MP 1,1-5,1 802.11ac, BT 4.0, Continuity, and Handoff Working on Mac Pro 2010

[MacNB2]

I read the manual and I have almost everything ok ... but the order of the antennas ... are 1,2,3 from top to bottom (like pic) ... or 1,2 - these are visible and the 3 under the old wifi card?

Your comment and question does not make sense. Please try to ask in a different way.

There are three wifi antennas in the cMP.
Each cable is physically labelled 1,2 & 3.
So the antenna cable labelled "3" should be plugged into the wifi/BT board in the position marked as "Ant 3" in the picture you posted.
Then the cable labeled "1" plugged into "Ant 1" and cable labelled "2" into "Ant 2".

A bluetooth extension cable should be plugged into "Ant BT".

The wifi/BT board may be unmarked (not labelled) but that is why that picture was created.
Seems straight forward to me.
I did this with the exact wifi/BT board in the picture and all works well.

 

[kkinto]

I read the manual and I have almost everything ok ... but the order of the antennas ... are 1,2,3 from top to bottom (like pic) ... or 1,2 - these are visible and the 3 under the old wifi card?

The antenna connectors are to the RIGHT of the label text. The small white square thingies which the connector end snaps onto. I think you are referring to the two holes directly in vertical line with the "Ant" labels - which are not connectors

 

[einstein_x]

cables labelled ... I didn't know that. thanks!
(I still need an extension cable for the antenna - I was looking in my country and did not find it - I'm looking for on alie...)

 

[mats23]

EDIT: issue solved by signing out of and back in to iCloud (as suggested in posts from the beginning of 2021), everything works now - watch unlock, Handoff, AirDrop.

current config is: cMP 4,1->5,1, 11.6.1, Martin LO's 0.7.6 OC package, SIP turned on (although I'm not sure this is needed), no other modifications the Martin's stock config
I'll leave my old post as a future reference:

For Big Sur the only way I have found to get continuity, etc to work is through OpenCore and Hybridization - spoofing the board id to match an iMac Pro 1,1 or MacPro 7,1. I have not been able to find a manual patching method.

However without OpenCore you won't be able to boot Big Sur. If you are unfamiliar with OpenCore read the 1st post in this thread - OpenCore on the Mac Pro

Hi, after trying a couple of options, I'm looking for some help.

I've been using Martin LO's OC package for the cMP 5,1 for quite a while and recently upgraded my wifi/bluetooth card to a BCM94360CD. I'm on Big Sur 11.6.1. AirDrop works fine but continuity features don't. I've tried from what I understood as "hybridization" e.g. in this video:

- basically spoofing the board id to 27AD2F918AE68F61. Everything else in my OC is stock config as in Martin LO's 0.7.6 release. Unfortunately, that didn't help. I didn't try mounting the root filesystem as writable, apply terminal patches etc. as described by another user in an earlier post (here: #1,581). Do I have to do that? Did I miss anything about hybridization in OC?

Or am I looking at something more complex like this: #7 --> post is from 2019, which made me a little hesitant

Thanks in advance!

 

[fzJNotIBOxgnbqejSeVCvJScL]

Where can I find the mini PCI adapter that doesn't require soldering? Comes with the 2-pin to USB cable? That doesn't cost over $100?

 

[JedNZ]

Something like this should work.

Check out post 1288 on page 52 for some more info.

 

[GlynH]

After receiving a ticking off for posting about this problem in the iMac forum where only yesterday I resolved the same problem on my iMac I thought I'd chance my arm here.

I have searched and looked in various forums and although I see posts semi-related to my question I haven't seen one that answers this actual dilemna.

In summary I need to edit the SystemParameters.plist to change the ContinuitySupport flag from false to true in exactly the same fashion I did to my iMac only yesterday to activate full Handoff/Continuity/Watch Unlock/Instant Hotspot etc. after fitting a new BCM94360CD card from OSXWiFi

The problem with the cMP is the machine ID key reports Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94 in both the command line after typing ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}' and in Geekbench which reads the motherboard and this entry just doesn't appear in my .plist file at all although there is a similar entry of Mac-7BA5B2794B2CDB12 that matches just the first six digits.

