dropping the network and re-adding it on the Mac, but that didn't help:
System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced > Wi-Fi (tab) > Preferred Networks > (select my hotspot network) > ("-")
Also, is there a way to force the Mac to rescan the Wi-Fi networks?
iPhone: iPhone 6
iOS: 8.3 (up to date as of 11 May 2015)
Mac: MacBook Pro Retina 15" (Mid 2012)
OS X: Mavericks 10.9.5 (13F1066) (kernel: Darwin 13.4.0)
Best Answer
@tubedogg's suggestion fixed my problem: make sure the iPhone has the
Settings > Personal Hotspotscreen visible when I attempt to connect with the Mac. I've done that now the last 5 or so times and it's worked every time.