iOS 7.1 Causing Issues With Personal Hotspots

Introduced earlier this month, iOS 7.1 appears to be causing issues with personal hotspots for quite a few iPhone users around the world. Following the update, some users appear to be unable to save APN settings for personal hotspots, which have vanished following the update from iOS 7.0.6 to iOS 7.1.

While information can be entered into the APN fields of the Cellular Data Settings menu, the values do not save, and attempting to establish a tethered connection results in an error message. Apple's Support Communities currently features a 15-page thread on the issue that was started shortly after iOS 7.1 was released, with many users reporting the same problems with tethering.

cellularapn
Apple's support staff appears to be confused by the root cause of the issue, with several customer service representatives suggesting the problem lies with carriers. Carriers that have been contacted have indicated that it is an issue with Apple, however.

Same here. Hotspot not working since I upgraded to 7.1. Such an annoying issue. I phoned my carrier this morning and they didn’t want to get involved since “it's a device issue since settings can’t be saved". No carrier updates either when I installed 7.1. So right now, no hotspot and no one wants to get involved.

Other users have heard that it is a problem limited to carriers that do not currently have a contract with Apple. The iPhone 4, 4s, 5, and 5s all appear to be affected by the issue, and there is currently no available fix. Users in Germany, India, Austria, Spain, Serbia, Thailand, Estonia, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Brazil, and more have reported issues with hotspots.

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
iPhone 17 Plus Feature

iPhone 17 Lineup Specs Detail Display Upgrade and New High-End Model

Monday July 22, 2024 4:33 am PDT by
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple TV Plus Feature 2 Magenta and Blue

Apple TV+ Curbs Costs After Expensive Projects Fail to Capture Viewers

Monday July 22, 2024 5:11 am PDT by
Apple is scaling back its Hollywood spending after investing over $20 billion in original programming with limited success, Bloomberg reports. This shift comes after the streaming service, which launched in 2019, struggled to capture a significant share of the market, accounting for only 0.2% of TV viewership in the U.S., compared to Netflix's 8%. Despite heavy investment, critical acclaim,...
bsod

Microsoft Blames European Commission for Major Worldwide Outage

Monday July 22, 2024 11:55 am PDT by
Last Friday, a major CrowdStrike outage impacted PCs running Microsoft Windows, causing worldwide issues affecting airlines, retailers, banks, hospitals, rail networks, and more. Computers were stuck in continuous recovery loops, rendering them unusable. The failure was caused by an update to the CrowdStrike Falcon antivirus software that auto-installed on Windows 10 PCs, but Mac and Linux...

Top Rated Comments

revjoel Avatar
135 months ago
That's what she said. :eek:
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JaySoul Avatar
135 months ago
My personal hotspot works fine but my wife's one has had issues for a while now.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JaySoul Avatar
135 months ago
That's what she said. :eek:

I'm glad someone got it!




(I certainly haven't done for too long).
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chicagohoops Avatar
135 months ago
My personal hotspot is blissfully fine with iOS 7.1 running on an iPhone 5 on T-Mo's network. Used it with my MacBook Pro for about three hours yesterday.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sparky1499 Avatar
135 months ago
I can't say I'm affected by it at all and I tether my iPhone to my iPad mini daily.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zorinlynx Avatar
135 months ago
Why the hell is this so complicated anyway?

If the phone has IP connectivity (internet access), Hotspot should work. PERIOD.

All that "Personal hotspot" does is turn the phone into a NAT router and wireless access point. It NAT and forwards packets from a private network through the cellular connection.

Why would a different APN be needed? If the phone can do data on its own, there's no reason why it shouldn't work in hotspot mode. This all sounds like Apple taking something which should be simple and making it a LOT more complicated than it needs to be.

I was sharing system's internet connections with local networks back in 1995, using Linux on a 486. This is a SOLVED PROBLEM. Get your **** together, Apple+carriers!!!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)