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I'm on vacation. Both the laptop (M1) and iPhone 15 are set to use the wifi network. Both devices are fully upgraded. They both use the wifi network when not tethered together using a USB-C cable.

However, as soon as I tether the phone to the laptop, the phone stops using wifi and starts using the cell network (as indicated in the upper right corner of the phone. The laptop appears to continue to use the wifi network as indicated by the wifi signal symbol in the menu bar in the upper right.

I have confirmed the laptop is using local ipv4 address while phone is using an ipv6 address using https://whatismyipaddress.com. This is a clear indication the laptop is not using my phone as a hotspot.

Is there any way I can keep the phone on wifi while tethered?

I tried turning of personal hotspot on the iPhone but that didn't help. It still uses the cell network.

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1 Answer 1

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It looks like turning off the "Private Relay" feature on the iPhone does the trick. After turning it off, the cell phone network type indicator (5G, LTE, etc) disappears and my ip address is reported as an ipv4 address, the same as the laptop.

UPDATE: Looks like another possible solution is to turn on Private Relay on macOS: System Settings -> Apple ID account -> Private Relay -> On.

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