Apple

iOS definitely has hotpot issues compared to Android

Turn off low data mode. That'll stop the disconnecting issues.

2020 se doesn't happen to me USB or wifi

Funny i had this problem with my huawei when it was locked and far away from computer it just turned off the hotspot

I hotspot to my windows laptop on the weekends when I’m out and about, iPhone is always locked, but my windows laptop is never disconnected

Try connecting bluetooth instead of wifi. Turn on hotspot & bluetooth of phone 1 and bluetooth phone 2. Select to connect to bluetooth of phone 1 from phone 2. This solved it for me, i had this issue too.

I play pokemon go on 2 phones. Stable for 3hrs straight gaming no issue with bluetooth, but with wifi will disconnect occasionally.

I understand your issue and I face it on daily basis. Whenever a device is connected to an iPhone’s hotspot and then locks, the hotspot automatically disconnects. Idk if other people here didn’t really understand that, in which for example hotspot with laptops won’t disconnect cuz the laptop won’t be locked. They might really have not faced it yet.

However, as this issue is common per my experience and people I know, a quick solution is to pair the hotspot iPhone via Bluetooth with the receiver device, and it won’t disconnect even when locked.

Happens on my iphone x. It’s infuriating.

I've had the same issue, the Hotspot is unstable sometimes it just won't connect. Has been the most annoying part but lately it's been okay.

This only occurs when no one is connected to the hotspot.

Never had this issue. I use my hot spot a lot.

Connect to it with android tablets, iPads, windows PC, other iPhones. I set up the hot spot, lock my phone and lay it on the table.

iOS 16.7.2 here and unless my hotspot is actively in use at all times, it will disconnect any and all devices connected to it after approx 5-10 minutes of standby. Irks me to no end. Activate a family member's Android hotspot and it'll stay on until we deactivate it.

Also struggle to get any of my ereaders to connect to my hotspot, even when "maximize..." is on. What a hot mess Apple, do better!

Never experienced this before either

I used my phone as hot spot for my PC for around 4 weeks daily for sometimes up to 16 hours non stop because I had a problem with my internet provider. Never had any problems with this and honestly never heard of this by anyone either. Sounds like a you and your brother problem to me.

100000% agree. You can keep hotspot on and visible at all times, so any device can join in, not only Apple devices that are under the same Apple account or family members, some can be scheduled to turn off after an x amount of time, some can even act as a router depending on hardware and root access.

Years ago when I used to jailbreak, there were tools to make similar functions for iPhone, but I don’t touch jailbreak for more than a decade now.

Personal hotspot doesn't disconnect because locked screen but rather if there is no network traffic I think.
Im pretty sure it's not about locking the screen but could be wrong.
But there is different problem that probably not much people recognized.
You can't simply run hotspot and click power button to off the screen.
Hotspot is only visible to devices when you STAY on Hotspot settings for few seconds before second device connects to it.
This is kinda annoying.

A bit hard to understand you but no iOS does not disconnect all the devices when you lock the phone. I often use hotspot because the internet at work is shit. My phone does not have to be unlock all day, that would be stupid.

I think iOS does disconnect the device if there is no network activity after a certain time but I am not very sure about this. Correct me if I am wrong.

Never had that issue and using it all the time for years.

Never had that issue.

Nope. That’s exactly how it doesn’t work. I always lock my phone when hotspotting and it never disconnects.

Is this the same people that posted the fake 12% battery health post?

I've had a similar issue where my hotspot would stop after some time when the phone was new. Somehow it got fixed by itself after some time lol

when i give ppl my hotspot, most of the times its far better than the wifi network. may be because i have a lot of mobile data.

Yes, I hate this. I usually use my iPhone hotspot for work so it's annoying when I'm randomly doing something on the PC and it just shuts off for no reason.

I have never seen this… including multiple multi-hour sessions where my iPhone was the hotspot for other laptops.

I have never had this issue….

Another thing, can iPhones be connected to a wifi and be used as a hotspot for other devices at the same time? Androids can do it

Wut? I've never faced that issue, neither with my 6S on iOS 15, nor my 14 Plus on iOS 17. And I use it quite regularly because the sim slot in one of my cars is pooched so I have to hotspot.

Never heard this before.

I'm not sure I understand you completely, since most of your post is incoherent, however, if I get the point right, I believe you either have a defective device or some funky setting, as I have no issue using this function. I used my iPhone hotspot on my car stereo on long journies, obviously my phone screen wasn't on all the time. I also share with friends from time to time and don't keep my phone screen on while they're using my wifi. So it's definitely not the intentional way of it working.

I’ve not seen reports of this bug and I’ve never experienced it. I’ve run basically every beta since iOS 13, had every generation since the iPhone 7, and I have my own iPads plus all of my kid’s iPads across a couple of generations and I’ve never experienced it disconnecting when the screen becomes locked.

I’ve had it where they couldn’t see the network if I lock before they’ve connected, but once they’ve connected I’ve never seen disconnects just because the screen is locked.

I would be royally irritated if I did experience it though. Have you tried erasing everything and setting the phone up as new and hotspotting? Maybe there’s a small bug somewhere in your backup causing the issue that a restore carries over?

I totally understand the issue. Most people won’t notice the problem if all they do is hotspot their iPhone to say their computer and remain stationary/within wifi range the entire time. The problem with the iOS hotspot implementation is two fold:

1. Aggressive battery saving. The hotspot turns itself off/becomes undiscoverable very quickly if no devices are connected. There’s no option to just keep it on all the time.

2. The UI doesn’t make it clear that for the hotspot to be discoverable you need to keep the hotspot screen open until your desired devices have connected.

Behaviour 1 becomes an issue when you want to hotspot your iPhone to friends/family while you’re out and about. The other devices come in and out of wifi range and your iPhones hotspot will turn itself off when there’s no connected devices, forcing you to continually turn it back on over and over.

Behaviour 2 is confusing and a bit unintuitive. You open the hotspot setting, enable ‘allow others to join’ option, then close the settings app/lock the phone and expect the hotspot to just be on. Only after experimenting with this multiple times did I realise that you have to keep the phone unlocked and on the hotspot settings while the devices are stilling connecting. An alternative is to long press the wifi/data tile in the control center and enable ‘personal hotspot’ but it’s unclear how long it remains ‘on/discoverable’ for.

I usually connect to my hotspot during transfers and i never got problems, maybe you need to manually turn it on if you want to connect but i always maintained connection

Never had this issue my daughter uses mine all the time in the car.