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I was trying to connect up using my personal hotspot. I turned it on, and it seemed to start up normally. I turned to my computer, which saw the connection, but couldn't successfully make a connection. When I looked back at my iPhone, the option was completely gone. I then went to the general -> network panel, and I see the personal hotspot, but the option just has the "wait spinner" going with no buttons. This persists even after powering down and restarting the phone.

What do I need to do to get this back up and running.

A possible side effect is that I don't seem to be able to connect to my VPN, but that might be an unrelated issue with my VPN provider. Not sure....

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personal hotspot also down for me. Updated iOS to 4.3.5 with no luck, then tried iOS 5. still nothing. It must be At&t at this point :/ – user11462 Sep 28 '11 at 18:59

1 Answer

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Personal hotspot only depends on the carrier and the OS of the device.

Assuming you have a backup (and it won't get overwritten during testing and activation of your newly wiped phone), you can restore the phone and set it up as new.

If that fixes the issue - you can then know it was software corruption. You'll have to decide if you want to slowly delete things on the phone after restoring from your backup or just start new and set it up again from zero, but you'll have determined that the carrier settings and the hardware are working.

Conversely, if it fails after a new setup - focus on hardware and the carrier for support.

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I know that, at least, my provider is supposed to give me tethering rights. I did use it last month. But now I know I should also check to make sure the error is not on their end. It's possible that they "accidentally" revoked that feature on my account. – rsgoheen Sep 18 '11 at 12:10
Running a restore did it. Pretty much just a software corruption issue, but the first time that's happened to me with this phone. – rsgoheen Sep 27 '11 at 17:25

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