A hotspot is one of the nicest things that every Android user has on their device. It allows you to share your Wi-Fi internet connection with others. But what if the Android hotspot is not working?
This is certainly valuable, but can cause problems when it stops working. This problem has been around for a long time. Users keep reporting that they encountered mobile hotspot not working on Android when trying to connect to it through other devices.
Users are wondering why my hotspot is not working on android devices. If you are one of these clients and are in the same predicament, you are probably looking for answers.
So here’s the great news for you: I created this article after reading various forums and reading user reports. I’ve compiled a list of all the tried, tested, and workable ways that have helped people resolve the issue that caused the hotspot to stop working due to an Android issue.
So, let’s go through this post and find out why this is happening on your device and how to fix it.
What is an Android hotspot?
Mobile data on your Android phone can be transferred wirelessly to devices such as a computer, tablet, or other mobile phones that use Android’s built-in hotspot feature. This feature sends cellular data to other devices, creating a Wi-Fi network inside your smartphone, eliminating the need for an additional transmitting device.
How does an android hotspot work?
Both old and modern smartphones include wireless transmitters that can function as a tiny WiFi router for data received over the cellular network. When you activate an Android hotspot, your mobile device uses your cellular connection as a broadband modem, distributing data over the wireless network as if it were a router.
The device you designated as an access point will now appear in your list of Wi-Fi providers available for nearby connections. When you activate cellular data and Android hotspot, you will have internet access to connect all your other devices.
Android mobile hotspot not working (reasons):
Mobile hotspots often work flawlessly on smartphones. However, this does not mean that it is without flaws. Sometimes access points can have problems and stop responding to devices.
If your phone’s mobile hotspot is also not working, you may be wondering why this is happening. So, here are some of the possible reasons why your Android device’s hotspot is not working:
- If your phone service provider is having technical issues, it may be interfering with your access point.
- If your mobile operator does not support Hotspot.
- A weak signal can also be the cause of a non-working access point.
- If you have used your entire daily mobile internet limit.
- If you have turned on the power saver or power saving feature on your Android smartphone, you may also have a problem with this hotspot.
- If the recipient phone has a problem, it may not get a hotspot.
- When you enter the wrong WiFi password or name.
- If the network configuration is incorrect.
- Alternatively, if your VPN service is down.
How to fix Android mobile hotspot not working issue?
The options listed below can help you fix the Android mobile hotspot not working issue on your Android smartphone.
- Check if your mobile internet connection is working
- Force restart your Android phone
- Make sure the hotspot is turned on
- Turn mobile Wi-Fi off and on
- Check if mobile data is on
- Connect your device with the correct Wi-Fi and password
- Update your Android phone to the latest version
- Disable battery saver mode
- Make sure you don’t exceed your daily data limit
- Disable automatic hotspot switching
- Turn off smart network switch
- Recreate a new hotspot
- Check Bandwidth
- Check the receiving device
- Reset mobile phone, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi settings
- Change mobile network hotspot
- Disable VPN
- Reboot your phone in safe mode
- Do a factory reset
- Take your device to a service center
- Clear cache data
- Force stop and clear Settings app storage
- Check connected devices limit
- Disable Smart Network Switch or Wi-Fi Assistant
Now let’s look at each solution one by one:
Solution 1 – Check if your mobile internet connection is working
When your mobile hotspot stops working, you should first check if your cellular data is active. You can check your mobile data by browsing various websites or apps on the phone listed as a hotspot.
Since most mobile data connections are metered, you may have already exceeded your ISP’s daily/monthly usage limit if you are unable to surf the web or use apps.
Depending on how your carrier’s services are set up, you could use data over the limit, which could cost you more than your estimated monthly amount.
Solution 2: Force restart your Android phone
Rebooting your Android phone when an issue occurs on the device will fix it. Many minor faults can prevent your phone from working properly, but everything is fixed after rebooting the phone.
We hope that resetting your phone will solve the problem with the hotspot you are using.
So just follow these steps:
- First, hold down the Power button for a few seconds until the Options menu appears.
- Now select “Restart”or “Power off”and your phone will reboot.
- After that, check if your phone’s hotspot is working.
Solution 3 – Make sure the hotspot is turned on
If you want to use mobile hotspot on your laptop or other device, you must first enable mobile hotspot on your Android phone. Follow these instructions to enable mobile hotspot.
