Hotspot not working when a VPN is on usually boils down to how traffic is being routed from your hotspot host. The VPN can block or fail to share the connection with tethered devices, or the OS’s Internet Sharing/Tethering settings aren’t routing the hotspot through the VPN. Here are quick fixes you can try, depending on what device you’re using.

If you’re on Windows:

  • First connect to the VPN, then enable sharing from the VPN adapter to the hotspot.
  • Open Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections, find the VPN connection, right‑click it and choose Properties > Sharing, and enable “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection.”
  • In the Home networking connection dropdown, select the hotspot adapter the one you use for Mobile Hotspot.
  • Turn the hotspot off and back on. If the hotspot doesn’t appear, turn on Mobile Hotspot first so Windows has an interface to share to. A restart can help.

If you’re on macOS:

  • Connect to the VPN, then turn on Internet Sharing.
  • Open System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing.
  • From “Share your connection from,” choose the VPN interface it may appear as something like utunX or as VPN/Ethernet depending on your setup.
  • For “To computers using,” pick Wi‑Fi and set up a name/password for the hotspot.
  • Enable Internet Sharing and start the service. This routes the hotspot through the VPN, but some VPN apps don’t allow sharing. If it doesn’t work, you may need to use a VPN on the router or a different VPN app.

If you’re on Android:

  • Not all phones allow VPN traffic to pass through a hotspot. Check your VPN app for a “tethering or hotspot sharing” option sometimes called “Share VPN connection” or “VPN over hotspot”.
  • If your VPN app doesn’t support it, you may need to enable the VPN for all traffic and use split tunneling so the hotspot client can access the internet, or simply disable the VPN while using the hotspot. If possible, start the VPN on the device that’s creating the hotspot and see if tethered devices can connect.

If you’re on iOS:

  • Personal Hotspot often doesn’t reliably route through a VPN for other devices on some carriers. If you need all traffic covered, the most reliable approach is to run the VPN on a router or use a device that supports VPN sharing over USB/ethernet to a dedicated hotspot, or connect hotspot clients to a VPN-enabled router instead of the iPhone’s hotspot. In some cases, updating iOS and the VPN app or switching to a different VPN that explicitly supports hotspot sharing helps.

If none of the above works, consider using a dedicated VPN router or a separate device to run the VPN and publish its own hotspot, so all devices connected to that network go through the VPN.

As a quick test, try temporarily disabling the VPN and see if the hotspot can connect, which confirms the VPN is the blocker. Also ensure DNS and firewall settings aren’t blocking tethered devices and that the VPN kill switch isn’t cutting off traffic unexpectedly.