Continuity Activation Tool CAT working on 10.12 Sierra

[fischersd]

Thanks for the reply @fischersd

I went ahead and rebuilt my Mac Pro - realising since I've been doing upgrades since Mavericks I thought it would be best to do a proper clean build for Sierra (2nd time round).
After the clean build and CAT 2.4beta, continuity worked nicely, so my OS was probably to blame here.
I ran through your advice of a force CAT patch via terminal and now everything comes up as OK which is great.
Though Apple Watch auto-unlock still failed to unlock (even with the option selected)

If only Apple wouldn't just discount users with older Macs that are still powerful enough to work with today's OS's and apps.

If you have the option to unlock via apple watch available on the General tab of Security & Privacy settings, then you are SO very close. You never know, maybe the gold build of Sierra we get in a couple of days will have some extra fixes for this and make it much more stable to get it working (fingers crossed)

 

[bbb555]

If you have the option to unlock via apple watch available on the General tab of Security & Privacy settings, then you are SO very close. You never know, maybe the gold build of Sierra we get in a couple of days will have some extra fixes for this and make it much more stable to get it working (fingers crossed)

it feels like I'm getting there, inch by inch - keeping this MacPro 4,1 alive and well
a new issue I encountered today is FaceTime video with my isight won't work - FaceTime audio does. Though other apps using my isight such as Photo Booth, Skype, Lync work fine - some more troubleshooting to be had. always something

I agree, fingers crossed the gold build resolves these issues.

 

[fischersd]

it feels like I'm getting there, inch by inch - keeping this MacPro 4,1 alive and well
a new issue I encountered today is FaceTime video with my isight won't work - FaceTime audio does. Though other apps using my isight such as Photo Booth, Skype, Lync work fine - some more troubleshooting to be had. always something

I agree, fingers crossed the gold build resolves these issues.

They DID change the FaceTime protocol in iOS 10 / MacOS Sierra. (remember reading that in one of the beta build release notes) Hopefully you're testing that with an up to date system.

 

[bbb555]

They DID change the FaceTime protocol in iOS 10 / MacOS Sierra. (remember reading that in one of the beta build release notes) Hopefully you're testing that with an up to date system.

the clean install is 16A323 build.
hoping there is a fix for the isight (firewire) and facetime video as i use it a fair bit

 

[fischersd]

the clean install is 16A323 build.
hoping there is a fix for the isight (firewire) and facetime video as i use it a fair bit

Actually, I meant I hope that you're doing FaceTime with an up to date system on the other end. (ie. either iOS 10 or Sierra - so both sides have the same version of the FaceTime protocol).

I really hope they put out delta updates via the App Store for everyone that installed the GM's (319, 320, 322 or 323), having to download the full installer yet again to ensure you have the most up to date code is a PITA.

 

[bbb555]

@fischersd

it's actually FaceTime on my Mac Pro once open does not activate the video on my external firewire isight camera.
the isight works fine with FaceTime audio only.
though video conferencing works for Skype & Lync and photo booth can use it to take pics.
just FaceTime Video won't work.
I submitted a feedback case to Apple. not sure if anyone else has this same issue or not.
I've started a new post to see if anyone else has encountered this issue.

 

[haralds]

I just tried signing out and in on with iCloud (again) on MBP and iPhone 6, and still no handoff. The handoff option in General Preferences is checked, and everything in "About this Mac" looks correct, as far as I can remember. Don't know what is going on.

In the CAT tool to check "System Diagnostics," everything reads "OK" except the following... Can't remember if it was that way in El Capitan or not.
[doublepost=1465935273][/doublepost]I got Handoff working. I went back and looked over the thread I had started last year for El Capitan. Last time we had problems, cloudpaird was not running. I checked Activity Monitor a little while ago, and sure enough, there was no cloudpaird activity. I followed the steps again per this post from the thread and Handoff is working again.

@sysfloat - If there is anyway CAT can be updated so we don't have to do the manual fix, it would be much appreciated. Without your work last time, we wouldn't have still been kicking around.

