How to Turn on Personal Hotspot
When you use tethering to set up a Personal Hotspot, anywhere your iPhone or iPad can access a cellular signal, your computer can get online too. After you set up the service with your cellular provider, following that company’s instructions, it is time to turn on the Personal Hotspot service on your iPhone or Wi-Fi compatible iPad. Follow these steps: Deactivate the Personal Hotspot when you aren’t using it by moving the slider to the Off/white position to reduce your security risk and battery drain. If Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is turned off on your iPhone, you are prompted to turn them on.
Making Connections
You can connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer (or another iOS device) to provide it with access to your cellular connection in three ways.
Wi-Fi: Both devices must have access to the same Wi-Fi network. On your computer, select the name of the iPhone or iPad from the Wi-Fi settings. Bluetooth: To connect by Bluetooth, the computer (or another iOS device) must be discoverable. On your iOS device, go to Settings and turn on Bluetooth. Select the device you want to tether to the iOS device from the list of discoverable devices. USB: Plug in your iOS device to your computer using the cable that came with it.
To disconnect, turn off Personal Hotspot, unplug the USB cable or turn off Bluetooth, depending on the method you use.
Using Instant Hotspot
If your mobile device is running iOS 8.1 or later and your Mac is running OS X Yosemite or later, you can use Instant Hotspot to reach your Personal Hotspot without entering a password. It works when the two devices are near each other.
The iOS device must have Personal Hotspot turned on at Settings > Personal Hotspot. You must have a cellular plan for Personal Hotspot. Both devices must be signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID. Both devices must have Bluetooth turned on. Both devices must have Wi-Fi turned on.
To connect to your Personal Hotspot:
On a Mac, choose the name of the iOS device that is providing the Personal Hotspot from the Wi-Fi status menu at the top of the screen.On another iOS device, go to Settings > Wi-Fi and select the name of the iOS device providing the Personal Hotspot.
The devices disconnect automatically when you are not using the connection. Instant Hotspot requires iPhone 5 or newer, iPad Pro, iPad 5th generation, iPad Air or newer, or iPad mini or newer. They can connect with Macs dated 2012 or newer, with the exception of the Mac Pro, which must be late 2013 or newer.