In most every post I have read regarding the cMP I see reference to Mac-F221BEC8 which is supposed to cover most if not all of the cMP series from 1,1-5,1 which does appear in the plist on my machine.

My cMP is a genuine 2010 5,1 not a flashed 4,1->5,1 running 10.13.6 High Sierra and OpenCore which I suspect may be spoofing the machine ID key similar to what it does with the Boot ROM version.

So my question is; should I just go ahead and change the flag from false to true under the F221BEC8 entry, amend the closest entry to the one my machine reports 7BA5B2794B2CDB12 or clone an existing 7BA5B2794B2CDB12 or F221BEC8 and amend the continuitySupport flag from false to true?

I'd like to try and understand what is going on here and I don't want to brick my machine!

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[sfalatko]

After receiving a ticking off for posting about this problem in the iMac forum where only yesterday I resolved the same problem on my iMac I thought I'd chance my arm here.

I have searched and looked in various forums and although I see posts semi-related to my question I haven't seen one that answers this actual dilemna.

In summary I need to edit the SystemParameters.plist to change the ContinuitySupport flag from false to true in exactly the same fashion I did to my iMac only yesterday to activate full Handoff/Continuity/Watch Unlock/Instant Hotspot etc. after fitting a new BCM94360CD card from OSXWiFi

The problem with the cMP is the machine ID key reports Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94 in both the command line after typing ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}' and in Geekbench which reads the motherboard and this entry just doesn't appear in my .plist file at all although there is a similar entry of Mac-7BA5B2794B2CDB12 that matches just the first six digits.

In most every post I have read regarding the cMP I see reference to Mac-F221BEC8 which is supposed to cover most if not all of the cMP series from 1,1-5,1 which does appear in the plist on my machine.

My cMP is a genuine 2010 5,1 not a flashed 4,1->5,1 running 10.13.6 High Sierra and OpenCore which I suspect may be spoofing the machine ID key similar to what it does with the Boot ROM version.

So my question is; should I just go ahead and change the flag from false to true under the F221BEC8 entry, amend the closest entry to the one my machine reports 7BA5B2794B2CDB12 or clone an existing 7BA5B2794B2CDB12 or F221BEC8 and amend the continuitySupport flag from false to true?

I'd like to try and understand what is going on here and I don't want to brick my machine!

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

Follow the instructions in post 1,311 - https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-pro-2010-keep-updating.1748061/post-28010908

 

[GlynH]

Thanks for the quick reply sfalatko,

That post by crjackson2134 was one I had already seen and pasted into a text file to print & read at my leisure and keep at hand while carrying out the procedure.

However as explained above the motherboard identifier given in his post doesn’t tally with the identifier reported by my system.

Also he refers to 10.14 Mojave where I am running 10.13 High Sierra although I suspect they are close enough not to make a difference.

Still trying to determine why my reported motherboard identifier is different to that of his and other posts…

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[sfalatko]

Thanks for the quick reply sfalatko,

That post by crjackson2134 was one I had already seen and pasted into a text file to print & read at my leisure and keep at hand while carrying out the procedure.

However as explained above the motherboard identifier given in his post doesn’t tally with the identifier reported by my system.

Also he refers to 10.14 Mojave where I am running 20.13 High Sierra although I suspect they are close enough not to make a difference.

Still trying to determine why my reported motherboard identifier is different to that of his and other posts…

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

I thought you had moved to Mojave.

Initially I used the Continuity Activation Tool. I believe it works for High Sierra - take a look at the github page.

Eventually I went with manual patching for Mojave and Catalina. I have not seen a manual patch for Big Sur though using OpenCore for Big Sur and Monterey includes hybridization spoofing the cMP to appear to be a Mac Pro 7,1 so continuity works without any patching.

