Using Your iPhone as a Personal Hotspot over USB

iPhone works great as a mobile WiFi Hotspot, but performs even better when plugged in with a USB cable. This guide will show you how to use iPhone as a personal hotspot over USB.

There are two big advantages to using an iPhone hotspot over USB. First off, the iPhone charges so you won’t have a dead battery left on your iPhone when you’re done using it as a hotspot.

Another reason is to avoid using WiFi in a crowded area with a lot of WiFi connection. If you are at a conference centre, a trade fair or a hotel; this can provide better speed and performance.

This also helps if you’re using your iPhone as a hotspot at home where WiFi isn’t great because your whole family is online right now.

The following guide will show you how to use iPhone as a hotspot over USB on both PC and Mac.

For this to work, you need to make sure you have a plan that supports using the iPhone as a Personal Hotspot. Most plans include using the iPhone as a free hotspot, but this may not be included if you’re connected to an unlimited data plan or using a prepaid phone. If in doubt, go to your account online or call your carrier and ask.

Using iPhone as Personal Hotspot allows you to connect your laptop to the internet wherever cellular signal is available. With 4G LTE speeds, you can connect faster than public WiFi, and using a personal hotspot is safer for your data than an unsecured public WiFi.

You’ll use data faster when connected to your iPhone as a Personal hotspot via USB. Be sure to pay attention to your data usage so you don’t pay excessive usage fees at the end of the month. If you use automatic backup software or upload photos to iCloud, you may want to turn these features off when using a hotspot or incur a large bill.

You can use iPhone as a personal hotspot via USB or wirelessly when traveling or when your home internet is down. It’s a great backup if you’re working remotely.

Works as a hotspot on all current models including iPhone, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, and older models like iPhone SE or iPhone 6.

If you’ve never used this service before, you may need to go to Cellular settings to see it.

You can now turn on the personal hotspot. Here you have to set a password for the WiFi option, even if you plan to use the iPhone as a USB hotspot. to change. to turn on personal hotspot

If your WiFi is turned off, you may see a message informing you that you can only use Bluetooth and USB with the option to turn WiFi on. You can leave WiFi off if you want, but keep it on when using the iPhone as a USB hotspot.

When the Personal Hotspot slider opens, connect iPhone to computer with a USB cable. This is the same cable used to charge iPhone and sync with iTunes. The first time you do this, or if you haven’t done it in a while, you need to tell your iPhone to trust the computer.

Choose the second option to use the hotspot only over Bluetooth and USB. That way, there will only be devices connecting through these connection types, not just regular WiFi.

After choosing this, the last step is to select iPhone from the network options on the computer.

To make iPhone work as a USB access point on the computer you are using. If iTunes is not installed, the computer cannot detect that the phone is working as a network device.

Close Autoplay Window.

The iPhone should install the necessary drivers for it to work as a network connection and then this next dialog will open.

Once Public Network is selected, iPhone should be connected to the computer and the network indicator (bottom right) should appear connected.

Tap the Network icon in the top right and select Open Network Preferences.

With Personal Hotspot turned on and devices connected (PC or Mac), it should look like the image below with a blue notification bar at the top.

A nice option is that users can continue to plug the iPhone into their laptop and also provide WiFi output for other devices. To do this choose the First option and they will have a wireless network created. To join this network, search for it with the device and enter the password shown on the Personal Hotspot screen.

Last update is 2022-02-26. This post may contain affiliate links. Click here to read our disclosure policy for more details. Images via Amazon API