Tethering a Nexus 7 to an Iphone 4

January 24, 2013

Hi, thanks for reading my Blog, this post is concerning Tethering a Nexus 7 to an Iphone 4!

I recently purchased a Nexus 7 after my fiancée bought one and I had a go on it, after 5 minutes I knew I had to have one too! It is amazing what a great piece of technology can do for you, and with the rise of smartphone usage as well it certainly won’t slow down. Just looking at the top smartphone statistics shows the impact they have on people, even tablets like the Nexus 7 have a rise in popularity.

So far, after owning it for a couple of weeks I can say that it’s fantastic, it does everything that I could want it to do. With one notable exception. No 3G connectivity. Now, I’m no tech whizz when it comes to my Iphone. I have learnt about jailbreaking thanks to KubaDownload.com, and I can confidently navigate my phone for everything I need, but that’s just about where it ends. However, I do know how to tether a Nexus 7 to my Iphone 4 and that is the easiest way to overcome this problem.

For the most part, this isn’t a problem. The main the reasons I bought this tablet for were:

1) Books. I read a LOT of books, either text books or novels (and even comics) I struggle to carry round the sheer number of books I need on a weekly basis. Now, All I need is my tablet, and occasionally a charger, my spine will thank me in 40 years…
2) Checking my email when I’m on the sofa and can’t be bothered to boot up the laptop and my phone is too far away.
3) Browsing the web when I’m on the sofa and can’t be bothered to boot up the laptop and my phone is too far away/too small.

But occasionally, I want to use this device when I’m out of the house/office. Without an internet connection, the device is pretty useless if any of the tasks I want to complete require one (even things like Google drive won’t let you access an item unless it’s specifically requested to be offline, which you have to do while online!). If you want to access Google drive, you must be connected to suddenlink internet or an internet source alike.

Since I usually have my iPhone with me when I’m out and about, it seemed like a sensible option to try and tether the iPhone to the nexus. The nexus has a much bigger screen which is far more user friendly for browsing the web or replying to emails, so why not use it’s 3G connection?

Luckily, it’s quite a simple process to get this to work.

Firstly, I’ll say that I’m using a 32Gb Nexus 7, running Android version 4.2.1, and have a 32Gb iPhone 4 with iOS 6.0.1

Tethering a Nexus 7 to an Iphone 4, follow these simple steps..

1) Enable bluetooth on both devices.

For the iPhone,

Go to settings (usually on your home page, I’ll blur out the unnecessary items on each screen!)

iPhone home page

Now navigate to Bluetooth, as seen here (if it not on, then your screen will read “off”:

Bluetooth

Flip the slider to on, and your iPhone will start to search for devices which it can connect to. Here you can see as I’ve already paired my iPhone to my Nexus, it remembers it, and shows it as currently not connected.

Nexus not connected

Also, when bluetooth is turned on, the Bluetooth icon will appear in the top right of your iPhone screen, next to the battery icon.

Now you have bluetooth turned on on your phone, switch it on on your nexus!

From the home screen, swipe your finger down in the top right hand corner of the screen (where the battery icon is), this reveals the settings menu, you don’t even have to unlock the tablet to get to it!

Here’s the menu, once you get to it, click on bluetooth.

nexus menu

Once you get into the bluetooth menu, look at the top of the screen, Bluetooth will say “off”, slide across to “on” as in the image below.

bluetooth on

You now have bluetooth activated on both devices, now you need to pair the devices.
2) Pairing your iphone with your nexus 7

You can initiate this connection from either device, but I found that my iPhone wouldn’t actually find any bluetooth devices that were in range, however my nexus found them all straight away.

On the Nexus, tap the “Nexus 7” which is directly below the blue horizontal line, this then makes the nexus discoverable for the next two minutes, Also tap “Search for devices” in the top right, this doesn’t look like a button, but it is.

if both devices are trying to discover each other there is a greater chance that one will find the other, (i.e. if one fails, like my iPhone did, the other might still succeed!)

On the iPhone, simply going into the bluetooth menu should mean that the iPhone starts looking for devices, and itself becomes discoverable.

iPhone discoverable

Once one of the devices has found the other one (in my case the nexus finds the iPhone, tap the icon for the phone on the Nexus (mine is listed as “Chris”s iphone” to initiate the pairing connection.

Both devices will display a dialog box, hit “pair” on both devices.

Nexus 7 Pairing

iPhone pairing

Your devices should now look like this:

Nexus connected

iPhone connected

Good news! Your iPhone and Nexus 7 are now paired via bluetooth! This isn’t the end of the story though.