- Go to Settings on your Android device and select Portable hotspot or Mobile hotspot depending on your phone type.
- Finally, activate the option next to Portable or Mobile Hotspot.
Solution 4 – Turn mobile Wi-Fi off and on again
In some cases, your phone’s internal Wi-Fi tethering may not connect directly to the wireless network, even if you have previously connected to the same network without problems. Disabling and re-enabling Wi-Fi on the receiving phone may resolve the issue.
As a result, if you simply activate Wi-Fi, the problem may resolve itself. Do the following:
- First, go to Settings > Network & Internet.
- Then, if it’s not already enabled, click Wi-Fi.
Solution 5 – Check if mobile data is turned on
If your mind is still blank, try to see if mobile data is turned on. It’s easy to understand:
- First go to your phone settings.
- Then select “Wireless & Networks”or “Connection”.
- Now select Mobile Data or Cellular Data. On some phones, you need to select Data Usage.
- You can also enable mobile data here. If it’s already on, turn it off, wait a few seconds, and then turn it back on.
Solution 6 – Connect your device with the correct Wi-Fi and password
The most common problem for most users is entering the wrong password when connecting to an access point. If you enter the wrong password, you may need to disconnect from the network and reconnect in order to resolve the Wi-Fi hotspot not working issue.
- Open your device settings and select Wi-Fi or Network & Internet, depending on your phone.
- Now click on the hotspot network you want to connect to and select Forget Network.
- Finally, you can connect your smartphone by touching the hotspot and entering the required password.
Solution 7 – Update your Android phone to the latest version
Check if your phone has the latest version updates. You may experience problems connecting to or sharing a mobile hotspot if you’re using an older version. As a result, you can use these procedures to check if your device is up to date.
As a result, you should update your device once by following these steps:
- First, go to Settings > About Phone.
- Now select “System Updates”to see if any updates are available. If an update is available, click on it to update your device.
Solution 8 – Turn off power saving mode
You may not be able to use the mobile hotspot if you enable power saving on your smartphone. Battery saver mode is a great feature to save and maintain your device’s battery level.
However, this feature may prevent you from using the hotspot. Turning off the battery saver option can help fix the issue when mobile hotspot not working on Android:
- Open the Settings app on your device and select Battery & Performance or Battery Saver.
- Finally, disable this feature by turning off the toggle next to Battery saver.
Check if your mobile hotspot is working. If not, move on to the next method.
Solution 9: Make sure you’re not over your daily data limit
In addition to having your carrier block internet access after a certain amount of data has been spent, your Android smartphone can be programmed to provide an alert when you are approaching your daily/monthly data usage.
This not only tracks your data usage, but also sets a limit beyond which your device will not be able to connect to the internet, even if your carrier allows it.
The ability to set mobile data limits dates back to Android 4.4 KitKat, which means that virtually all Android phones on the market have this capability, albeit under different names.
If your Android phone’s daily/monthly data limit is exceeded, sharing your internet connection via mobile hotspot will result in no internet access on the receiving smartphone.
You can check the data limit:
- Go to device settings.
- Click on Network and Internet.
- Log into the mobile network.
- Click on Warning and Data Restriction.
- Disable Set Data Limit.
Solution 10 – Disable automatic hotspot switching
When no devices are connected, or when the receiving devices go to sleep, most Android smartphones automatically turn off the hotspot.
Even if you restart the receiving device, your Android phone may disable the hotspot.
To fix the Android Wi-Fi hotspot not working issue, follow these steps to disable the feature:
- Go to “Network and Internet”or “Mobile hotspot”in your device’s settings.
- Finally, turn off the toggle next to “Turn off hotspot automatically.”
When you disable this feature, your hotspot will work even if no device is connected to it.
Solution 11 – Turn off your smart network switch
If you’re not familiar with Smart Network Switch, it runs in the background to determine if your device is getting a proper internet connection. However, this often causes connection problems.
Follow the steps below:
- To get started, go to Menu > Settings > Wi-Fi.
- Now in the top left corner select “More”.
- Finally, click “Smart Network Switch”to turn it off.
Smart Network Switch is successfully deactivated after these settings, and access points can be easily connected.
