Skyrocket ICS breaks tethering

[mwehle]

I upgraded my Skyrocket to ICS last night, and am sorry I did. WiFi tethering is completely broken - selecting "Tethering and portable hotspot" from the Settings menu bricks the phone. After a minue a message box appears with "Unfortunately, Settings has stopped."

How do I go back to Gingerbread? ICS on the Skyrocket is broken.

[boerne]

have you tried foxfi?

[coet]

foxfi does work as an alternative.  But would prefer att fix the tethering issue under ICS.  How could they have missed such important feature is beyond me.

[coet]

For now...I am using 'foxfi' to keep WiFi tethering working after upgraded to ICS.  Not the best solution, but at least it works.

[blogic]

I am having the exact same problem.  Is this a samsung issue or ATT?  Is there a fix yet?

[tmleadr03]

I was really liking ICS till I clicked on Mobile WiFi and it would not even open.  When I try to open settings for mobile hotspot and tethering it will crash settings.  

I just now while typing this up reset the phone to factory defaults and wiped the data and the tethering shows up now.  Connected my phone to the computer and it will activate.

I will now try to restore my data and see it it still works.

[maximusimpact]

Same issue with the Galaxy note... ""unfortunately, settings has stopped.""    Click "ok"

..actually it is NOT "ok"

[maximusimpact]

Happens to be something we are all paying a premium for..  You would think they would test the items they milk us on...

[tmleadr03]

Resetting the phone and wiping all user data restored tethering capabilities and restoring my phone got all my info back.  Tethering and hotspot work just fine now.  

To do a hard reset:

Back up phone data with Kies

Turn off phone

Pull battery

Install battery

Turn on while holding both volume buttons and the power button at the same time

Select "Restore Factory defaults and erase user data"

Select "Yes, this can not be undone"

Restore your back up.

[maximusimpact]

Resetting the phone puts it back to Gingerbread?  or my new load of ICS? 

[tmleadr03]

Resetting keeps ICS, just think of it as a hard reboot and memory wipe.  But you can put your memory back on.

[danlucarini]

Sadly confirming what others have posted: the only way to restore mobile hotspot to my Skyrocket on ICS was the factory reset option (or the 'nuclear option' as I call it).

Good news? That fixed it.I rely on the feature for biz travel. When it's working on LTE, much faster than a hotel or airport WiFi.

Bad news? Will spend the rest of my weekend re-installing apps and reconfiguring everything. (even after a proper backup, some things I had to restore manually)

[KCUser]

Surely there must be a better way?  Did I really just do the upgrade and spend a day redoing my screen configurations for work, only to have to wipe it all out and reload everything?  Anyone find another way yet?

[brentgimpel]

I found a solution, combining research from multiple bulletin boards.  I will share this with you and you do NOT have to "Factory Reset" and restore.

1. Go to Play Store and download the Free "Wifi Hotspot & USB Tether Lite - SVTP"

2. Use SVTP to configure and test your hotspot (set a new name, and WPA security)

3. Once working, turn off hotspot

4. Go to Settings and turn on the normal Hotspot / Tethering settings - WHICH NOW WORK!

5. Use the standard ICS/Samsung Hotspot / Tethering controls and forget about SVTP

Now I did not (yet) unistall SVTP, but it's working great.  No damage, no pain!

It's a shame that I had to spend an entire 30 minutes working through this issue, but these are #FirstWorldProblems

Cheers!!

[los415]

this option worked for me to restore tethering after ICS upgrade

[melindalynn2001]

I hate ICS! There are tons of problems! I loved my phone until I did that upgrade. It freezes constantly, its so slow, and the battery drains faster.  My email widget keeps showing I have new email and when i look at it, its messages I have deleted 3 or 4 times already that day....I delete again and a few hours later they are back as new. I just wish I never did that upgrade.

[schuster66]

My tethering was working fine after ICS Upgrade for a couple of months and then quit working today.  To fix the problem, I turned off portable wifi hotspot, changed the SSID, changed the password, and then turned on portable wifi hotspot.  It fixed the problem.

It's not good that I have to change all of my devices that connect to it, but it's better than a reset.