Same here. My Mid 2011 Air used to work with an earlier beta, but the last two seed clobbered the actual function. The option is visible, but no handoff. Airdrop works fine - better than ever.

 

[netkas]

The tools is not working with MacPro3,1 on Sierra (as well as ElCap) because
Mac-F42C88C8 entry is missing in /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist

Before setting ContinuitySupport to true a dict for Mac-F42C88C8 has to be created first.

 

[sqvarepants]

Only working airdrop on iMac 2011 Bluetooth card updated, cat report says everything it's okay. But I can't make it works.

In betas and gm working perfect, now I make a 0 install and no way.

 

[TomH TX]

I am very pleased to report that I just successfully ran continuity 2.4b2 in Sierra. Continuity and handoff DO appear to be working. Thank you so much to all who have helped on this. Tom

 

[sqvarepants]

I am very pleased to report that I just successfully ran continuity 2.4b2 in Sierra. Continuity and handoff DO appear to be working. Thank you so much to all who have helped on this. Tom

Where do you get 2.4? When I download CAT in beta branch it's always 2.3

 

[TomH TX]

Where do you get 2.4? When I download CAT in beta branch it's always 2.3

You have to make sure you are on the BETA page, not the master. Two separate downloads. Here: https://github.com/dokterdok/Continuity-Activation-Tool/tree/beta
Hope you get it working.
Tom

 

[Cordes]

I have Continuity features working on my upgraded (BT/WIFI card) 2011 iMac on Sierra, including the new copy/paste. I don't have a Watch so can't touch on that. I ended up loading Sierra on two different drives to test and play with Continuity Activation Tool, and I was able to get Continuity to work with Sierra using both Beta and Master versions.

I tried different things within the tools including running (2) System Diagnostic, which would tell me that everything was ok and Continuity was already activated. But if I then ran (1) Activate Continuity, it would tell me that it was already active but that it was making changes to correct something... I forget exactly what it said.

But anyway, Continuity still wouldn't work, so I'd try logging out and in iCloud on my iMac and my iPhone, but still no change.

The thing that seemed to trigger it to start working on this machine, for both Beta and Master, was to make a phone call to my iPhone from a different phone. The call would pop up on my iMac and I'd answer it on my iMac. Then, the other Continuity features all seemed to start working. They continue to work after a re-start, too. So far...

 

[Daze513]

@fischersd

it's actually FaceTime on my Mac Pro once open does not activate the video on my external firewire isight camera.
the isight works fine with FaceTime audio only.
though video conferencing works for Skype & Lync and photo booth can use it to take pics.
just FaceTime Video won't work.
I submitted a feedback case to Apple. not sure if anyone else has this same issue or not.
I've started a new post to see if anyone else has encountered this issue.

Same issue here! Mac Pro 4,1>5,1

Unlock with Watch works, continuity, everything. Only thing missing is my damn iSight.

 

[mat77_mac]

in el captain i use cloudpaird 10.10.5 for handoff and continuity if the same on sierra?

 

[sfalatko]

The tools is not working with MacPro3,1 on Sierra (as well as ElCap) because
Mac-F42C88C8 entry is missing in /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist

Before setting ContinuitySupport to true a dict for Mac-F42C88C8 has to be created first.

I have a MacPro5,1 on Sierra with a upgraded Apple BT/WiFi card that won't support continuity though everything in System Report is fine - Bluetooth reports "Yes" for BTLE, Handoff, and Instant HS; WiFi reports "Supported" for AirDrop and Auto Unlock. System Preferences "General" has the checkbox for Allow Handoff ... Running CAT diagnostics shows "OS X reports Continuity as active". When I run a version of cloudpaird from El Capitan it does report "DEBUG cloudpaird: system does not support Continuity"

The only "issue" I see is that my board ID - Mac-F221BEC8 in IOBluetooth.framework shows "No" for "ContinuitySupport". Am I correct in thinking this is all I need to patch - change it to "Yes"? And does patching this require that I remove SIP? If so, can I restore SIP after patching or does it have to remain off? Or am I missing something else?