 

[GlynH]

Thanks for the quick reply sfalatko,

That post by carjackson was one I had already seen a pasted into a text file to print & read at my leisure.

I thought you had moved to Mojave.

Initially I used the Continuity Activation Tool. I believe it works for High Sierra - take a look at the github page.

Eventually I went with manual patching for Mojave and Catalina. I have not seen a manual patch for Big Sur though using OpenCore for Big Sur and Monterey includes hybridization spoofing the cMP to appear to be a Mac Pro 7,1 so continuity works without any patching.

Well as I mentioned above I upgraded the Airport card in my iMac only yesterday and got the same initial result where I couldn’t get it to recognise my Apple Watch for unlock - see my post here;

iMac Mid 2011 Bluetooth 4.0 internal upgrade

Have to say this had me stumped for a while. Until I saw this post. Thank you Allistah! 👍 I have the OSXWiFi/Apple Broadcom BCM94360CD - 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC + Bluetooth 4.0 in my mid-2011 iMac 27" running 10.13.6 High Sierra and although Airdrop worked none of the Continuity features such as...

forums.macrumors.com

However after a simple modification to the plist file everything was golden.

I was hoping I could do a similar thing on the cMP but as I’ve said above the machine identifier returned does not match any entry in the plist file.

I’m just trying to figure out why not and how to amend a non-existent entry as I’m convinced the resolution will be the same as the iMac!

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=

 

[sfalatko]

Thanks for the quick reply sfalatko,

That post by carjackson was one I had already seen a pasted into a text file to print & read at my leisure.


Well as I mentioned above I upgraded the Airport card in my iMac only yesterday and got the same initial result where I couldn’t get it to recognise my Apple Watch for unlock - see my post here;

iMac Mid 2011 Bluetooth 4.0 internal upgrade

Have to say this had me stumped for a while. Until I saw this post. Thank you Allistah! 👍 I have the OSXWiFi/Apple Broadcom BCM94360CD - 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC + Bluetooth 4.0 in my mid-2011 iMac 27" running 10.13.6 High Sierra and although Airdrop worked none of the Continuity features such as...

forums.macrumors.com

However after a simple modification to the plist file everything was golden.

I was hoping I could do a similar thing on the cMP but as I’ve said above the machine identifier returned does not match any entry in the plist file.

I’m just trying to figure out why not and how to amend a non-existent entry as I’m convinced the resolution will be the same as the iMac!

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=

Well your board id is for an iMac Pro. If you were running OpenCore it would be coming from an hybridization entry in your config.plist. Did you ever try OpenCore? Perhaps try a deep NVRAM reset - hold for 5 "chimes". I don't know where else it would come from. Perhaps send a note to @cdf and @tsialex and see if they would have any ideas....

 

[MacNB2]

My cMP is a genuine 2010 5,1 not a flashed 4,1->5,1 running 10.13.6 High Sierra and OpenCore which I suspect may be spoofing the machine ID key similar to what it does with the Boot ROM version.

If you are using Opencore from one of the thread on this site, then yes it is spoofing the board-id.
One of the reason for spoofing was to enable hardware acceleration to AMD GPU's for video encode/decode.

You can edit the OpenCore's config.plist and remove that board-id and the default will be the cMP's board-id.
If you are only running High Sierra, why do you use OpenCore ?

 

[GlynH]

If you are using Opencore from one of the thread on this site, then yes it is spoofing the board-id.
One of the reason for spoofing was to enable hardware acceleration to AMD GPU's for video encode/decode.

You can edit the OpenCore's config.plist and remove that board-id and the default will be the cMP's board-id.
If you are only running High Sierra, why do you use OpenCore ?

Bingo! That explains the motherboard ID issue then. Thanks for clarifying that MacNB2. ?

So...wondering whether I should ask in this thread because now I will be straying off-topic but answering your question above;

I recently bought my cMP from a Mac Reseller here in the UK and only discovered it was running OpenCore when I was looking for the Boot ROM version in System Report to find it listed as 9144.0.7.3.1 when I expected to see 144.0.0.0.0 and after some research realised that OpenCore was spoofing the ROM version. I was somewhat disappointed that it had been installed as nothing had been mentioned and I thought I was buying a 'factory' Mac Pro and not one that depended on a 3rd party utility for various functions.

