How can I tether my iPhone to a Mac via Bluetooth?

Tethering your iPhone to your Mac using Bluetooth is easy. However, while Bluetooth is a convenient and wireless way to get internet from your iPhone to your Mac, it is limited to 1 Mbps (Bluetooth 4) or 2 Mbps (Bluetooth 5). If you have fast LTE speeds on your phone, you might get better results with USB or Wi-Fi tethering. Note that Apple removed Bluetooth tethering in macOS Monterey and newer versions.

With that said, in this article, we are going to walk you through the steps for tethering your iPhone using Bluetooth.

Step 1: First, ensure that your iPhone is paired with your Mac. You can do this by going to System Preferences > Bluetooth. Then select your iPhone from the pane that appears. Also, take this opportunity to ensure that your Mac’s Bluetooth is turned on.

Step 2: Turn on your iPhone’s Personal Hotspot. To do this, open the Settings app and tap Personal Hotspot. Then toggle the switch on.

Step 3: While you’re in the Settings app, tap Bluetooth from the main menu and toggle the switch on if it isn’t already. You should see your Mac appearing under “My Devices.”

Step 4: Now it's time to connect your Mac to your iPhone's network. You can do this one of two ways:

The first method is the simplest: navigate to the upper right-hand corner of the menu bar and click on the Bluetooth icon. (If this icon is not currently displayed, you can activate it by going to System Preferences > Bluetooth.) When you click the icon, a menu will appear. Mouse-over your paired device (iPhone) and click Connect. 

Alternatively, you can navigate to System Preferences > Network. Click Bluetooth PAN on the left-hand side. If Bluetooth PAN isn’t visible, click the + button, and select Bluetooth PAN from the interface popup menu. 

Finally, select your iPhone from the device popup menu and click Connect.