Solution 12 – Recreate a new hotspot
Android hotspot tethering includes password protection to ensure that only you can connect to your device’s wireless network and that other people in your area don’t misuse it. However, sometimes your devices may not connect to the encrypted network for no apparent reason.
If your device is unable to connect to the hotspot despite entering the correct password, consider switching to an open network. You can do it:
- Activate the notification panel.
- Press and hold the hotspot symbol to activate it.
- Navigate to the Set Up Portable Hotspot option on the Portable Hotspot screen.
- If you want to remove the password to connect to the hotspot, go to the “Security”section and select “No”.
- Alternatively, to change your current password, go to the “Password”area and enter a new password. Then, in the upper right corner of the screen, click the “Save”or “Validate”button.
You can also change the hotspot name to avoid connection problems in the past. Connect to the new hotspot network now. If your device successfully connects to an open network, you can try creating a new password-protected hotspot network to prevent it from being misused by others. Otherwise, leave your network open.
Open networks leave you vulnerable to outsiders trying to access your internet connection, which can result in you spending more than you should on your monthly mobile phone bill.
Solution 13 – Check the bandwidth
Since this allows fast delivery of data over a wireless network, many modern Android smartphones allow you to connect and set up hotspots with the 5GHz band.
However, even if you manage to create it on one of your devices, some Android phones do not have the ability to connect to the 5GHz band. In such cases, the 5GHz hotspot network you configured will be invisible to the unsupported receiving device, preventing you from connecting to it.
So, if your phone doesn’t support 5GHz, use the 2.4GHz bandwidth instead. You can achieve this by doing the following:
- Go to the “Settings”menu.
- Go to portable hotspot.
- Click the “Set up portable hotspot”button.
- Select AP range selection.
- Select the 2.4 GHz band here.
Connect your smartphone to the hotspot network now.
Solution 14 – Check the receiving device
The problem may not be that the phone is acting as a hotspot, but the device you are trying to connect to. This may be due to the device’s software or a hardware problem that is preventing it from connecting to the access point.
To see if the problem is with the receiving device, try connecting to an Android hotspot on another device, such as a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. If other devices can connect to the hotspot, something is wrong with your receiving device.
If you try to connect your device to the hotspot from another device, the device’s connection will not appear in your list of Wi-Fi connections. In this case, you can try restarting Wi-Fi to fix Android Wi-Fi hotspot not working problem. Do the following.
- Go to the “Wi-Fi”or “Network and Internet”section of your device.
- Turn off the switch next to Wi-Fi, and then turn it back on.
We hope turning Wi-Fi on and off will resolve the mobile hotspot issue on your device.
Solution 15 – Reset Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile settings
If you can’t figure out why your mobile hotspot isn’t working properly, you can reset the Wi-Fi, mobile data, and Bluetooth settings on your device. Instead of resetting your entire phone, Android devices allow you to reset certain Wi-Fi, mobile, and Bluetooth settings.
- Go to Connection and share in your device’s settings.
- Some users may need to go into System Preferences and navigate to the Advanced tab to access the reset options.
- Set Wi-Fi, mobile phone and Bluetooth in “Connect and share”section in advance.
- Finally, at the bottom of the screen, select Reset Settings.
After resetting the Wi-Fi, mobile data, and Bluetooth settings on your Android device, you can set up a hotspot connection and see if you can connect to or share a wireless network.
Solution 16 – Change mobile network hotspot
Several people have solved the problem of the hotspot not working in several forums by changing the mobile network hotspot. Many other people followed similar advice and were able to fix the problem as well.
With this approach, you will significantly configure the APN. To change the access point, follow these steps:
- Go to the settings page.
- Navigate to SIM cards and mobile networks.
- Select your mobile network.
- Then select the Access Point Names tab.
- Select the “New APN”option.
- Go to the APN type option and enter DUN in the field.
- Click the “Advanced”button, and then select the “Save”option.
Solution 17 – Disable VPN
Using a VPN service on your phone can potentially disrupt your mobile connection. You must disable VPN on your phone before using or enabling hotspot.
- Go to the Settings app.
- Select Connect and share.
- Then select VPN.
- Disable the VPN service.
- Now turn on the hotspot and make sure it works.
Solution 18 – Reboot your phone in safe mode
This may be due to a third party program if you are still unable to resolve the problem with the hotspot that has stopped working on Android. Several third-party apps are notorious for interfering with other features of the device.