Now as I have a Quadro NVS 510 and so don't need any AMD GPU acceleration and as I am running 10.13.6 High Sierra I am left wondering whether I could/should disable/remove OpenCore altogether and run my cMP as Apple designed it and I prefer it?

Not sure what effect it might have other than release the motherboard spoofing issue so I could just edit the correct entry in SystemParameters.plist and probably giving me peace of mind in the process that I now have a vanilla 5,1 Mac Pro?

I am quite happy to stay with High Sierra as it is tried & tested here as my 2011 iMac won't run 10.14 Mojave or above and I have held my other Macs at High Sierra because of this but part of me wonders whether I could still upgrade the cMP to Mojave if the idea ever took me without the help of OpenCore?

If yes then I'm happy to disable OpenCore for now...in fact I'll go further and say I might just disable it anyway if my current config will work properly without it.

In fact is there a way to temporarily disable it to test & modify the plist and then maybe re-enable it when I am done?

Dragging this post back on topic if I left things as they are with OpenCore installed how would I modify the SystemParameters.plist to change ContinuitySupport from false to true to activate the additional Continuity/Bluetooth features?

Would I just edit the Mac-F221BEC8 entry, modify the nearest entry to my motherboard ID which already exists in the plist 7BA5B2794B2CDB1 to change the ID to Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94 and set false to true or clone that existing 7BA5B2794B2CDB1 entry in full leaving the original unchanged and modify motherboard ID and ContinuitySupport in the cloned entry to suit?

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[GlynH]

OK I've posted in the OpenCore thread with regard to my OpenCore questions above but would still love to hear from anybody here who might have worked through a similar issue regarding editing SystemParameters.plink when their reported machine entry is not listed.

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[GlynH]

OK...just to follow up I did disable OpenCore and then my cMP reported its correct motherboard ID of Mac-F221BEC8 without being spoofed and so I booted into Recovery, typed csrutil disable to disable SIP, rebooted into High Sierra and ran;

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-FF221BE8C:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"

to change the SystemContinuity key from false to true which it did.

I rebooted into Recovery to enable SIP with csrutil enable and then rebooted back into High Sierra but when I tried to enable Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac unlike when I tried this on the iMac it didn't work for the Mac Pro.

I then followed up by booting back into Recovery mode to disable SIP, booting back into High Sierra and running;

sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-F221BEC8\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360

Followed by;

cd /System/Library/Extensions/

and

sudo touch .

and then reenabling SIP but all to no avail as I still can't set Apple Watch to unlock the cMP. It all seemed so easy on the iMac...

I'm very wary of running the CAT tool as it was only supported up to Sierra and don't feel confident in letting it loose but it could well be a last ditch attempt if nothing else is forthcoming.

Thanks for the help guys especially MacNB2 and sfalatko for your patience.

Ah well back to the drawing board...

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[GlynH]

Well in a desperate attempt to enable Unlock with Apple Watch I ran the CAT but as I suspected as it hasn't been supported since 2016 it seems like it won't help me.

I only ran the Diagnostic and it reported the following;

Select an option:

1) Activate Continuity 5) Disable Auto Check App
2) System Diagnostic 6) Download legacy kext
3) Uninstall 7) Quit
4) Uninstall with Recovery

#? 2

--- OS X Continuity Activation Tool 2.6b6 ---
by sysfloat
original by dokterdok

--- Initiating system compatiblity check ---

--- 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... Warning: This tool wasn't tested with OS X versions higher than 10.10. Detected OS version: 10.13.6
Verifying Wi-Fi hardware... WARNING. An unknown/untested AirPort card using the 'BrcmNIC' kext is active. This tool can't fix this.
Verifying AWDL status... OK. An AWDL interface is up, Wi-Fi is ready for Continuity
Verifying Bluetooth hardware... OK. The internal Bluetooth card is active
Verifying Bluetooth version... OK. Bluetooth 4.0 detected
Verifying Bluetooth features... OK. Bluetooth features are Continuity compliant
Verifying Bluetooth firmware... OK. Bluetooth firmware version: v150 c9317
Verifying Login Item... OK. Login item for Auto Continuity Check is not set.

