Enter your password when prompted, making sure to select Remember This Network.On your Mac, click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar and choose your iPhone’s name.Stick with Wi-Fi, since it’s the easiest and most reliable in most cases. That’s it! The Personal Hotspot screen provides basic instructions for connecting to the iPhone via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB. Once you’ve entered a password, enable the Personal Hotspot switch.But you do want a password so random people nearby can’t connect and use your data.

It doesn’t need to be super secure because you can keep Personal Hotspot turned off unless you’re using it. Tap Wi-Fi Password and enter a password that’s at least 8 characters long and easy to type.Once you’ve turned Personal Hotspot on once, it moves up a level, so you can access it from Settings > Personal Hotspot. On your iPhone, if you’ve never enabled the feature before, go to Settings > Cellular > Personal Hotspot.With those warnings out of the way, follow these steps in iOS 9 to turn on Personal Hotspot: Particularly if they haven’t connected in a while, those services can transfer a lot of data quickly, which could result in a hefty overage charge or awkward data throttling for the rest of the month. Carriers with “unlimited” data, like T-Mobile and Sprint, generally throttle your bandwidth to slower speeds if you use too much data.Īlong those lines, if you use a file-sharing service like Dropbox or Google Drive, or an Internet backup service like CrashPlan or Backblaze, turn them off before connecting. Regardless, any data consumed by your Mac while tethered will count against your data allowance and may generate overage fees. For some, you might have to pay more for tethering. Also called “tethering,” it’s fast, easy, and can be a life-saver when you just have to get online with a Mac (or a Wi-Fi–only iPad).īefore we explain how to do set up a personal hotspot, note that most but not all cellular carriers allow tethering on existing plans. Never fear, since you can use your iPhone’s cellular data plan to create a personal Wi-Fi hotspot that lets your Mac access the Internet through your iPhone. You can pick up a cell signal with the iPhone, but there’s no Wi-Fi to be found-what to do? Suddenly there’s an emergency at work, and you need to get online with your Mac. You’re on a trip, accompanied by your trusty iPhone and MacBook Air.

Mac wifi hotspot