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Cannot connect Macbook Air to iphone 13 Hotspot

I've always been able to connect my M1 Macbook Air (Ventura 13.5 ) to a Personal Hotspot on my iphone 13 Pro (IOS 16.6). But today I cannot. It is not a fault of my iphone because I can go to another mac and connect to this iphone. So it is something with my macbook air.


On my Macbook Air I see the Personal Hotspot under my Wifi. When click on it, it gives me a popup error message that says, "Failed to enable Personal Hotspot on iphone."


Again, I can go to my wife's Mac (imac) and do the same thing and I can connect to that iphone hotspot with no problems.


If this is important, when I click on the Bluetooth icon, it shows all the various connected devices via bluetooth, but it does not show my iphone. Also, on my iphone, in Settings/Bluetooth I do not see my macbook air.


I have done all the various fixes of toggling relevant settings on and off, on both devices. Nothing fixes it. I've tried an NVRAM reset but discovered that on an M1 mac this is not allowed as it does it upon each reboot if necessary.


So it's a problem with my Macbook Air. Any ideas?

MacBook Air 13″

Posted on Aug 2, 2023 9:55 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 2, 2023 12:00 PM

I just tried my macbook air with my wife's iphone and I can get on her hotspot.


So, to recap:


  • My Macbook Air will NOT connect to my iphone hotspot
  • My wife's iMac will connect to my iphone hotspot
  • My macbook Air will connect to my wife's iphone hotspot


So it's not JUST my iphone or JUST my Macbook Air. It's something with that specific connection between the two. In this specific connection, since when I click in the WiFi icon on my Macbook Air I can see a choice of clicking on the hotspot for my iphone, it does think there is a hotspot to connect to. It's just when I click it that it gives me the error. And when I set my iphone to Airplane Mode, the selection under WiFi for my iphone disappears so it is recognizing it.

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8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 2, 2023 12:00 PM in response to slobizman

I just tried my macbook air with my wife's iphone and I can get on her hotspot.


So, to recap:


  • My Macbook Air will NOT connect to my iphone hotspot
  • My wife's iMac will connect to my iphone hotspot
  • My macbook Air will connect to my wife's iphone hotspot


So it's not JUST my iphone or JUST my Macbook Air. It's something with that specific connection between the two. In this specific connection, since when I click in the WiFi icon on my Macbook Air I can see a choice of clicking on the hotspot for my iphone, it does think there is a hotspot to connect to. It's just when I click it that it gives me the error. And when I set my iphone to Airplane Mode, the selection under WiFi for my iphone disappears so it is recognizing it.

Aug 2, 2023 11:37 AM in response to slobizman

slobizman wrote:

I've always been able to connect my M1 Macbook Air (Ventura 13.5 ) to a Personal Hotspot on my iphone 13 Pro (IOS 16.6). But today I cannot. It is not a fault of my iphone because I can go to another mac and connect to this iphone. So it is something with my macbook air.

On my Macbook Air I see the Personal Hotspot under my Wifi. When click on it, it gives me a popup error message that says, "Failed to enable Personal Hotspot on iphone."

Again, I can go to my wife's Mac (imac) and do the same thing and I can connect to that iphone hotspot with no problems.

If this is important, when I click on the Bluetooth icon, it shows all the various connected devices via bluetooth, but it does not show my iphone. Also, on my iphone, in Settings/Bluetooth I do not see my macbook air.

I have done all the various fixes of toggling relevant settings on and off, on both devices. Nothing fixes it. I've tried an NVRAM reset but discovered that on an M1 mac this is not allowed as it does it upon each reboot if necessary.

So it's a problem with my Macbook Air. Any ideas?


have you restarted the macBook Air?



How to set up a Personal Hotspot on your iPhone or iPad


Share your internet connection from iPhone


If Personal Hotspot is not working on your iPhone or iPad ...


M1/M2 SoC —

if you have an issue— Shut down, close the lid 30 secs+ , reboot as normal.

If no resolve try SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support to sort anomalies.



Hot spot is not bluetooth


verify you have your WiFi icon ON



Jan 8, 2024 11:07 AM in response to slobizman

I am having a very similar issue with my IPhone 13 pro. The only difference is that my wife has a IPhone 13 Max and it is also having the same issue. I can connect my work OR my personal laptop to either phone, but I don't have any internet connectivity. The connection seems to work fine, its just that I cannot do anything once it is connected. I even tried a "ping www.google.com" from a terminal and nothing.


I have talked with TMobile, Apple support, etc etc, and no on has a clue what is going on . NOT sure if it is a IOS 17.2.1 issue, or if it started after that or if it was just before, but I have been using my hotspot for the last 6 months in this manner and all of a sudden it just stopped working.


Also, I went to the TMobile store to swap out a SIM and while I was there, i tethered to the representative's IPhone, which was on 17.2.1 an it worked fine.


I just now factory reset my phone, set it up as new, and having the same issue.


PLEASE can someone help?!?!?!?

Cannot connect Macbook Air to iphone 13 Hotspot

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