--- Modifications check ---

Verifying OS kext protection... OK. Kext developer mode is not active. This tool can fix this.
Verifying SIP... NOT OK. System Integrity Protection is still enabled
Verifying ContinuitySupport... OK. Already patched.
Verifying kexts readability... OK. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth kexts were found and could be read
ATTENTION: run in sandbox
Verifying Wi-Fi whitelist status... OK. The whitelist is manually patched with your board-id as expected at the first location
Checking legacy kext... OK. Not using legacy kext.
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 Brcm4331 Wi-Fi driver is present. This tool can fix this.
Verifying legacy Wi-Fi card patch... OK. The legacy Wi-Fi patch is not present. This tool can fix this.

--- Modifications check ---

Press any key to go back to the main menu...

Maybe the BRCM entities that were listed by the previous command line;

sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-F221BEC8\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360

and the one checked by the CAT diagnostic above- Brcm4331 don't match up with the BCM94360CD Airport card I am using?

I've ground to a halt as I've run out of ideas so I'll leave not there for now unless some kind, knowledgable soul shows pity on me and figures out if there is something else I might try?

I've contacted OSXWiFi so lets see what they might come back with.

Appreciate your patience & support as always.

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[sfalatko]

Well in a desperate attempt to enable Unlock with Apple Watch I ran the CAT but as I suspected as it hasn't been supported since 2016 it seems like it won't help me.

I only ran the Diagnostic and it reported the following;

Select an option:

1) Activate Continuity 5) Disable Auto Check App
2) System Diagnostic 6) Download legacy kext
3) Uninstall 7) Quit
4) Uninstall with Recovery

#? 2

--- OS X Continuity Activation Tool 2.6b6 ---
by sysfloat
original by dokterdok

--- Initiating system compatiblity check ---

--- 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... Warning: This tool wasn't tested with OS X versions higher than 10.10. Detected OS version: 10.13.6
Verifying Wi-Fi hardware... WARNING. An unknown/untested AirPort card using the 'BrcmNIC' kext is active. This tool can't fix this.
Verifying AWDL status... OK. An AWDL interface is up, Wi-Fi is ready for Continuity
Verifying Bluetooth hardware... OK. The internal Bluetooth card is active
Verifying Bluetooth version... OK. Bluetooth 4.0 detected
Verifying Bluetooth features... OK. Bluetooth features are Continuity compliant
Verifying Bluetooth firmware... OK. Bluetooth firmware version: v150 c9317
Verifying Login Item... OK. Login item for Auto Continuity Check is not set.

--- Modifications check ---

Verifying OS kext protection... OK. Kext developer mode is not active. This tool can fix this.
Verifying SIP... NOT OK. System Integrity Protection is still enabled
Verifying ContinuitySupport... OK. Already patched.
Verifying kexts readability... OK. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth kexts were found and could be read
ATTENTION: run in sandbox
Verifying Wi-Fi whitelist status... OK. The whitelist is manually patched with your board-id as expected at the first location
Checking legacy kext... OK. Not using legacy kext.
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 Brcm4331 Wi-Fi driver is present. This tool can fix this.
Verifying legacy Wi-Fi card patch... OK. The legacy Wi-Fi patch is not present. This tool can fix this.

--- Modifications check ---

Press any key to go back to the main menu...

Maybe the BRCM entities that were listed by the previous command line;

sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-F221BEC8\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360

and the one checked by the CAT diagnostic above- Brcm4331 don't match up with the BCM94360CD Airport card I am using?

