"Instant Hotspot" not working

[sparky672]

Mac Pro (late 2012) - Yosemite 10.10.5 IOGEAR Bluetooth 4.0 USB Micro Adapter (GBU521) iPhone 5s - iOS 9.2 with Personal Hotspot activated by carrier

While I can tether my iPhone to my Mac, I must turn ON the Personal Hotspot first and enter the password. However, according to Apple, as part of Continuity, I should not need a wifi password or even turn on the Personal Hotspot...

"Use Instant Hotspot on your iPhone (with iOS 8) and iPad (cellular models with iOS 8) to provide Internet access to your Mac computers and other iOS devices (with OS X Yosemite or iOS 8) that are in range and signed into iCloud using the same Apple ID. Instant Hotspot uses your iPhone or iPad Personal Hotspot—you don’t have to enter a password or even turn on Personal Hotspot."

This "Instant" Hotspot feature is not working, while all of the other features of Continuity and Handoff are working fine. The iPhone is still "discoverable" while its Personal Hotspot is OFF, however, you must enter the wifi password to connect, indicating this Continuity feature is not working correctly. When I try to tether to the Hotspot via Bluetooth, I get a "this Mac Pro is not compatible" message, again indicating that Continuity is not fully working.

---

--- Hardware/OS checks ---
Verifying Continuity status...          OK. OS X reports Continuity as active
Verifying Mac model reference...        OK. Known compatible Mac Model detected: MacPro5,1
Verifying Mac board-id...               OK. Short board id detected: Mac-F221BEC8
Verifying OS X version...               OK. Mac OS X 10.10.5 (14F1509) detected
Verifying Wi-Fi hardware...             OK. A Broadcom AirPort card is active, and is using the Continuity compatible Brcm4360 kext
Verifying AWDL status...                OK. An AWDL interface is up, Wi-Fi is ready for Continuity
Verifying Bluetooth hardware...         OK. 3rd party Bluetooth hardware detected
Verifying Bluetooth version...          OK. Bluetooth 4.0 detected
Verifying Bluetooth features...         OK. Bluetooth features are Continuity compliant
Verifying Bluetooth firmware...         OK. Bluetooth firmware version: v14 c4096
Verifying Login Item...                 OK. Login item for Auto Continuity Check is set.

--- Modifications check ---
Verifying OS kext protection...         OK. Kext developer mode is already active
Verifying kexts readability...          OK. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth kexts were found and could be read
Verifying Wi-Fi whitelist status...     OK. The whitelist is correctly patched with your board-id
Verifying Bluetooth blacklist status... OK. Warning: Blacklist not found in the Bluetooth drivers. An OS X update might have made this hack useless.
                                    However, your Mac model shouldn't need to be removed from that blacklist.
Verifying BT4 dongles compatibility...  OK. Compatibility with BT4 USB dongles is not enabled, this tool can fix this if a dongle is plugged in
Verifying old Wi-Fi kext presence...    OK. Legacy Wi-Fi driver Brcm4331 was already removed
Verifying legacy Wi-Fi card patch...    OK. The patch is already done. Old Broadcom Wi-Fi cards may work.
 --- Modifications check ---

[sysfloat]

Do you still run into this problem? There have been problems in the past where either the OS on the Phone or the Mac was too new and therefore not compatible.

[sparky672]

Do you still run into this problem?

Yes, nothing has changed, except that my iPhone is now running iOS 9.2.1

Despite the feature description stating that "you don’t have to enter a password or even turn on Personal Hotspot", the "Instant" Hotspot does not work at all.

[MTCoster]

I'm still experiencing this issue with macOS Sierra 10.12.6 on an Early 2011 MacBook Pro with my iPhone 6 running iOS 10.3.3