The Personal Hotspot feature allows your iPhone to act as a Wi-Fi router, sharing its cellular data connection with other devices like iPads or MacBooks. While excellent for working on the go, it can lead to massive data overages if left unchecked, especially if a connected laptop begins downloading large background updates. Furthermore, in corporate deployments, IT administrators must often disable Personal Hotspot to ensure that company-issued cellular data plans are strictly used by the iPhone itself and not siphoned off by unauthorized secondary devices.
This guide explains how to completely disable the Personal Hotspot feature system-wide on an iPhone.
Disable Personal Hotspot via Settings
To prevent the iPhone from broadcasting a tethering network, you must sever the connection in the main cellular settings menu. Note that if your carrier heavily provisions your device, you might need an MDM profile to lock this setting permanently.
- Unlock your iPhone and open the main Settings app.
- Near the top of the menu, just below Bluetooth, tap on Personal Hotspot.
- Locate the master toggle switch labelled Allow Others to Join.
- Tap the switch to toggle it to the Off (grey) position.
Enforce the Lockdown via Screen Time (Restrictions)
If you are managing a child’s device or a corporate phone and want to prevent the user from simply turning the toggle back on, you must use Content & Privacy Restrictions.
- Go back to the main Settings menu and tap on Screen Time.
- Tap on Content & Privacy Restrictions.
- Ensure the master switch at the top is turned On.
- Scroll down to the “Allow Changes” section.
- Tap on Cellular Data Changes.
- Select Don’t Allow.
Verify the Restriction
By disallowing cellular data changes, you lock the current state of the Personal Hotspot toggle.
To verify the lockdown is successful, attempt to connect another device (like a laptop) to the internet. Search the available Wi-Fi networks; your iPhone’s name will no longer appear in the broadcast list. If you navigate back to Settings > Personal Hotspot on the iPhone itself, you will see that the “Allow Others to Join” toggle is completely greyed out and unclickable. The device is now strictly a single-client cellular endpoint.