Roadtesting iOS 14

[MacInWin]

For Rod and Bob, if you can see the hotspot, it's turned on on the iPhone. When it is enabled, it broadcasts that it is available, even if you have set a password. Anybody can try to connect, but unless they have the password, the won't get in. But they CAN see that it is there.

 

[ferrarr]

Sorry Jake, but hotspot is not turned on on my iPhone.

 

[MacInWin]

Bob, are you saying that on the iPhone settings page you have this (note that Hotspot shows "Off"):


And that if you open Personal hotspot, it looks like this, where "Allow others to Join" is Off:



if those two are true, and if you click on the fan icon on the Mac top bar and your iPhone shows up, something is wrong. Try resetting and rebooting your iPhone to get it back in order. If you have both of those showing what I have, your iPhone should NOT broadcast its availability.

 

[chscag]

When I click on the Wi-Fi icon in my menu bar, I get a lot of options, including my iPhone hotspot.

Same here. If at one time you used the hot spot on your phone, the WiFi menu remembers it as long as the phone is turned on and in range. Turn off your phone temporarily and the phone's hot spot will disappear from the menu.

(It doesn't matter if the hotspot on your phone is activated or not.)

 

[chscag]

if those two are true, and if you click on the fan icon on the Mac top bar and your iPhone shows up, something is wrong. Try resetting and rebooting your iPhone to get it back in order. If you have both of those showing what I have, your iPhone should NOT broadcast its availability.

I can reboot my phone and the hotspot availability still appears under WiFi options. I'm not going to reset my phone to make it go away so I don't know if that's a solution.

Anyway, why does it matter? My WiFi is password protected from someone else jumping on my network. The hot spot is likewise protected.

 

[MacInWin]

Well, I just tested on my MPB (mid-2015, Catalina) with my iPhone 11 (14.0), and got some very strange results. First I looked at the found networks under the fan icon and my iPhone was NOT there. As it should be, the hotspot was off. Then I turned on the hotspot and within seconds it appeared. I was able to click on it and connect. Then I turned off the hotspot by sliding the button to the left on the "Allow" option and a couple of seconds later the MBP showed the disconnect, the hotspot disappeared from the "found" list and it tried to connect with my home WiFi. It did that successfully, but then about 5 seconds later the hotspot reappeared! I checked the iPhone and the slider was still in the OFF position. I rebooted the MBP, but the hotspot on the "found" list persisted. I checked on it and to my utter surprise, it connected! I looked at the iPhone and the slider had change to turn on the Hotspot! I turned it off again, and again, it disappeared from my MBP, the MBP found and connected to my home network and then the iPhone hotspot again reappeared. I've never seen that sequence before and I'm not thrilled that it works that way. What that means is that the hotspot function is eternally ON, even if it says OFF. I then disconnected from the hotspot and changed the password. When I again clicked on it on the MBP, it connected again and DIDN"T ASK FOR THE PASSWORD! I suspect there is something going on through iCloud for this, but this is NOT the behavior I have ever seen before.

About all I suggest is that if you have an iPhone on 14.0, set a really, really, really hard password to keep anyone from being able to get into your iPhone and/or to see your name on their network list. I've changed the name on my iPhone as well, as I don't need to have my name broadcast everywhere I go. My wife's iPhone is not yet "upgraded" to 14, I may give it a test. It will be interesting to see if it behaves the same way.

 

[chscag]

@Jake:

The behavior you noticed did not just happen with iOS 14. As far as I remember, it has been going on at least since iOS 13 and maybe even earlier. It can't be carrier selective because you and I are using different carriers.

Not asking for the password is something I have not noticed here. I guess I need to test to see if in fact it's connecting in the clear. That is definitely not good if it's the case. I'll post my results in a bit.

 

[chscag]

Yikes! You're right. I just connected to my iPhone 8 hot spot. Hot spot was turned off on the phone and the connection did not ask for a password.

What the heck is going on with that?

And... I just tested the connection to my wife's iPhone 11 and it connected there also without her hot spot being turned on and again with no password. My wife's iPhone 11 is still running iOS 13.7.

This is definitely not good and a security risk.

 

[chscag]

I'm wondering if this behavior is because all our phones and my iMac are on the same network here at home?

 

[MacInWin]

Charlie, I just tested with my wife's iPhone 11, still running 13.x. Didn't happen there. What happened on her phone is that the link just shows up in the list of available access points, with the only unique feature to see that it is a hotspot is intertwined links instead of the "fan" icon. I was able to connect to it, and it still didn't identify as an iPhone hotspot, just with the links. When I turned off the availability, the link immediately disappeared and the MBP reconnected to the home wifi. I then turned it back on on her phone and it appeared in the found list. I didn't connect this time, just turned it off again and it stayed in view for a few seconds. While it was there, I clicked on it to connect and it reported it could not do so, the hotspot did not respond. And on her iPhone, it did not turn on. You had one set of results on an earlier iPhone, I got two different results on two iPhones, one 13.x and the other 14.0, so it's inconsistent. On my iPhone, I changed the password and connected from the MBP and it didn't ask. I wonder if it iCloud sharing that is doing the authentication in the background? Or, as you suggested, it MIGHT be because they are on the same Wifi net at home, but to connect to the hotspot you disconnect from the home Wifi, so how would that work? I don't want to muck with iCloud connectivity just to test this, but I may do some research online to see if there is anybody else noticing the changed behaviors.