Regards

 

[mat77_mac]

i have iMac 2011 i have installed new airport and bluethoot 4 in el captain i have install cloudpaird 10.10.5 and handoff and continuity work perfectly in sierre is the same?

 

[fischersd]

I have a MacPro5,1 on Sierra with a upgraded Apple BT/WiFi card that won't support continuity though everything in System Report is fine - Bluetooth reports "Yes" for BTLE, Handoff, and Instant HS; WiFi reports "Supported" for AirDrop and Auto Unlock. System Preferences "General" has the checkbox for Allow Handoff ... Running CAT diagnostics shows "OS X reports Continuity as active". When I run a version of cloudpaird from El Capitan it does report "DEBUG cloudpaird: system does not support Continuity"

The only "issue" I see is that my board ID - Mac-F221BEC8 in IOBluetooth.framework shows "No" for "ContinuitySupport". Am I correct in thinking this is all I need to patch - change it to "Yes"? And does patching this require that I remove SIP? If so, can I restore SIP after patching or does it have to remain off? Or am I missing something else?

Regards

I have a similar setup in that my MBP 17" 4,1 has a replacement BT/WIFI. The two bits I needed to change for everything to work were the IOBluetooth.framework and whitelisting in the IO80211Family.kext for my board ID.
(CAT also says they were whitelisting in IOBluetoothfamily.kext, but I haven't been able to find where they were doing that).
You have to disable SIP to do the edits. Pretty sure you can re-enable SIP once you've completed them.
Not sure if you need the specifics, but I'll put them here in case others do.
For the SystemParameters.plist, you need to copy it somewhere else (make a backup of the original) - if you look at the file, you'll see the sections for the systems that DO support Continuity don't even have a "ContinuitySupport" section - so, just delete those bits for your card.
e.g.
<key>Mac-F221BEC8</key>
<dict>
<key>ContinuitySupport</key>
<false/>
<key>DID ProductCode</key>
<integer>18954</integer>
</dict>
becomes:
<key>Mac-F221BEC8</key>
<dict>
<key>DID ProductCode</key>
<integer>18954</integer>
</dict>
You need to be navigated to the path
(/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources)
in terminal as well - so you can fix the ownership and permissions on the file:
sudo chown root:wheel SystemParameters.plist
sudo chmod 644 SystemParameters.plist

Presuming you have a Broadcom card for this next bit.
For the IO80211Family.kext, the whitelisting is in the /Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360 module. That's the file you need to hex edit and look for mac- (board ID's) and change one of the existing values in each section to your board ID (zero filled with 0's to the right - so it would look like Mac-F221BEC800000000
There's actually two sections that your board-id must be in.
Once you search all the way down to "mac-phi-state", you're done. Save it.
(again, make a backup of the original, copy the IO80211Family.kext to your desktop, do the edits there and copy it back to S/L/E) - again, you need to be in terminal to repair the permissions to the file, then rebuild your kext cache (or use kext utility to do this work for you)
sudo chmod 755 IO80211Family.kext
sudo chown root:wheel IO80211Family.kext
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
sudo kextcache -system-caches

Then reboot.

You can then re-enable sip, after the reboot (I'd make sure everything's working the way you want first)

 

[sfalatko]

I have a similar setup in that my MBP 17" 4,1 has a replacement BT/WIFI. The two bits I needed to change for everything to work were the IOBluetooth.framework and whitelisting in the IO80211Family.kext for my board ID.
(CAT also says they were whitelisting in IOBluetoothfamily.kext, but I haven't been able to find where they were doing that).
You have to disable SIP to do the edits. Pretty sure you can re-enable SIP once you've completed them.
Not sure if you need the specifics, but I'll put them here in case others do.
For the SystemParameters.plist, you need to copy it somewhere else (make a backup of the original) - if you look at the file, you'll see the sections for the systems that DO support Continuity don't even have a "ContinuitySupport" section - so, just delete those bits for your card.
e.g.
<key>Mac-F221BEC8</key>
<dict>
<key>ContinuitySupport</key>
<false/>
<key>DID ProductCode</key>
<integer>18954</integer>
</dict>
becomes:
<key>Mac-F221BEC8</key>
<dict>
<key>DID ProductCode</key>
<integer>18954</integer>
</dict>
You need to be navigated to the path
(/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources)
in terminal as well - so you can fix the ownership and permissions on the file:
sudo chown root:wheel SystemParameters.plist
sudo chmod 644 SystemParameters.plist

