Hand Off and Continuity Setup

[Armen]

I searched the Internet for hours trying to figure out how to get Hand off and Continuity and phone calls to work. I thought I'd put all that stuff in one place and hopefully save someone the trouble of trying to collect this information themselves.

Initial Steps:

-On your Mac go to About this Mac > System Report. Under the Bluetooth Category your LMP version needs to be 0x6.. Anything lower And the hand off feature will not work. I have heard phone call do however.

-On Your Mac: Go to system preferences > General > and click the "allow handoff" box at the bottom.

-On your iDevice Go to settings > general > and enable hand off.

-On your Mac open FaceTime and go to preferences. Check the "allow iPhone calls" box.

Next few steps:

- Make sure Bluetooth and Wifi are turned on for both devices.
- Make sure you are logged in to the same iCloud account on both devices.
- Make sure that your FaceTime is also logged in to the same account (this is needed for the phone calls feature to work).
- Make sure you are on the same Wifi network. Especially if you have a dual band Router. Both devices need to be on the same band to work. Don't connect to 2.4ghz on on device and 5ghz on the other.

How to verify Hand off actually works or not:

- If you open a web page in Safari on your iDevice you should get a bouncing icon on your Mac computer dock that shows up on the left end of the dock (it will kind of look out of place).

- If you open a web page on your Mac with Safari the lock screen of your iDevice should show an icon opposite the camera icon. Swipe up to open it.

Making phone calls

Open the contacts app on your Mac IF you click the phone icon it should say calling using iPhone.

Hope this helps.

P.S. you do NOT need to pair your devices.

Forgot to add if Safari is in private mode it doesn't hand off.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I was going to install iOS8 on my iPhone 5 in hopes of pairing with my MBP late 2011. After reading your informative post, I see that that would have been a waste of time. My MBP doesn't have the right LMP. Thank you for the post.

 

[0970373]

Very helpful! I could not figure out how to get the phone calls to work now I'm all set so thanks!

 

[lehman310]

I can get phone calls to work but I cannot get safari, messages and other handoff features to work. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[Patriot24]

It appears that Handoff has been hidden/disabled in DP4.

Edit: I saw the toggle in previous builds, but do not see it in Settings > General now. I'm on a mid-2011 MBA with the requisite LMP. Not sure why it isn't showing the option?

 

[mikecwest]

Thanks for the tips.....You have me one step closer... I checked the box in FaceTime, and I try to make a call, it will say "using iPhone", however it never actually does it. The iPhone does not seem to even try.

The iPhone is not actually activated right now, (cracked screen, wife's old phone, I use it as a camera only) I would think that it would at least show the iPhone trying to dial.

I also do not hear anything out of the mac speakers....

 

[jameslmoser]

I haven't looked at any of this as I haven't installed either the Yosemite DP or iOS 8 DPs, but I can't believe the number of posts on people trying to get this to work. Its pretty obvious that apple needs to make it clear what devices support what and how you use them if your device supports them.

 

[lehman310]

I haven't looked at any of this as I haven't installed either the Yosemite DP or iOS 8 DPs, but I can't believe the number of posts on people trying to get this to work. Its pretty obvious that apple needs to make it clear what devices support what and how you use them if your device supports them.

Yeah, there is no real help for setup besides a simple check box on both iOS and OS X. They need to implement some sort of setup process.

 

[petvas]

Yeah, there is no real help for setup besides a simple check box on both iOS and OS X. They need to implement some sort of setup process.

No, they don't. The should (and will) make it totally transparent for everyone to use, with no setup.

 

[Armen]

It appears that Handoff has been hidden/disabled in DP4.

Edit: I saw the toggle in previous builds, but do not see it in Settings > General now. I'm on a mid-2011 MBA with the requisite LMP. Not sure why it isn't showing the option?

That's strange because the toggle is there for me on DP4 with a Mid 2013 MBP. Have you tried restarting your Mac?

 

[Patriot24]

That's strange because the toggle is there for me on DP4 with a Mid 2013 MBP. Have you tried restarting your Mac?

Yep, I restarted several times (Yosemite is booting from an external drive).

 

[DarkCole]

I thought I read somewhere that SMS wasn't suppose to work with iMessage yet? Well in the public build a text message that was sent to my phone shot to my iMessage on my Mac. I was unable to to reply though.

MBPr and 4S

 

[tooshaggy]

In the seed notes for DP4 the SMS messaging is disabled. It worked for the previous builds but is broken for this build.
The handoff toggle is still in System Prefs> General, near the bottom.

 

[0970373]

It appears that Handoff has been hidden/disabled in DP4.

Edit: I saw the toggle in previous builds, but do not see it in Settings > General now. I'm on a mid-2011 MBA with the requisite LMP. Not sure why it isn't showing the option?

They removed it in DP3 for the mid-2011 MBA, which I also have.

 

[Patriot24]

They removed it in DP3 for the mid-2011 MBA, which I also have.

Thanks for the confirmation. We'll see what happens in future builds. I'm not all that concerned at this point.

 

[Serban]

I have both iphone and ipad connected to 2.4 ghz and the macs because they have wifi ac i have them connected to 5ghz to my time capsule and hand off works phone calls sms etc

 

[Donfor39]

Ive never been able to get bluetooth working via iPhone os7 +mcbpro -mavericks/now Yosemite beta

Why doesn't my phone pair with macbook when the pairing code is confirmed it says connected for 2-3 secs then disconnected

 

[DarkCole]

I can somewhat get the calling to work on my mac. I can hear the other person but they can't hear me.

Edit: I'm stupid thought I had bluetooth on but I didn't

Thanks to the OP for this guide

 

[langscinema]

I have both iphone and ipad connected to 2.4 ghz and the macs because they have wifi ac i have them connected to 5ghz to my time capsule and hand off works phone calls sms etc

when you say handoff, sms, etc work........do you mean on every one of your devices or just certain devices

 

[0970373]

In the seed notes for DP4 the SMS messaging is disabled. It worked for the previous builds but is broken for this build.
The handoff toggle is still in System Prefs> General, near the bottom.

Yeah, I lost SMS when I upgraded to DP4. Calls still work though.

 

[Serban]

when you say handoff, sms, etc work........do you mean on every one of your devices or just certain devices

everyone

 

[langscinema]

everyone

jealous!!!......havent been able to get handoff working since DP1, think it may be a lack of wifi ac issue with my MBA mid 2011

 

[menano]

Is there any feature of this at all that somehow doesn't require iOS8? Because I got the public os x beta and don't have access to iOS8 as a non-dev

 

[proshots4you]

There may be some features that work but continuity and handoff defintely will not

 

[menano]

There may be some features that work but continuity and handoff defintely will not

Yeah thanks, I meant features within continuity, like calls or sms. It would be possible to make it available since the account is already connected to the phone but apparently not. Thanks gain!