Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot Not Working: Why It Happens and How to Fix It

When the Windows 10 mobile hotspot is not working on your laptop or PC, check the Wi-Fi adapter and its driver first, then the Windows services and settings the hotspot depends on; the checks below go through each one. The easier way is Connectify Hotspot, a free Windows app that shares your PC’s internet connection with your other devices over Wi-Fi and runs the hotspot itself. Download Connectify Hotspot free and follow the steps below.

You’re not the only one. Windows’ own mobile hotspot creates a Wi-Fi hotspot on your PC, and Windows updates have broken it before (the Fall Creators Update was a well-known case). Along with software bugs, the hotspot may also fail because:

• your Wi-Fi adapter is not active or not enabled.
• your Wi-Fi drivers are outdated.
• your Wi-Fi adapter is not correctly recognized by Windows.

Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, so a hotspot bug in Windows 10 is unlikely to get a fix from Windows Update. You can still troubleshoot it with the checks further down, but it takes time and it’s not guaranteed to work.

Is your phone’s hotspot the one not showing up on your laptop? That is the opposite direction: how to connect a laptop to a phone hotspot needs different fixes from the ones below.

Use Connectify Hotspot Instead of the Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot in 5 Steps

Connectify Hotspot is a virtual router that shares Internet from your laptop or PC with your smartphone, media player, game console, e-reader, other laptops and tablets. Turn off the Windows mobile hotspot first, then:

1. Download and install Connectify Hotspot on your 64-bit Windows 10 (version 1703 or later) PC or laptop. Connectify Hotspot Lite is free.
2. Open it and choose Wi-Fi hotspot.
3. Under Internet to share, pick the connection you want to share: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, a VPN or a phone plugged in with USB.
4. Set a password. Turn on Block ads if you want lighter pages on every device. Lite runs in 60-minute sessions; PRO removes the limit and lets you give the hotspot your own name, emojis included.
5. Click Start hotspot. Devices join by scanning the QR code on the Hotspot screen, or with the network name and password, like any other Wi-Fi network.

Connectify Hotspot 27 runs on 64-bit Windows 10 (version 1703 or later) and Windows 11. On a Windows 7 or 8 PC, use Connectify Hotspot 2021 instead: see our Windows 7 and Windows 8 guides.

Below you can find a short video on how to create a hotspot on Windows 10 with Connectify Hotspot. The app’s screens have changed since it was recorded, but the steps are the same.

How to Fix the Built-In Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot: Checks by Symptom

Prefer to fix the Windows hotspot first? The hotspot settings are in Settings > Network & Internet > Mobile hotspot. Find your symptom and work through the checks in order.

Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot Won’t Turn On

1. Turn Wi-Fi on and, under Share my Internet connection from, pick a connection that is online.
2. Restart the hotspot service. Press Windows key + R, type services.msc and press Enter. Right-click Windows Mobile Hotspot Service and choose Restart, or Start if it isn’t running. Check that WLAN AutoConfig is running too.
3. Update or roll back the Wi-Fi driver. In Device Manager, under Network adapters, right-click the Wi-Fi adapter. Install the driver from your laptop maker’s support page, or roll back to the previous one if the hotspot broke after a driver update.
4. Reset the network settings: go to Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network reset, select Reset now, then restart. Windows reinstalls your network adapters with default settings, so you’ll need to reconnect to your Wi-Fi networks afterwards.

Windows 10 Hotspot Not Showing on Other Devices

• A phone, TV or console that supports only 2.4 GHz can’t see a 5 GHz hotspot. If your hotspot’s Edit screen offers a network band, choose 2.4 GHz or Any available.
• Pause VPN and security apps on the PC while you test.
• Check in Device Manager that the Wi-Fi adapter is enabled; if the Mobile hotspot switch is missing, the adapter’s driver may not support hosting a hotspot.

Windows 10 Hotspot Connected but No Internet

1. In services.msc, check that Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and Windows Mobile Hotspot Service are running.
2. Open Change adapter options on the Network & Internet Status page. For each adapter, open Properties > Sharing and untick Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection.
3. The Windows hotspot hands out addresses starting with 192.168.137. If a VPN or virtual machine adapter already uses that range, devices connect without internet; disconnect it and try again.

Windows 10 Hotspot Keeps Turning Off

• Turn off Power saving on the Mobile hotspot page, so the hotspot does not switch off when nothing is connected.
• Keep the PC awake. Sleep stops any hotspot, and on laptops with Modern Standby, Windows stops it about ten minutes after the screen turns off.

What Connectify Hotspot Adds to the Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot

Beyond the basic hotspot, Connectify Hotspot adds:

• See every device on your hotspot, with its traffic and data used, switch internet access off for any one of them, and set a gaming mode for consoles. Free in every edition.
• Block ads for every connected device with the built-in universal ad blocker, including ads inside apps.
• Share more kinds of connection: existing Wi-Fi networks, LAN, DSL, tethered smartphones and VPN connections, plus 4G and 5G modems with PRO.
• Extend your Wi-Fi range into a far room or office with Wi-Fi repeater mode (MAX).
• Put consoles and smart TVs directly on your home network with bridged mode (part of MAX; works when the PC is on Wi-Fi or Ethernet).

Moving to Windows 11? The Windows 11 mobile hotspot fixes cover the newer settings pages, and sharing Wi-Fi from Windows 10 walks through the whole setup.

Windows 10 mobile hotspot not working for you? Download Connectify Hotspot free and get your devices online.