Connecting to an iPhone Hotspot

A device can join an iPhone personal hotspot and then fail to get a working address from it. The Wi-Fi shows as connected and nothing works.

The fix is to give the device a fixed address on that hotspot instead of letting it ask for one. It is a one-off: once the network is saved with these settings, it works every time after that.

What you need

A computer. You need it to find the address the hotspot is handing out, and there is no way to read that from the device.

A way to control the device from the computer. The settings involved need typing rather than speaking. A screen mirroring tool such as Vysor lets you drive the device with a mouse and keyboard over USB.

Setting a static address

1. Connect the device to the computer with the USB-C cable and start the mirroring tool.
2. Connect the computer to the iPhone hotspot, using the same password.
3. In the computer's network settings, find the IPv4 address it was given on the hotspot, and write it down.
4. On the device, try to join the hotspot as normal. When it fails, open the settings for that network. Say "CANCEL EDIT" if the keyboard is covering what you need.
5. Open the advanced options.
6. Change IP settings from DHCP to Static.
7. Enter the address you wrote down. The other fields should fill in on their own, including the MAC address setting.
8. Save the network.

The device takes a moment to settle and should be connected within about half a minute.

Address conflicts

You have given the device a fixed address on that hotspot. If the iPhone hands the same address to something else, the two will clash and neither will work properly. It is unlikely with a hotspot serving one or two devices, and worth knowing if you are setting several up the same way.

If the connection still fails

Check the address you entered matches what the computer actually had, digit for digit.