Why does my Mint Mobile hotspot feature not work as it should? It's likely down to this problem

int Mobile offers hotspot access with all of its plans, though the exact amount of data varies from plan to plan. While most of us only use hotspot access for emergencies like when our home Wi-Fi is down, it’s still a nice extra to have. At least it is if it works as it should! If your Mint Mobile hotspot feature isn’t working at all or is performing significantly lower than you expected, odds are you have a configuration problem.

In theory, your phone should automatically configure to the correct APN settings but often times phones that aren’t designed specifically for T-Mobile’s network can give you problems, especially Android devices. This includes devices intended for the international market as well as many older US-specific devices. The good news is that in most cases all you have to do is try to change your APN settings to Mint’s latest recommendations.

Sometimes when setting up Mint Mobile your phone will default to a direct T-Mobile APN setting, but this often causes problems. Your calls, texts and data might still work, but it could cause hotspot issues and subpar performance. The easiest possible fix is to create a new APN. Keep in mind that this is typically an Android problem but the exact steps may vary depending on your version of Android as well as the manufacturer.

In many cases, you’ll find the correct setting by typing Access Point Names into the Settings search bar. You should see Mint Mobile listed as one of the options (though it may be labeled as T-Mobile in some cases) and there should be some kind of plus button or other toggle that lets you manually add the APN settings. You’ll want to change all the following values as such:

• Name – Mint
• APN – Wholesale
• Proxy – (leave blank)
• Port – (leave blank)
• Username – (leave blank)
• Password – (leave blank)
• Server – (leave blank)
• MMSC – http://wholesale.mmsmvno.com/mms/wapenc
• Multimedia Message Proxy – (leave blank)
• Multimedia Message Port – 8080
• MCC – (do not change default values)
• MNC – (do not change default values)
• Authentication Type – (leave blank)
• APN Type – default,supl,mms,ia
• APN Protocol – IPv4/IPv6
• APN Roaming Protocol – IPv4/IPv6
• MVNO type: GID
• MVNO value: 756D

In most cases, that’s it! Your hotspot should be performing correctly. If you are still running into problems it’s possible that your phone is running into network issues due to a lack of Band 71 support. We highlight what’s going on in our guide to T-Mobile’s latest network changes, but the short of it is that many older and foreign phones without band 71 are no longer working correctly due to changes in the way the network is configured. If this is your problem, it’s likely you will need to call Mint Mobile customer service and possibly even get a new phone.