Exactly the same happened with both our Defenders. Once we could connect and then nothing. The "hotspot" on/off switch disappeared and now it doesn't connect to wifi unless I use the external wifi when in the garage. I think we waster $360 for this setup that never seems to work properly. More buggy electronics for sure.

 

Is there anyone for whom hotspot works? How did he do that? I still hope that it is done with an update.

 

Yes, mine is working.
However, the hotspot / WiFi and your internet connectivity are 2 different things.
1 - I see your hotspot SSID. Take your phone (or laptop), and see if you can connect to it.
2 - if you do, try to do a speed test
3 - if you can't then there is another issues....
Let me know and we can go to the next steps....
Best of luck.

 

Not necessarily broken. Mine was set for Netherlands (!!!)
However, you need to take it to the dealer which needs to try one of the 2 things :
1 - reset all your settings and put the latest SW on .... or
2 - it might have been a bad "transit mode" - when transit mode is deactivated -> customer , if it is not done in the right way, there may be a bug which causes that. They may have to put it back into transit mode, and then put it back in customer, in a proper manner.
If you find a tech worth its weight in salt, they will know and understand that....

If you paid for it already - the 360 $, open a case with JLR North America - In control dept.

Or... if everything else fails, get the money back ( 360 ) and buy a Verizon Jet pack.... seems to work best with Defenders for some reason.

Best of luck to you....

 

Mine is working as well, been fine since I purchased the car (US.) Make sure you pick the frequency most compatible with your connecting devices (especially if it's older hardware, pick 2.4ghz, rather than 5ghz. Some of my daughters' really, really old stuff (iPads from several years ago) will connect but display an "unsecure" message of some sort and won't work with the hotspot. Newer devices work no problem.

 

I just picked up a MY22 with the hotspot option. It worked for all of my family's devices without any trouble (3 iPhone 8s and a iPhone 12 mini)

 

Thanks for the info guys. Maybe this is sorted out for the 2022s. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, taking delivery of my 2022 on Wednesday of next week.

 

Went on our first road trip since taking delivery, brought my sons 18 &19 to Howe Caverns. My parents took me there when I was about seven so 45 years later I'm finally keeping the tradition alive. Anyway the hotspot worked on the way there for my youngest with his ipad but by the next day it stopped working completely. I went into the settings and it toggled itself to the off position, I toggled it back on but he still couldn't see it, exited out and went back in and it toggled itself off again. Hmm. Odd behavior. Anyone have any ideas? I emailed the dealer last night for guidance, maybe we'll hear back on Monday. The subscription is good for a year at 20GB monthly, I don't think he could've burned through that much already.

Aside from that I was delighted with the vehicle on this trip. Definitely made the right decision buying one when I did. One of the employees at Adirondack Animal Land was very complimentary of it while he was herding Camels, Zebra and Buffalo on his four wheeler. This was the perfect vehicle to crawl through the forest trails with feeding the Alpacas, deer and Emu while they're surrounding the Defender looking for a handout of kibble. The camera system was golden through there, wow, I was really glad to NOT be trying this in the CX5 ahead of us. lol I'd sure hate to run over any of those animals by mistake. The off-road camera was worth its weight in gold through there.

Scenery in the Mohawk valley region was beautiful especially the route the GPS took us from our hotel drive in Amsterdam out to Howe Caverns. The GPS was questionable at times though. It would show the fastest route on top and the other two routes offered were exactly the same. Fastest route often took us through some real back roads and avoided the main roads quite a bit, I'm not so sure how accurate it was as far as the 'fastest' goes when it's taking us down a one lane road with occasional two-way traffic by the rivers edge, but we got there anyway. Caverns were a good time, really cool. On the negative side I do think I have some mild a-pillar crackle on the passenger-side once we hit about 70mph on the thruway but it's not terrible. Unless it gets worse with time I can probably live with it.

 

@Chief65 - Glad you like the vehicle. I love mine too. Now, about the data: when I had the VELAR I had these issues with the connectivity all the time. You start once, works fine. Stop for gas, data gone. A car restart (usually 15 min wait time ) would fix it. On the DEFNDER: it still has issues, however not so much though. There are times while driving, I do have gaps in data. I have noticed that it is happening usually in the same spots. I suspect this may be a coverage issue for the vehicle (not a regular phone ). The second issue, is when the data is gone completely. I did the same vehicle reset, and it worked.
If in your case the data is totally gone, open a case with "InControl" and get some one that has 1/2 a brain. You may have to try several times. Most reps there do not understand this data "thing". Most of the dealerships even less.
In my case they solved it, but I always have a Jetpack on standby ... just in case.
Keep us posted, and best of luck to you.

 

@Mechano2020 - How do you open a case with "InControl"? Is there a #, e-mail, app, website? Don't need one right now, but it seems like something I should be ready for. Thanks.