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When attached to a computer, the iPhone will ask whether you want a USB only connection or WiFi/Bluetooth as well. When not attached to a computer, turning on Personal Hotspot will turn on WiFi (if not turned on already), Bluetooth (if not on already) and make it connectable.

So far, so good. What I don't get is the behavior when turning personal hotspot OFF. When you turn it off, it doesn't reverse its actions. After turning personal hotspot off, I often find myself having to go into settings to turn off WiFi and then Bluetooth, all manually. Seems cumbersome and inelegant (and therefore not Apple-like), but I couldn't help but wonder if this behavior is by design?

When I turn off personal hotspot, I'd expect it to turn off all the things that it turned on when I activated the feature. It, however, does not. Why?

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I have the same problem too – revolver Feb 29 '12 at 14:29
I can't test now, but I'm curious if turning off Personal Hotspot ceases the connection to the internet but lets your connected clients still use the WiFi network that is set up so that they can finish file sharing between each other, printing, whatever. Just a hunch and it could be the design of the function is to not track these things to keep things simple. You can't add bugs if you don't write the code in the first place to track everything and attempt to undo all the changes. – bmike Feb 29 '12 at 17:22
We can't answer for why Apple did something; any answers to this would just be guesses and speculation. If you're interested in a fix, workaround, or solution, feel free to edit your question to frame it as a request for help instead of a request for speculation about Apple's design. Flag once you've edited and we can reopen. Please take a look at the FAQs for more info. Thanks. – Nathan Greenstein Apr 9 '12 at 22:51

closed as not constructive by Nathan Greenstein Apr 9 '12 at 22:51

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1 Answer

While second guessing Apple on stuff like this is ultimately futile, I would say the thinking goes along the following lines:

1) If it needs Wifi/Bluetooth, and they are not turned on then it has a choice, to either annoy the user and ask them to quit and turn them on, or just do it for you. The ultimate aim is to get HotSpot working with minimal hassle, and as it has to have them turned on to get it working, it will do it.

2) When turning if off there is no requirement to have to turn Wifi/Bluetooth off in order to acheive the completion of the action, so it doesn't bother.

The rationale isn't to put things back how they were found, but to perform additional steps that may be required for you, and if they are not required (even if they may be preferred by the user) then don't.

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