iPhone - prevent automatic hotspot tethering when connecting to computer

How can I turn off automatic personal hotspot activation when connecting an iPhone to a computer (Windows in this case)? I had it plugged in when downloading an iOS update and it downloaded the update over cellular data instead of home Wi-Fi.

I understand I can turn it off manually each time by going into settings, but how can I have it not turn on automatically so that I can only turn it on manually as desired to prevent accidental usage?

Solution 1:

The problem isn't on your iPhone, it's on your Windows computer using the USB tether rather than Wi-Fi. You need to set the network interface priority on your Wi-Fi to be higher than the USB device, or the USB device to be lower, so that it will only use the tether if it isn't connected to Wi-Fi.

Make sure to connect the iPhone first. Directions for Windows 7 are here (these will likely work on newer versions as well):

• How to change the network connection priority in Windows 7

Alternately, you could disable the connection on your Windows computer but you'll still have to manually turn it on each time so I think the above fix will provide the result you want.

Solution 2:

For a Mac it's quite simple:

While your iPhone is connected to your computer go into Network Preferences and remove the iPhone from the list of network interfaces.

I’m not sure how to change the order of connections however. That would seem more useful. But this is a quick fix until you use your phone again as hotspot through USB.

Solution 3:

Here are instructions how to use the command line to change the priority of the network interface to get Windows to route the traffic through WIFI adapter instead of iPhone. This is tested on Windows 10.

1. Open up PowerShell with admin rights
2. Use the route print to find the correct interface

2. Check the index (the first column) for the "Apple mobile device ethernet". In my case this is 25. Use then Get-NetIPInterface command to see associated metrics values for each interface

3. Check the InterfaceMetric value. The interfaces will be ordered using this value, so you want to change the Apple device to to use a value higher than for example your WIFI connection. In my case both Apple and WIFI share the value 35, so to guarantee the order I want to put the Apple device value to 45.

4. Use Set-NetIPInterface command to specify the value:

   Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex 25 -InterfaceMetric 45

5. Running again the route print command shows that in my case the Apple Mobile device ethernet and my WLAN adapter has now changed the positions, meaning Windows will route the traffic through the WIFI instead of via iPhone