iOS 7.1 Limits Personal Hotspot Feature in Some Cases


personal hotspot

I don’t know about you, but I cannot live without using the Personal Hotspot feature on my iPhone and iPad. I work online and occasionally work outside, and while it is generally not difficult to find an establishment that offers free Wi-Fi, I prefer to rely on my carrier (well, one of them at least) as free Wi-Fi can be ultra slow (thanks, people who stream in public places!).

personal hotspot

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Unfortunately for some users, the recent iOS 7.1 update seems to have put a stop to the Personal Hotspot feature. This is not the case for everyone – I immediately checked both my devices to see if I could still tether, and thank goodness I can.

At first, everyone thought that this was a bug in the update. However, the real reason eventually came out: the problem lies with the carrier.

If your carrier support Personal Hotspot, then you’ll have no issues at all. If, however, your carrier has no authorization for that, you’re basically out of luck. Additionally, there are some carriers which allow tethering but do not have a partner agreement with Apple. In this case, it’s touch and go – your device might be affected by the update as well.

You can read more about how everyone who is affected is reacting here.

Can you still tether?


Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

2 Comments

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  1. The update took away my teathering and was referring me to contact customer support. Rebooting my phone resolved the issue.

    So before you think that your teathering is gone be sure to reboot first to make sure your phone update your carrier settings.