How to Fix Missing Personal Hotspot on iPhone

If it seems like your iPhone's Personal Hotspot is missing, don't worry, the feature hasn't been removed. It's just likely turned off. Or maybe your Cellular Data setting is off. This article explains how to get your Personal Hotspot feature working again.

Reasons Why the iPhone Personal Hotspot Feature Disappears

Usually, using Personal Hotspot is as simple as turning on the feature. However, some users find that their Personal Hotspot disappears. This might happen after upgrading the OS or after jailbreaking an iPhone.

How to Fix a Missing iPhone Personal Hotspot on iPhone

If your Personal Hotspot is missing, try these steps, in this order, to fix the problem.

1. Check the Personal Hotspot settings.

   1. Open the Settings app and select Personal Hotspot.
   2. Move the Allow Other to Join toggle to On (green).
   3. Next, go back to the main Settings screen. If you see Personal Hotspot listed under Cellular and shows the label On, then you are all set.

2. Turn cellular data on and off. Personal Hotspot requires connecting to a cellular data network, such as 4G/5G/LTE. Resetting the cellular data connection may bring back a missing Hotspot.

3. Restart your iPhone. Restarting an iPhone is a simple troubleshooting tip that, while not guaranteed to work, is easy to perform. To restart an iPhone, hold down the home and sleep/wake buttons at the same time until the Apple logo appears on the screen, and then release the buttons.

4. Update the carrier settings. While it doesn't happen as frequently as Apple releasing new versions of iOS, every so often, your phone company (also called your carrier) releases new versions of the settings that help your iPhone work on its network. Updating to the latest settings could cause the missing Personal Hotspot.

5. Update to the latest version of iOS. The Personal Hotspot feature not showing could be caused by a bug in iOS. If so, an iOS update may be available to fix the issue. iOS updates are free and easy to install: Settings > General > Software Update.

6. Remove APN certificates. This option only affects a few users but could be the culprit. If you installed any Access Point Name (APN) certificates to make your phone work with certain phone companies, especially ones outside of the U.S., it could cause a Personal Hotspot not to appear.

   In that case, delete the APN certificate. Select Settings > General > Profiles, and tap the profile you want to delete. Then, tap Delete Profile and, in the confirmation pop-up, tap Delete.

   If you don't see Profile listed under the General settings, it means there is nothing to delete. The APN certificates are not the problem.

7. Reset the network settings. A missing Personal Hotspot can be caused by problems with the settings that control the phone's access to cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Resetting those settings and starting fresh may help solve the problem.

   Select Settings > General > Reset > Reset > Network Settings.

   After the reset is finished, you may have to enter Wi-Fi network passwords or pair Bluetooth devices again.

8. Restore from a backup. If nothing has worked so far, it's time for a more radical step: restoring from a backup. This erases all the data and settings on the iPhone and replaces the data with an older version. Anything you don't back up is lost during this process, so make a backup of your iPhone before beginning this process.

9. Contact Apple or schedule an appointment at a Genius Bar. If you've come this far and the Personal Hotspot feature is still missing, you have a more complicated problem than you can't solve. At this point, get help from Apple. Go to your nearest Apple Store for expert help.