I've ground to a halt as I've run out of ideas so I'll leave not there for now unless some kind, knowledgable soul shows pity on me and figures out if there is something else I might try?

I've contacted OSXWiFi so lets see what they might come back with.

Appreciate your patience & support as always.

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

Glyn,

A couple of items - take a look at the beta version of CAT - https://github.com/dokterdok/Continuity-Activation-Tool/tree/beta. Also search through the issues. There are several where CAT was successful on High Sierra. See this one for example -

[SOLVED] CAT working on 10.3.3 · Issue #432 · dokterdok/Continuity-Activation-Tool

I have successfully got CAT to work on macOS High Sierra. I am using a MacBook Pro 15' Late 2011, with the upgraded CAX card, from the 2012 model. It should be noted that it was a fresh install...

github.com

 

[GlynH]

Glyn,

A couple of items - take a look at the beta version of CAT - https://github.com/dokterdok/Continuity-Activation-Tool/tree/beta. Also search through the issues. There are several where CAT was successful on High Sierra. See this one for example -

[SOLVED] CAT working on 10.3.3 · Issue #432 · dokterdok/Continuity-Activation-Tool

I have successfully got CAT to work on macOS High Sierra. I am using a MacBook Pro 15' Late 2011, with the upgraded CAX card, from the 2012 model. It should be noted that it was a fresh install...

github.com

Hi sfalatko,

The download I took from Github was the Beta version - first few lines from the `Readme mention High Sierra;

Continuity Activation Tool
==========================

This tool makes the necessary changes on macOS 10.10-10.13 to enable Continuity features on compatible hardware. Continuity features activated by this tool include Handoff, Instant Hotspot, and New Airdrop.

## News
2017-10-06: **macOS High Sierra** First beta released for macOS High Sierra (10.13)!

2016-06-13: **macOS Sierra** CAT should work fine on macOS Sierra!

I did see those comments on Github which gave me a false sense of promise but when I received a reply back from OSXWiFi they said do NOT run CAT but then listed the very first thing I tried which was modifying the SystemParameters.plist file SystemContinuity from false to true.

I'm not sure what the other recommendation actually does from the post you referenced but I ran that also;

sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-F221BEC8\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360

Next thing to try according to OSXWiFi is to log out of iCloud on all devices and log back in again although I might just try to on the cMP and iPhone as the two most important for Apple Watch Unlock to begin with and see if that does anything.

Ah well not to worry...its a 1st World problem anyway and to cheer me up I've got a K5000 Mac Edition coming to replace my NVS 510 to ease the pain!

Thanks for the suggestions sfalatko.

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=

 

[sfalatko]

Hi sfalatko,

The download I took from Github was the Beta version - first few lines from the `Readme mention High Sierra;

Continuity Activation Tool
==========================

This tool makes the necessary changes on macOS 10.10-10.13 to enable Continuity features on compatible hardware. Continuity features activated by this tool include Handoff, Instant Hotspot, and New Airdrop.

## News
2017-10-06: **macOS High Sierra** First beta released for macOS High Sierra (10.13)!

2016-06-13: **macOS Sierra** CAT should work fine on macOS Sierra!

I did see those comments on Github which gave me a false sense of promise but when I received a reply back from OSXWiFi they said do NOT run CAT but then listed the very first thing I tried which was modifying the SystemParameters.plist file SystemContinuity from false to true.

I'm not sure what the other recommendation actually does from the post you referenced but I ran that also;

sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-F221BEC8\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360

Next thing to try according to OSXWiFi is to log out of iCloud on all devices and log back in again although I might just try to on the cMP and iPhone as the two most important for Apple Watch Unlock to begin with and see if that does anything.

Ah well not to worry...its a 1st World problem anyway and to cheer me up I've got a K5000 Mac Edition coming to replace my NVS 510 to ease the pain!

Thanks for the suggestions sfalatko.

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=

Definitely try to log out and in to iCloud - that is sometimes required.

