Intune device restriction policy to block iOS Personal Hotspot doesn't prevent users from enabling it

This article describes an issue where an active Intune device restriction policy to block iOS Personal Hotspot doesn't prevent the setting from being enabled in iOS 12.1 or earlier.

Symptom

After you deploy a device restriction policy in Microsoft Intune to block the iOS Personal Hotspot setting, users of iOS devices that run iOS 12.1 or earlier can still enable the Personal Hotspot feature.

Cause

This is an expected behavior in iOS 12.1 and earlier. In iOS 12.2 and later, users can be prevented from enabling the Personal Hotspot feature as expected.

Solution

Ask users to upgrade the device to iOS 12.2 or later.