WIFI 5Ghz and hotspot

[SylvainLa]

I have a question about my iPhone 6

I have a new 5Ghz router to which I've connected my iPhone 6 and iPad 2 Mini.

On my iPad Mini, I go Settings / Wifi and I can see my iPhone as an available hotspot. If I click on my iPhone, my iPad connects to my iPhone and my iPhone switches to mobile data.

I don't have this problem if my iPhone and iPad are connected to a 2.4Ghz router.

Is this normal?

Thanks for your help

 

[Ariel Babalao]

If you connect your iPad to Internet via your iPhone, sure the iPhone will drop the wifi connection and switch to the cellular connection.
To avoid your iPad seeing your iPhone hotspot, you can turn off hotspot on your iPhone, connect your iPhone to your 5Ghz router, on your iPad in wifi, search for your 5Ghz router and connect to it. If iPhone hotspot is turn off, your iPad will not see it anymore thus keep on searching until it will find your router. I'm guessing that your iPad used to be connected to your iPhone hotspot and was never connected to your 5Ghz router, so your iPad always grab the most recent wifi spot it was connected to which is your iPhone.
You never had that sort of issue with your 2.4Ghz router because hotspot was not on in your iPhone, so your iPad connect to the 2.4Ghz router as well instead of connecting itself to your iPhone.

 

[Rob Phillips]

Welcome to iMore! As Ariel Babalao stated your iPhone cannot be connected to wifi while acting as a personal hotspot.

 

[SylvainLa]

Thanks for all your answers.

I think my original post was not clear enough


My personal hotspot is off on my iPhone 6 and my others IOS devices "see" my iPhone 6's personal hotspot even if it is off on my iPhone6.

On my other iPad or iPod, if I click on my iPhone6 personal hotspot, it turns off my iPhone's wifi and turns on mobile data. Just like a normal hotspot will do.

My question was, why do my others IOS devices can connect to my iPhone's hotspot even if it is turned off?

I've searched the web and found the answer...

This is something Apple calls Instant Hotspot. My iPhone, my iPad and my iPod are all connected to iCloud with my iCloud account. All those devices have access to my iPhone hotspot even if this one is disabled and no password are required because the devices use the same iCloud account.

I didn't know the existence of Instant Hotspot before this experience.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Your iPhone switches to Cellular data? Your wifi is cut off?

 

[SylvainLa]

My iPhone switches to cellular data when hotspot is enabled which is normal

By definition, hotspot is to share cellular data.

 

[Ariel Babalao]

Thanks for all your answers.

I think my original post was not clear enough


My personal hotspot is off on my iPhone 6 and my others IOS devices "see" my iPhone 6's personal hotspot even if it is off on my iPhone6.

On my other iPad or iPod, if I click on my iPhone6 personal hotspot, it turns off my iPhone's wifi and turns on mobile data. Just like a normal hotspot will do.

My question was, why do my others IOS devices can connect to my iPhone's hotspot even if it is turned off?

I've searched the web and found the answer...

This is something Apple calls Instant Hotspot. My iPhone, my iPad and my iPod are all connected to iCloud with my iCloud account. All those devices have access to my iPhone hotspot even if this one is disabled and no password are required because the devices use the same iCloud account.

I didn't know the existence of Instant Hotspot before this experience.

I think I understood your initial issue which is what I've explained above.
The meaning of the Instant Hotspot is to by pass your iPhone hotspot password, since your iPhone and your iPad sharing the same iCloud, Apple assume that you are the one (not someone else) trying to access the iPhone hotspot. This means that you could change your iPhone hotspot password, and you will not need to enter hotspot password in order to connect your iPad to your iPhone hotspot in Instant Hotspot since both your devices are sharing the same iCloud ID.
But again, in cellular, hotspot, you need to manually turn on the hotspot there, otherwise, your iPad even though have your iPhone hotspot in it's list will not be able to automatically turn on the hotspot in your iPhone by it's own. At least my MacBook though sharing the same iCloud account with my iPhone is not capable to turn on hotspot on my iPhone when trying to connect to the iPhone hotspot, I still need to manually activate the hotspot in setting> cellular> hotspot/ then my MacBook will auto connect to it.
Perhaps, things has change with the newer iOS version because I'm still on iOS 9.0.2 on my iPhone and I do not have that auto turn on behavior you are stating.
But now you have sort out the issue, I think you know how to work around it, disable data connection in your iPhone, or forget the iphone hotspot connection in your iPad, or use separate iCloud account for both devices to avoid the iPhone to auto drop the router connection and switch to the data connection du to the Instant Hotspot.

 

[SylvainLa]

We both say the same thing LOL

All my IOS devices are at 9.3.2, maybe this is something new since 9.0.2

My mAcbook Pro (10.11.5) is also self activating hotspot on my iPhone.

Since I'm the only one using my iCloud ID, I'll pay attention to not activate personal hotspot.


Thanks

 

[Ariel Babalao]

After looking more into this Instant Hotspot, I arrived to make my MacBook auto enable my hotspot on my iPhone from off state to on state. But the thing is Bluetooth have to be enable in my case, when I toggle blue tooth off, and personal hotspot is off on my iPhone, my MacBook doesn't locate the iPhone hotspot.
So yeah, thanks for pointing out this, I never knew this Instant Hotspot also auto activate the iPhone hotspot.
Try to just turn off your Bluetooth and your hotspot off your iPhone, see if your iPad will still be able to see your iPhone's wifi or not. In my case, my computer couldn't find it when Bluetooth was off in the iPhone.

 

[SylvainLa]

You're right, if I disable Bluetooth on my iPhone, my IOS devices can't discover my iPhone.

However, I need Bluetooth to be enabled...

That's not that bad, I just have to pay attention.

 

[JOSmith99]

When you are on your mac or iPad, it will "see" your personal hotspot but it is not actually activated. It is merely giving you the option to activate it by clicking. You will notice that if you have turned off personal hotspot then a device not signed in to your iCloud cannot see it, even if your devices can. Your phone will still work with wifi unless you actually click on the personal hotspot that is showing up, in which case it will switch to cellular and broadcast the hotspot to that device. Hope I said that in a way people can understand (Even I am having a little trouble understanding what I just wrote).