The command you referenced is to replace a board id in the Airport kext with the board id of the Mac Pro so that it appears to be supported to macOS. The plist mod is not enough to enable continuity/handoff as macOS only supports whitelisted models (hence substituting the board id to make the Mac Pro appear supported.

Good luck and I hope you get it working. Watch unlock is definitely nice but yes a first world problem.

 

[GlynH]

Well I never did get Apple Watch Unlock working so I decided to do a clean install of High Sierra on a fresh Samsung 970 EVO Plus from scratch earlier today. No Opencore or any kext trickery...just a virgin install using the Install macOS High Sierra downloaded from Apple and run from my Applications folder.

Long story short although the install went well Apple Watch Unlock doesn't work on there either!

I can see everything is supported in System Report Bluetooth & WiFi and ContinuitySupport is set to true against the F221BEC8 entry in SystemParameters.plist but unlike the other High Sierra install on a separate blade I don't even see the option under Security & Privacy/General to Unlock with Apple Watch.

I did disable SIP, reboot, ran the sudo -E perl kext command line, rebooted and reenabled SIP, rebooted, toggled Continuity off & on a few times but the Watch Unlock option does not appear at all.

I even tried waving my iPhone around right next to the Mac Pro just incase the BT or WiFi signal is not strong enough as I am using the standard Mac Pro antennas and I read that they do tend to be a bit weak sometimes with the BCM94360CD although the Magic Keyboard/Trackpad combo works OK from where it is on the top of the desk.

I am connected to the same Wi-Fi network, I can see this Mac Pro in Find My on the iPhone and I can Airdrop from iPhone to Mac Pro but no other Continuity & handoff features are available despite the option being checked under System Preferences/GeneralAllow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.

As a last measure I might try updating High Sierra to Mojave just to see if that process might kickstart something into life.

Definitely not as easy as activating it on the iMac...

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[GlynH]

Just thinking out loud here but maybe I should reset the PRAM/NVRAM to see if that might help but I see various methods for doing this.

Apple say hold the Option+Command+P+R for 20 seconds while turning it on until after the second startup sound,

I have also seen that you should do this for 3, 4 or even 5 chimes...they both can't be right!

Also I have seen a few horror stories where the cMP will not boot afterwards or strange things happen to NVIDIA graphics cards so I have been reluctant to try this lest I be one of the unfortunate few.

I used to run OpenCore on my machine but have since disabled it by changing the RequestBootVarRouting entry from true to false in the config.plist on the one blade that had it installed on its EFI partition and done a virgin install on a brand new, freshly erased blade but as can be seen from my previous posts I still can't get Continuity & Apple Watch unlock working.

Figured the PRAM (or NVRAM - which is it actually?) reset might clear some OC leftovers and might be worth a shot...what do you think?

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[Steve_Jones]

I had a similar issue where enabling the watch unlock feature would fail. Ended up having to log out of iCloud and log back in before it would work.

 

[JedNZ]

With so many Photos in my photos library (~400GB), and not wanting it to reindex/resync them with iCloud when I switch iCloud off then back on again (takes a day and a half to resync my Photos library on my Mac Pro), I followed someone else’s advice and turned iCloud off on my iPhone and unpaired my Apple Watch, restarted my iPhone then logged back into iCloud on it again then paired my Apple Watch again and that sorted unlock using my Apple Watch. YMMV though, but it’s worked a couple of times for me over the years.

 

[GlynH]

Interesting you guys should mention the signing into and out of iCloud.

TBH I've always bottled out at the last hurdle when asked 'Do you want to keep a copy of your iCloud data on this Mac before signing out? If you don't keep a copy, your data will be removed from this Mac, including documents on your Desktop and in your Documents folder.' simply because I figure it would be better to allow iCloud data to be removed but with 50k photos, 5k videos, 7.5k Notes, Desktops shared across 6 Macs and all the other stuff I would hate for something to go wrong not to mention the sync time afterwards.

If it was guaranteed to work then maybe I would go for it but I didn't need to do this to enable Watch Unlock on my iMac.

Having said that I might have no alternative but to give it a try...

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-