Unable to tether my Samsung Galaxy Tab A to my mobile phone

[Figroll]

I tried tethering my Galaxy Tab A 2016 Model SM-T580 to my Moto G phone without success. The phone is all set up with Bluetooth tethering switched on in Hotspot & Tethering.  I have switched on Nearby Device Scanning in More Connection Settings as I can't see any other option that I think is relevant.

QUESTION to any Tab A users:

Is tethering possible with the Tab A.

If so. how do I set it up. 

[Figroll]

OK. Then please tell me where I find the settings on my Tab A.  They are easy to find on my Motorola but I can only find what I explained above.

"I have switched on Nearby Device Scanning in More Connection Settings as I can't see any other option that I think is relevant".

You said "All you need is the access point name and it's password (if any)" 

I have the hotspot set up on my phone with a name & a password.  The problem is I can not get to the point of entering it on my Tab A. It has to find the hotspot first and that is not happening.

[Joeeye]

Firstly, make sure your wifi hotspot is discoverable and not hidden and enable it. Next go to your tablets wifi settings and initiate a scan for wifi connections. It should show up in your list of wifi access points, connect to it once it shows up. That's all there is to it.

[Figroll]

I have set up the gotspot on my phone:

- given it a name

- and a password

- Wi-Fi hotspot is turned ON

- I have NOT ticked hide my device 

Apart from setting up the Hotspot on my phone with a name and a password & turning it on and making it findable what more do I need to do to 'make it discoverable'.

As the tablet is not discovering it I have decided to give up. I must be doing something wrong on the Tab A or it does not tether. I thought other Tab A users would detail the steps to setting it up on  the Tab A but that hasn't happened.  The Tab A is not discovering the hotspot.

[Joeeye]

There isn't anything to set up on your tablet. A hotspot, like any other WiFi access point, should show up in the list of WiFi connections once it is turned on. If this is not the case, the only things I can think of preventing you from connecting or finding it is the band that is being used, more specifically 5GHz, however even then your tablet should see it. For best compatibility make sure your hotspot is using 2.4GHz band.

[Figroll]

Under AP Band on my Moto G the band is 2.4 GHz.  

I have had to reset my Tab A to factory settings twice since I had it and when I first started having problems getting the Tab A to connect to the hotspot I looked in the device User Manual for help.  It was empty. Perhaps other items were lost in the reset. 

I had a long chat with Samsung Help about this before I posted on here and their solution was a factory reset which I refused to do as my Tab A was working perfectly. I decided to seek help from another Tab A user instead as their settings should be the same as mine. I posted on here for that reason.  

I'm still clueless and going off Samsung with every minute I spend on this problem.

[Joeeye]

Do you have any other devices that you can test your moto gs hotspot such as another phone? If so can you confirm you see the hotspot with and are able to connect.

Also do you have home broadband with WiFi access? If so do you connect your Tab A with it and it works normally?

[PhilD]

I have a phone and a tablet. Both work on my home Hi-Fi without a problem. In fact the Tab A has worked perfectly on it since I bought it.  I'm only trying to connect to my phone hotspot as I will be out of Wi-fi range for a week shortly. This is the first time I have tried to do it.

We are getting nowhere with this, just as I didn't get an answer from the long telephone call I had with Samsung Support before I posted on here.  Perhaps the Samsung Tab A is only supposed to connect to another Samsung phone hotspot.

I'm now going to delete the hotspot from my Moto G and just use that when I'm away. The Tab A can stay at home.

[Joeeye]

I'm sorry I was unable to help you but please understand a hotspot is brand agnostic, it should work for any WiFi enabled device supporting its band, Samsung, Motorola or otherwise. I hope you are able to manage it in the future, but rest assured your tablet is perfectly able to connect to WiFi hotspots.

[Anonymous User]

I have the same problem with the same model Tab. Mine can only connects to only samsung devices. I am using Huawei Y9 prime and Tecno Canon 18 pro of which my tab does not want to connect to it accepts password and thats it " unable to connect your device" the solution to these in my case ill connect my Samsung galaxy 8 mobile to Tecno hotspot then ill connect Tab from samsung galaxy hotpot which is connected to Tecno mobile hotspot data! 

[PhilD]

I gave up and haven't tried since ! posted on here. Perhaps Samsung is not "brand agnostic"  and only allow Samsung to Talk to Samsung. I think that is against competition laws. I wanted to use the TAB A because of the screen size but I'm getting used to the smaller phone screen and will not buy another Samsung tablet. I'm peed off that the internal storage is almost full of unwanted Samsung installed apps which I can't uninstall or move to the SD card. If I want to install a new app I have to remove one of my installed apps.