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April 2

Wi-FI hotspot not connecting to tablet, and turning itself off

I use an Android smartphone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. I connect my Android tablet computer via the mobile (cell) phone to access the internet, like editing on WP.

Occasionally it will NOT connect. It seems to 'come good' on its own in about 24 hours.
One odd 'symptom' is, despite setting my phone hot spot to "Keep Wi-Fi hotspot on" to "always", it keeps turning itself, OFF! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've even removed all security, so I don't need to bother with a password/PIN/Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) or similar, but the same issue occurs.
I also tried turning both devices off, then on again which seemed to have worked last time (it was also ~ 24 hours later) but this time, no luck.
A person at a local phone store was rather unhelpful in suggesting it was because my phone was old (~3-4 years?) and the phone companies do this deliberately to make you 'upgrade'.

Any ideas? Regards 220 of ^ßorg 04:19, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Some possible issues I can think of:

Some kind of battery-saving mode is enabled, causing it to occasionally turn off the radio. Double-check that 'Battery Saver' or similar settings are off.
Some devices (I think this largely applies to iPhone, but some Androids may do it too?) hide the SSID after you leave the hotspot settings. Try going to the hotspot settings, turning it on, then connecting your computer to the hotspot while the settings are still open.
Disable Wi-Fi on the phone before enabling the hotspot. It's possible that it's connecting to a Wi-Fi network automatically, then turning off your hotspot.
If you set a data limit, this may cause the hotspot feature to automatically turn off. Consider disabling this if it's enabled.
This is a bit unlikely, as Androids usually turn themselves off entirely when overheating, but perhaps it's getting too hot and disabling it? Anecdotal, but mine gets fairly hot when tethering, and does this sometimes.

I hope this helps. If you're willing to share the model of the phone, this may be useful.

Sunmist (talk) 06:23, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Phone is a ZTE 'Blade' B112, from the Australian 'Boost Mobile' company.

Re. your third point, the phone Wi-Fi was off. The tablet did try connecting to other hotspots etc, and did connect successfully to at least one yesterday, but it would also 'connect' to my phone, say "No internet" then 'save' that 'network'.
4th point, the phone notifies if a set limit is exceeded, but stays connected.

I think I had already tried everything else you suggested. The phone is getting quite warm at times, but I can't see a connection there. 220 of ^ßorg 03:51, 3 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I previously found that using the phone as a wi-fi hotspot worked poorly and using Bluetooth tethering instead worked better. (On my phone, these are parallel options under "Hotspot and tethering", which itself is under "Sim card and mobile network". I'm not entirely sure what the difference is, because I imagine Bluetooth is used in either case.) Card Zero (talk) 14:01, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Sunmist and Card Zero: Thanks for the replies and ideas, which I did not get back here to read before the issue apparently ... resolved itself nearly 2 hours ago. (After about 2½ days) I had been using the phone to access WP, just turned the tablets Wi-Fi on, and sometime later noticed the hotspot was working ! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I might try the Bluetooth route, but, I have a set of Bluetooth earphones, and have only been able to get them to 'pair', to the tablet not phone, once. 220 of ^ßorg 03:51, 3 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]