Windows cannot connect to iPhone Personal Hotspot

I have ran into this a few times so I thougt I’d write down the solution as I seem to keep forgetting it. There are probably tons of other problems you can have with iPhone Personal Hotspot and Windows Wifi but this is the solution to one I keep running into.

Problem

I turn on the Personal Hotspot on my iPhone and it shows up fine as an available Wifi network in Windows only the Wifi name looks a little off in Windows compared to the iPhone. My iPhone name is “Max’s iPhone” but in Windows the apostrophe looks “scrambled” and is replaced by two “trash” characters, something like this: “Max¿Ǝ iPhone”.

When I try to connect my Windows laptop over Wifi it just keeps trying to connect – showing message “Checking network requirements” – before I finally get “Can’t connect to this network“. On the iPhone I get the blue Personal Hotspot field on top of the screen flashing on and off while Windows tries to connect.

Solution

Solution is to change the name of your iPhone to remove or replace the apostrophe.

To change name of your iPhone in iOS: Settings – General – About – Name

More info

I just fixed this and unfortunately cannot recreate or remember exact what the scrambled or trash characters in my iPhone name looked like but I think one of the characters was an upside down letter E and/or question mark. So it looks something like this “Max¿Ǝ iPhone”.

So this seems to be what messes things up for Windows.

For me it has worked both to remove the apostrophe or replace it, ie delete it and then type it again. The name will look the same in your iPhone but after this it will also look ok in Windows Wifi selection and Windows should be able to connect to your iPhone Personal Hotspot without any problem.

It seems this problem keeps reoccuring for me. I do not use Personal Hotspot that often so I’m not sure when or why this reoccurence happens but my best guess is that an iOS upgrade or switching to a new device and installing from backup may be the cause.

Currently running iOS 9.0.2 on an iPhone 6 and Windows 10 but I have had this problem in previous versions of both iOS and Windows.

Did this solution work for you?

Please let me and others know by commenting, provide what version of Windows and iOS you are using if you know it.

37 comments

  1. I also had the same issue ( blue connect on phone did not display just blink ), Change the name take out the ‘s , reconnect from windows 10 and now I can see the internet from my PC ..

    Thanks

  2. I had the same issue. My iPhone name had a space in it. I could not get the hotspot to work with Windows 10. I took out the space in the phone name and it worked instantly.

  3. Thanks very much. Had this problem of windows not recognizing my iphone hotspot .I read posts saying it was an icloud issue. That was not the case. It was simply as you said removing the apostrophe from my Iphone name !! Worked great !!!

  4. Rob’s iPhone works perfectly well with Win 7. I’ve read this solution elsewhere but changing the phone name to just Rob, changing the password, rebooting both the phone and the Win 10 machine still gives the same error; Can’t connect to this network. Tried it with another iPhone Same result. It has to be a Win 10 Wi-Fi issue since it will connect with a USB 4G internet device. Tried disabling 802.11n support as suggested elsewhere. No change. It’s got me!

  5. Problem solved. All I did was change the name, turned off wireless and personal hotspot and turned them back on……success!!!!

    thanks heaps.
    C

  6. This solution worked for me as well – i had an apostrophe in my iphone name. Changed, and presto whamo, it works. Well done – thanks!

  7. Wow.. it worked. 12 months of pulling my hair out and it was a simple apostrophe.!!!!

    Thank you. Just saved me loads of cash as was going to buy a single.!!

  8. Thank you !! It finally worked ! This issue has been really getting on my nerves. There was nothing wrong with the way the name appeared though .. it was just fine but it wouldn’t connect.

    Thanks again 🙂

  9. I wasted my time going through so many Apple support threads when the solution was as simple as removing an apostrophe. You’re a lifesaver, thank you so much!!

  10. Thank you! I tried everything. I didn’t even have an issue with the apostrophe displaying – it just wouldn’t connect. I can’t believe an apostrophe could cause this kind of issue.

  11. Thanks! After half an year of useless Internet browsing and searching for solution the day has come: it works!!!! Thanks a million!!!

  12. My phone’s name was “Iphone (Aime)” and when I changed it to “iphoneaime” my hotspot started working perfectly. Thank you so much!

  13. Thank you! I had the same problem and was starting to drive me crazy. Removing apostrophe from my phone name solved it. Thanks for posting the solution

  14. Mine worked fine for awhile, but started giving this issue. My iPhone 6 was named “iphone”, so apostrophe or space was not the issue. However, I renamed it something else, no space, no apostrophe, and problem solved! Thanks! maybe it just likes to be renamed on occasion :).

  15. For me, the name was just “iPhone” (without the quotation marks). But, I clicked on the article because the screen kept flickering like you said. I changed the name, and bam! It worked. The symbols weren’t a problem for me, so I have no idea what was. Oh, and by the way, I am on windows 10 or something… not really sure.

    Thank you so much though!

  16. This is amazing – I’ve had this problem for a year and the solutions suggested were so complicated.

    I never had those corrupted symbols so didn’t think of it, but 1 minute’s reading and 30 seconds changing has fixed it all!

  17. Sometimes the Windows Wifi configuration for your phone’s network can become corrupted causing this issue. If all else fails try the following:
    1. Make sure there are no special characters in the network name of the phone.
    2. On the Windows 10 PC, go to Settings -> Network & Internet.
    3. Click on the WiFi link on the left and click “Manage Known Networks” on the right.
    4. Click the link to your phone’s network name on the left and choose the “Forget” button.
    5. Go back to the previous screen and click the “Show available networks” link on the right.
    6. On the next screen, connect to your phones network name and re-input your password.

    This fixed the issue for me since none of the suggestions here were able to resolve the problem.

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