 

[ferrarr]

I'm wondering if this behavior is because all our phones and my iMac are on the same network here at home?

That may be the case. It may also happen if the same (or Family Sharing) Apple/iCloud ID is being used on the devices.


Sent from my iPad using Mac-Forums

 

[IWT]

Due credit to Jake for bringing this to our attention; and thanks too to Charlie for confirming.

I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I noted this situation many months ago by accident and ignored its significance on the grounds that my wife and I share the same Apple ID. I assumed that sharing the same Apple ID meant sharing iPhones/Hotspots and for the same reason, a PW was not required.

Ian

 

[Rod]

This morning I received an update to Spark, I am now able to select it as my default email client. I believe iOS Outlook is the same although I don't have that but MS got on this pretty quickly with Edge browser so I think I can assume.
Addit; I have read that there is a bug which causes the iPhone to revert to its original default browser and email client after a reboot. I have tested this and found it to be true at least in the case of the Spark email client. I do not have Chrome or Edge loaded but I tried this with DuckDuck Go and the same applied.

 

[Rod]

Charlie, I just tested with my wife's iPhone 11, still running 13.x. Didn't happen there. What happened on her phone is that the link just shows up in the list of available access points, with the only unique feature to see that it is a hotspot is intertwined links instead of the "fan" icon. I was able to connect to it, and it still didn't identify as an iPhone hotspot, just with the links. When I turned off the availability, the link immediately disappeared and the MBP reconnected to the home wifi. I then turned it back on on her phone and it appeared in the found list. I didn't connect this time, just turned it off again and it stayed in view for a few seconds. While it was there, I clicked on it to connect and it reported it could not do so, the hotspot did not respond. And on her iPhone, it did not turn on. You had one set of results on an earlier iPhone, I got two different results on two iPhones, one 13.x and the other 14.0, so it's inconsistent. On my iPhone, I changed the password and connected from the MBP and it didn't ask. I wonder if it iCloud sharing that is doing the authentication in the background? Or, as you suggested, it MIGHT be because they are on the same Wifi net at home, but to connect to the hotspot you disconnect from the home Wifi, so how would that work? I don't want to muck with iCloud connectivity just to test this, but I may do some research online to see if there is anybody else noticing the changed behaviors.

Jake, I just tried with my MBP, iPhone SE2 (iOS14) my Personal Hotspot was turned off, I checked in the WiFi fan icon and my Personal Hotspot was there so I clicked on it and watched as my iPhone Personal Hotspot went from off to on. I am writing this sentence connected via my iPhone. PS Disconnecting did not turn it off.

 

[MacInWin]

Jake, I just tried with my MBP, iPhone SE2 (iOS14) my Personal Hotspot was turned off, I checked in the WiFi fan icon and my Personal Hotspot was there so I clicked on it and watched as my iPhone Personal Hotspot went from off to on. I am writing this sentence connected via my iPhone. PS Disconnecting did not turn it off.

Yep, that is consistent with what I saw. I haven't had time to do any research on this yet. But I don't like that behavior.

 

[IWT]

I have read that there is a bug which causes the iPhone to revert to its original default browser and email client after a reboot. I have tested this and found it to be true at least in the case of the Spark email client. I do not have Chrome or Edge loaded but I tried this with DuckDuck Go and the same applied.

I posted this here, post #14: https://www.mac-forums.com/threads/ios14-problems.359397/#post-1862332

Ian

 

[Rod]

I knew I'd read it somewhere?

 

[Rod]

I love the new iOS App Library, I'm down to two Home Screens and the App Library page now. The first for all the apps I use constantly the second for folders of apps I like to keep together. It has made finding apps a breeze with a lot less swiping, pity it is not included in iPadOS, I was a bit disappointed by that.

 

[chscag]

I love the new iOS App Library,

The new App Library is a "Love - Hate" relationship. But it appears from all the posts I've read about it that it's not very popular. The problem with it is that Apple has decided what goes where in the Library. And some of the choices they made just do not make sense.

I'm passing up using it and if I could get rid of it entirely I would.

But, if you love it, press on.....

 

[IWT]

The App Library is an option you can embrace or ignore.

I am of the latter category. By default, it is the very last screen. Leave it there for the occasions when you may find it helpful. It's doing no harm and some may find it helpful. Good on them.

Ian