Auto-connecting to xfinity mobile hotspots

My IPhone 8, iOS 16.7.11, with Xfinity mobile cellular service, will not auto-connect to any available xfinity mobile hotspot, generally. Instead, when the hotspot is selected, it presents a dialog for username and password. The username is pre-filled ("anonymous" something something) but the password is not. Not having a password (to my knowledge), the iPhone will not connect at all.

I say generally because today, for the first time ever, it did auto-connect on the first try. Then it failed twice with the usual bad behavior, after I had switched back to my home router Wifi network. Puzzling.

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XfinityKassie

Official Employee

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1.9K Messages

29 days ago

Proleek3000 Good afternoon! Thank you for reaching out to our Xfinity Forums Team for assistance with the Xfinith Hotspots. With iPhone users, your phoen will automatically connect to Xfinity Wi-Fi Hotspots. There is a slight difference between a secured Wi-Fi Hotspot, and a public hotspot. The unsecured hotspot will come up like this, (xifnitywifi), and not require a password. If it's a secured hotspot, that's when you will see the password option. I hope this helps. Please feel free to let us know if you have any follow-up questions we can answer for you.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/find-nearby-wifi-hotspots

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Proleek3000

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4 Messages

Not at all helpful, but I think I have the answer. To auto-join a secured Xfinity Mobile hotspot on an iPhone 8 you have to 1) select auto-join for that network, 2) deselect auto-join for any other network then in range and 3) if you are connected to another network already, turn Wifi off and then back on.

One is obvious, but it does not work entirely as I expected. Even if you select auto-join for the Xfinity Mobile network, it will not auto-join if you have to manually designate the Xfinity Mobile network as the one to join from the lists of my or other networks. Then, you get the useless username/password dialog. And why might you have to pick XM from a list? Most often I suspect because your phone has already connected to a network that you want to displace. Hence, step 3: toggle Wifi off and on to clear the existing connection and allow the auto-join to do its magic.

And step 2? To avoid a conflict between two or more auto-join networks in range that could be resolved repeatedly to being connected to one of those other networks.

Kind of a kludgy implementation of auto-join but maybe by 16 they have it right.

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27 days ago

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XfinityKassie

Official Employee

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1.9K Messages

Proleek3000 My apologies the information provided wasn't helpful. Let's make sure you and I are on the same page. Yes, the devices that are running on iOS17.1+ will automatically connect to the secured Xfinity Wi-Fi Hotspots. Since you are working with a bit older device, things can be a bit tricky with the difference in software. The box you are seeing, is a login box, you would type in your Xfinity username/password and that will connect you to a secured Wi-Fi network; even if it's a hotspot. I believe these instructions will be a bit better for your device. You will be looking for the network to connect to labeled "XFINITY MOBILE". Once you sign it, your connection should be a bit smoother with the toggling. Please let me know if this is more helpful.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/iphone-ipad-xfinity-wifi

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27 days ago

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Proleek3000

Auto-connecting to xfinity mobile hotspots

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