Fix for Personal Hotspot Missing After iOS Update

Is Personal Hotspot suddenly missing from iPhone after you installed an iOS update? We’ve heard from a few readers in our comments and through emails that after updating iOS their Personal Hotspot disappeared on the iPhone.

The reason for this happening is unclear, but thankfully the fix to bring back Personal Hotspot is usually extremely easy.

How to Bring Back Missing Personal Hotspot on iPhone

By resetting network settings you can usually bring back a missing Hotspot feature on iPhone (this will also lose wi-fi passwords, so you might want to write those down).

1. Open Settings and tap on “General” then go to “Reset”
2. Tap on “Reset Network Settings”

Now tap back to Settings and you should see the familiar Personal Hotspot option.

Yes, you will lose your wireless network passwords and custom DNS settings by resetting network preferences, so be sure to note any necessary network settings before doing so.

Strangely enough, the same Personal Hotspot disappearance has happened randomly with some users who updated to a wide variety of iOS versions, so presumably it may even happen in the future with yet another iOS update. Why does it happen? That’s not clear, it could be a bug or something to do with the specific cellular plan, or any other factor, but it’s so easy to fix it’s not that big a deal.

Personal Hotspot Still Missing? Try This

Another common issue with Personal Hotspot disappearing after an iPhone update is that it simply gets turned off on it’s own. This sometimes requires either to be re-activated or just set up again. Why that happens is not entirely clear, but it’s super easy to turn back on:

• Open Settings, go to General, then go to Cellular (or Network)
• Scroll all the way to to the bottom and look for “Personal Hotspot”, it may appear as “Set Up Personal Hotspot” if the setting was tossed out
• Re-activate Personal Hotspot through there, then go back to the primary Settings menu to find Personal Hotspot available again

Tethering is still not working?

Another possible fix is to retype the access point name in through Internet Tethering (Personal Hotspot) settings. This can be accessed through Settings > Cellular > General > Network > Cellular Data, look under “Internet Tethering” for APN, and fill in an access point name. A username and password are not required. Note in iOS 6 and newer, “Network” is now labeled as “Cellular” in settings. This particular APN situation may not apply to later iOS versions, but let us know ion the comments if you have any experience with this.

Thanks to Gregory, Sayuru, and all of our great commenters for the solutions!