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I'm trying to set up a hotspot, sharing the connection from an iPhone X running iOS 12.1 with a MacBook Pro running macOS Mojave. The hotspot is working fine and other devices can connect to it and use the internet, but although the MacBook connects to the hotspot OK, browsers don't work.

The MacBook can ping the DNS server set by the phone's DHCP, and other servers, but lookup fails (dig, nslookup or the network utility tool), and all browsers report that there is no internet connection.

I've tried going through the answers to this question but nothing seems to have made any difference.

Both devices have been restarted multiple times, and I've reset the phone's network settings.

bmike
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Jonathan Sayce
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8 Answers8

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I got the same issue and solved it differently.

In my MacBook, I had the DNS server setup to point to Google's public DNS IP (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4), I simply deleted those registers and left the default. It worked for me, hope it works for you.

Manuel
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After hours of experimenting, and a long and pointless call to my network operator, I finally managed to fix it... by deleting the phone from the list of known wifi networks on the MacBook, and reconnecting. Same SSID, same password, now working fine.

I recently switched SIM, moving to a new carrier. With the old carrier, the MacBook could use the phone's hotspot with no problem. I don't know what info gets stored for a wifi connection (I'd assumed just SSID and credentials) but presumably there's more to it...

Jonathan Sayce
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    Not working for me. It randomly works and stops working sometimes cant connect for days (sometimes connects but no internet). No such problems using hotspot on a windows machine. What the heck apple??? – trainoasis Apr 16 '20 at 09:43
  • @trainoasis Same here. Really annoying. – David Sep 27 '23 at 13:27
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Many cellular networks are IPv6 only, so you need to enable that for macOS to work with those specific connections.

Following this guide on self assigned IP addresses - pay attention to the 4th step.

My Mac was at issue as IPv6 was NOT set to Automatic.

bmike
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lincolt
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  • Nice work! I've edited a bit to explain in plain terms about IPv6 only cellular connections. Many people turned off IPv6 on their Macs not knowing it's needed in some cases. – bmike Dec 06 '23 at 19:03
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Hi Personally i fixed this problem by deactivating my second sim card on my phone. It is a dual sim phone so I deactivated the card that I wasn't using and it worked. i hope it helps someone.

Alvo Toucano
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I had a similar problem and followed the first point here, namely:

Launch Finder. In the menu bar, click Go → Go to Folder. In the pop-up window enter the mentioned line: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ Delete these files: com.apple.airport.preferences.plist Networkinterface.plist preferences.plist

Poul
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  • Yep, that would be a good start to at least determine if this is causing the issue, but you should always keep a copy of these plists before deleting them entirely. Once these are moved out of that folder (i.e. /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration) new plists will be generated to replace the ones you've deleted/moved. This will essentially reset the system settings relevant to those plists (i.e. network settings). This will also mean having to configure your network settings again from scratch. Hence why you should always keep a copy of the old plists before trashing them entirely! – AVelj Jun 27 '23 at 09:41
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I used Poul's solution from 6 Easy ways to fix self-assigned IP address issue on Mac and it worked perfectly. However I first backed up the setting in case.

I deleted these files from system:

  • com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
  • Networkinterface.plist
  • preferences.plist
Greenonline
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Samaneh Barati
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I struggled with this as well and found an easy solution.

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Go to General
  3. Click 'Transfer or Reset iPhone' (don't worry, you will not reset your iPhone in next steps!)
  4. Click 'Reset Network Settings'

The iPhone will restart after this. 5. Re-enable Data Roaming if you're not in your home country...

Reconnect to your iPhone as you always do and for me this worked perfectly.

Aart Joppe
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to solve the problem follow the steps, it helped me and saved a lot of time.

  1. reset the network by forgetting it on mac.
  2. restart mac.
  3. join the same network again and provide password if asked **
  4. once joined open wifi settings on the mac and click on details of connected network ( iphone in my case )
  5. It will popped up with few details like automatically join the network ( check for ip address and router details there - does it shows any ip in there or not, in my case it was completely blanked.) 5.Go to Tcp/IP and check the configure ipv6 details
  6. if its set to link local only or manually then change it to automatic.

Once done network will start to populate on the laptop.

Rahul Butola
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  • You seem to have two instances of point 5. Also why are there two asterisks at the end of point 3? Is there a missing footnote? – Greenonline Feb 06 '24 at 14:44