Presuming you have a Broadcom card for this next bit.
For the IO80211Family.kext, the whitelisting is in the /Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360 module. That's the file you need to hex edit and look for mac- (board ID's) and change one of the existing values in each section to your board ID (zero filled with 0's to the right - so it would look like Mac-F221BEC800000000
There's actually two sections that your board-id must be in.
Once you search all the way down to "mac-phi-state", you're done. Save it.
(again, make a backup of the original, copy the IO80211Family.kext to your desktop, do the edits there and copy it back to S/L/E) - again, you need to be in terminal to repair the permissions to the file, then rebuild your kext cache (or use kext utility to do this work for you)
sudo chmod 755 IO80211Family.kext
sudo chown root:wheel IO80211Family.kext
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
sudo kextcache -system-caches

Then reboot.

You can then re-enable sip, after the reboot (I'd make sure everything's working the way you want first)

Thank you for the details. I had figured out the first part - IOBluetooth.framework and made the modification. After a bit of looking again at the system report in CAT I realized that the wifi whitelist was probably my problem. I took the route of running CAT to make the mods and have it all working. I'll save your notes - the next time I update macOS and need to redo it to make continuity work again I'll most likely use your manual method as I see it as a minimalist way to go.

Regards.

 

[slvrscoobie]

I have a similar setup in that my MBP 17" 4,1 has a replacement BT/WIFI. The two bits I needed to change for everything to work were the IOBluetooth.framework and whitelisting in the IO80211Family.kext for my board ID.

When you say Everything - do you mean Apple Watch Unlock too???

PS: Anyone try the 10.12.1 beta yet?

 

[fischersd]

When you say Everything - do you mean Apple Watch Unlock too???

PS: Anyone try the 10.12.1 beta yet?

Yep, it's working (again). I did another fresh install and just used the CAT shell script to force it to do its patching. Rebooted, enabled the unlocking with apple watch and boom, it's working.

Still no luck with my 2012 mini though (which has the same chipset as you do). We would need to either replace the existing wifi cards with newer Broadcom chipsets that support the 802.11v feature (time of flight) or use USB dongles. (not a fan of the wireless utility that the realtek/mediatek usb dongles use)
Internal replacement would be a better option. (not sure it's worth it for my mini though - even if I get it working, it's farther away from my coffee table...not sure I could tweak it enough to get the range up to 10 feet)

 

[fischersd]

When you say Everything - do you mean Apple Watch Unlock too???

Hey Scoob, I was just messaging the folks at QuickerTek (as the UCard is out of stock, was wondering if they were coming out with a replacement). Both your MBP and my 2012 mini are currently using the same card.
It turns out that they ARE coming out with a new revision. I suggested that a lower price would be a lot more palatable for the new card (as $149US for a network card these days is a bit high)
They're testing the first run of the cards. They'll message me when they're coming available.

I'll let you know once I get an update. (Kane's MacID may be a much cheaper fit if he gets it working natively with the watch, rather than using the Watch as only an iPhone accessory).

 

[slvrscoobie]

Nice!!! Thanks. I'll need 2 really, I use my work MBP 13" from mid 2012 which just misses the Apple unlock, but I unlock that a lot more frequently

 

[mikecwest]

Regarding the beta version, 2. Each time I download it, I still get 2.3.

It works for me, but I would still like to keep it updated to the latest version.

 

[TomH TX]

Regarding the beta version, 2. Each time I download it, I still get 2.3.

It works for me, but I would still like to keep it updated to the latest version.

Make sure you are downloading from the BETA branch of the GitHub tree. Here you go.
https://github.com/dokterdok/Continuity-Activation-Tool/tree/beta
Tom