If this is the case with your phone, a safe reboot might help. Rebooting your phone safely prevents all third-party apps from launching until you manually launch them. This way you can determine if this is the reason why your Android phone’s hotspot is not working.
To do this, press and hold the power button until the power menu appears on the screen, and then release it. Now hold down the shutdown button > you will be prompted to restart your computer in safe mode > press the OK button. Safe Mode will now be enabled on your phone.
Turn on the hotspot after entering safe mode and make sure it works. If it works, find the offending program and remove it.
Solution 19 – Perform a factory reset
If none of the above options work, you can factory reset your smartphone. When you reset your smartphone to factory settings, all settings on your device are restored to their default values and you lose all your data.
As a result, before using this approach, we recommend that you back up all your pictures, contacts, movies, and other important items. Follow these instructions to factory reset your smartphone.
- Go to the “Settings”of your device and then to the “About phone”section.
- Tap “Backup & Reset”, then scroll down to “Erase all data (factory reset)”.
- Finally, at the bottom of the page, click “Reset Phone”and enter your password to confirm.
Solution 20 – Take your device to a service center
When you factory reset your phone, it becomes a new device, at least in software. So, if your smartphone cannot function as a simple Internet access device, the problem is with the hardware and there is nothing you can do about it.
In this case, we recommend that you visit an authorized repair center of your phone manufacturer, who will be able to determine the exact location of the problem.
Solution 21 – Clear cache data
Some users have reported that clearing the Settings app storage can also help fix the hotspot issue on your Android smartphone. This user is suggesting to force stop the Settings app before clearing its storage:
- Go to settings
- Then Apps & Notifications.
- Then View All Apps and
- Select the Settings app from the list.
Solution 22 – Force stop and clear the Settings app storage
This solution worked for several people who were able to resolve the Mobile Hotspot not working on Android error:
- The first approach is to completely close the Settings app. To do this, go to the “Settings”of your device and to the “Applications”area.
- Click Manage Apps, select the Settings app from the list, and click Force Stop at the bottom of the screen.
- The screen will close when you force quit the app.
- Repeat the previous steps to launch the Settings app from the Apps area.
- Click “Storage”in the app details section.
- Finally, at the bottom of the screen, select “Clear data”to clear the storage.
Connect the mobile hotspot to your smartphone to see if this method can solve the problem with the mobile hotspot.
Solution 23 – Check the limit of connected devices
You can track the number of devices that can connect to your mobile hotspot on your device. If you set the limit to 1 or 2 and then try to connect a third device to your mobile hotspot, you will not be able to access the wireless hotspot network.
To determine the number of devices that can connect to your mobile hotspot, follow these steps:
- Open the “Settings”of your device and select “Portable hotspot”or “Network and Internet”.
- Click Connected Devices, then Connected Device Limit to see how many devices can connect to your mobile hotspot.
Solution 24 – Disable Smart Network Switch or Wi-Fi Assistant
Some Android smartphones include a smart network switching feature that automatically switches to mobile data if your Wi-Fi connection is unreliable. This feature may cause connection issues and may be the reason why your mobile hotspot is not working properly.
To restore a hotspot that is not working on an Android phone, disable the smart network switch by following these steps:
- Open the Settings app on your smartphone and select Wi-Fi.
- Scroll down and select the Advanced settings option. Some users will see an “Advanced”option in the top right corner of the screen.
Conclusion
The hotspot problem on Android phones is a common problem that can occur due to various reasons. Users are afraid of this because they do not know what to do and how to fix it, even if there are some simple solutions.
We hope this tip was helpful and that you were able to resolve the Android not working mobile hotspot issue.
FAQ
Why is my hotspot not working?
If your hotspot on your smartphone is not working, you may not have enough data or you have reached your daily mobile data limit. Another explanation could be that your device is receiving inadequate network signals.
Why is the Wi-Fi hotspot not working on Android?
To make sure your mobile hotspot is working properly, turn on the hotspot on your smartphone and Wi-Fi on the receiving device. When connecting to an Android Wi-Fi hotspot, you must also enter the correct password.
Why is my hotspot not working on Android?
There can be various reasons why your Android device’s hotspot is not working. Make sure your device’s hotspot and the receiving device’s Wi-Fi are turned on. You can also restart the hotspot or smartphone to fix the mobile hotspot not working on Android.