3) Making your iPhone a personal hotspot

Now you need to allow internet sharing on your iPhone by becoming a “personal hotspot”,

Go back to the settings menu, and go to “Personal Hotspot”, it’s right below Bluetooth.

Personal hotspot

Slide the Button to on, as we won’t be connecting via Wi Fi, the Wi Fi password is not required.

Personal Hotspot

Now your iPhone is ready for your Nexus to share it’s 3G connection.

4) Connect the Nexus 7 to the internet using the iPhone’s 3G connection

On the Nexus, now tap the settings icon located next to the iPhones name in the bluetooth menu

Settings

In the settings, you should now see an option called “Internet access, Use for internet access” tap this option. a Blue tick will appear in the box like in the image below.

Tap for internet access access

You are now connected to the internet using your iPhone’s 3G connection!

You iPhone will now look like this when locked:

Using Hotspot

That’s it! you can now use your Nexus 7 as if you were connected to a WiFi network with an internet connection. Obviously, the speed of the internet connection will be determined by the 3G connection you have available. If you are still unable to connect, it might be that your iPhone is having some issues. If that is the case, you can visit a certified iPhone Repair store to get the problem resolved.

Thanks for reading, I hope this post has been of use!

You can find out more about the iPhone from Apple’s website HERE, and the Nexus 7 from Google’s website HERE.

Enjoy your new connection!

If you’ve found this guide helpful please leave a comment below! It would Also be really helpful if you could Like our page on facebook, give it a +1 on Google plus or(and?) share us on twitter! Use the handy links on the left! thanks!

Chris

12 Responses

Vince May 25th, 2013

I have been trying to connect my iPhone and nexus7 via blue tooth but the phone is saying that the nexus is not supported. Do I need to change any settings somewhere in my phone? Thanks Vince

Reply
- Stephen June 15th, 2013
  
  Mine does this too, maybe its because Service provider is in the UK and I’m in the US.
  
  Reply
San AntonoStores June 10th, 2013

I think this is a real great blog article.Really looking forward to read more. Much obliged.

Reply
Daniel June 19th, 2013

Thanks for sharing this. I will set it up today. I had been using WiFi sharing, but I think this zaps the battery more than Bluetooth sharing. Thanks again.

Reply
Myla July 5th, 2013

Thanks so much for sharing.. It worked on my nexus 7 paired with my iphone 5.. It says nexus 7 not connected.. I went back to settings then tapped personal hotspot. There’s a password there. On my nexus 7 I turned on wifi and typed the password. It worked! Thanks so much!

Reply
- Chris Sutherland July 5th, 2013
  
  Great! really glad this helped you out! Please share on Facebook/twitter etc if you think it could help your friends too! All the best. Chris.
  
  Reply
Tony July 13th, 2013

Thanks for this. I had the same problem as someone on here at first, but after turning on the personal hotspot, all worked as you stated.
So once again, thank you very much for this.

Reply
Lori L July 19th, 2013

Help Chris! Do you know why iOS 6.1.3 is not supported?

Reply
- Lori L July 19th, 2013
  
  First, thank you for presenting this information for us to view and in such a professional presentation. My issue is that I have the 30gb plan with AT&T and I need the 50gb or the mobile share plan in order to tether with my Nexus 7.
  
  Reply
- Chris Sutherland July 19th, 2013
  
  Hi Lori, I’m very sorry, I don’t know why this won’t work with iOS 6.1.3? I’m also not familiar with AT&T, so it might be something to do with your data plan? I would try following the steps above, then afterwards try switiching your phone off and then back on and see if it works?
  
  Failing that, I would suggest contacting your carrier to see if it’s an issue with your plan rather than your settings. I hope you get this to work! If you find a solution, please post it here so if others getthe same issue they can try your fix.
  
  All the best.
  
  Chris
  
  Reply
alan bayne December 30th, 2013

Hello

I am most grateful for the help and guidance posted above.
The bluetooth pairing seemed to present a problem gaining access to internet via iPhone .
However It worked out fine getting internet access pairing Nexus 7 to iPhone using wireless rather than Bluetooth, so a result.

Wishing you the very best for 2014.

Regards

Alan

Reply
brenda February 17th, 2014

I did all the steps you showed but for some reason my iPhone 4s is not connecting to my nexus7 it shows my nexus 7 is not connected when I try to pair them it says my nexus 7 is not turned on but it is and I have both devices right next to me can u help

Reply