Want to know who’s been using your iPhone personal hotspot and how much data they drained? We’ll show you.
Personal hotspots are life-savers. They allow you to share your cellular data with someone else in need or from one of your devices to another. This is especially useful when someone is in dire need of an internet connection.
However, sharing your personal hotspot can also be dangerous. It can blow up your monthly bill or, worse, put you at risk of allowing a hacker to steal your bandwidth. Here’s how you can learn who is connected to your hotspot and find out how much of your data they are using.
Control Center Shows How Many People Are Using Your Hotspot
An easy way to know whether someone is connected to your personal hotspot is to look for the Personal Hotspot icon, which looks like a chain, on your iPhone’s status bar.
You can also check how many devices are connected to your personal hotspot from the Control Center:
- For iPhones with Face ID, swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen. If your iPhone has a Home button, swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
- Press and hold the wireless section in the top-left corner of the Control Center.
- You’ll see the number of devices connected to your personal hotspot below the icon.
Use an App to Learn Exactly Who’s Using Your Hotspot
However, if you want to know precisely what devices are connected to your personal hotspot and how much of your data they’re using, you can use a third-party network scanning app like Network Analyzer.
To use it, download Network Analyzer for free on the App Store. Then select the LAN tab and tap Scan. The app can show you a device’s name, IP, and MAC address and may even recognize the device’s manufacturer, like Apple.
Download: Network Analyzer (Free)
Find Out How Much Data Your Personal Hotspot Is Using
While your iPhone will not show you who is currently using your cellular data, it does keep a record of devices that recently used your personal hotspot, as well as their data usage. To find it:
- Go to Settings > Cellular.
- Scroll down to Cellular Data and tap Personal Hotspot.
- You’ll see a list of devices connected to your personal hotspot and how much data each of these devices is using.
Manage Your Data
The ability to share your personal hotspot is an excellent utility. However, if you’re on a limited data plan, things can get quickly out of hand and you may suddenly find yourself reaching your data limit before you want to.
Monitor how many people are using your personal hotspot or use a third-party app to easily check who is using your data at a given time.
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