Hand Off and Continuity Setup

[healeydave]

Wow, frustrating.

Huge Apple fan but I'm going to be mighty disappointed if my top end iMac (Mid 2011) of only 3 years costing over $2,500 won't work with this new handoff feature!

Tried everything, not a dicky bird.

Checked the stats, it has Apple Bluetooth Software Version: 4.3.0f2 14775 but low power is not supported apparently.

All iCloud settings are logged in with same ID, yet trying to get one damn handoff icon to show up between this high end iMac and the latest iPad Air seems impossible. Not asking too much to have kit this new supported is it?
:-(

By the way, iMac is on Yosemite 10.10 (14A361c), updated yesterday, Sept 15th and the iPad Air is on iOS8.0 GM.

P.S.
Oh, I couldn't try the last tip regarding checking the "Everyone" setting in Airdrop. I can find that setting no trouble at all on the iPad but I've scoured Finder and OS X Help and I can't find anywhere where you can change any settings at all for Airdrop on the Mac ?!?!??!
I can use it and send a file from one iMac to another but I can't find the Airdrop "Everyone" settings on the Airdrop screen in Finder, nor in any pull. down menu in Finder or in Preferences in Finder !?!?!

 

[vagelisalexiou]

Messages status

Handoff didnt work (iOS 8 GM - Yosemite DP 7) until i activated my online status in messages.

 

[healeydave]

Okay after wasting a few hours, I've come to the conclusion that my expensive barely 3 year old iMac is not supported for Handoff due to a poxy $20 Bluetooth LE card.

So annoying, I always buy the latest iDevices, I just sold my iPhone 5S because of my iPhone 6+ pre-order due in Friday. I have an iPad Air which should be good to go, but when I spend circa $2,500 on the top end iMac with SSD etc just over 2 years ago, I can't afford to keep doing that every 1 or 2 years and we shouldn't have to!!

Probably the most annoying Apple move I can think off since they stopped me using my iMac as a display port too (despite my older cheaper iMac still allowing that functionality).

I just ordered a BCM94360CD card to see if I can retrofit it to the mid 2011 iMac as I know this has been hacked into an older 2007 iMac successfully to enable Handoff.

On the plus side, using my iMac for making and receiving calls through the iPhone works fine, damn clear too, so why I am limited from being able to use handoff for apps just because of Bluetooth hardware is beyond me??
Maybe Apple will make all features of continuity available through better technologies like WiFi by the time they release 10.10 to the public, who knows!?




 

[bedney]

I'm running MBA mid 2013 model with iPhone 5s I have everything working except phone calls. I get a notification when a call comes in on my mac but when I try and answer it I get a phone call failed message on the iPhone. When I try and make a call from my mac it tries to call out but I get the same message on the mac. Any ideas?

thanks

 

[SuperMatt]

I just got iOS 8 on my iPhone. I'm trying to use continuity with my Mac on Yosemite public beta 3... no luck so far.

FYI I have the black cylindrical Mac Pro and the iPhone is a 5 64GB.

 

[DarkoDonnie]

fsadfasdfasdf

 

[827538]

I just got iOS 8 on my iPhone. I'm trying to use continuity with my Mac on Yosemite public beta 3... no luck so far.

FYI I have the black cylindrical Mac Pro and the iPhone is a 5 64GB.

I also have the PB3 on a Haswell Retina Macbook Pro and am running the newly released iOS 8 on an iPhone 5S.

Both on the same WiFi network with Bluetooth turned on and are sitting right next to each other. Followed the guide at the start of this thread and everything is checked and enabled. Yet no dice.

Could anyone offer any help or has Apple decided to to let us play with these features yet?

 

[dBeats]

There is a key point in the original post that I missed a few times.

"Make sure your Mac and the iDevice are on the same WI-FI network."

Since my MBP is "docked" to my ethernet at my desk (but I keep wifi always on), I had to pull the ethernet out and have the Mac connected only via wifi, then both the iPad and iPhone continuity/handoff worked. I was able to reconnect the Ethernet while keeping wifi active and have it continue to work, but get my Gig-E connection for other things. Still, they didn't see each other until the Mac was first unplugged from ethernet and forced to use wifi. I usually plug in my Thunderbolt docking station before I wake the MBP, so if you do this try waking first on wifi.

This is with iOS8 GM and 10.10 PB3.

 

[snarfquest]

-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.

Must be more to it then that.

My "interesting" screenshots in attachments.

I bought this MacPro Mid 2012 at the very VERY VERY end of when they were actively being sold. It's an Apple Custom config and from what I gather from conversations with my sales rep when I was buying it, mine is one of the very last produced. I waited ... a while... at the time for it to be built and shipped. Tracing the tracking number it was shipped from the factory in China. What is most interesting is my bluetooth reports as 0x6. This is the factory card, I haven't touched it.... Yet I don't have handoff. Curious.

Now to find a hack specific to me to get this to work

 

[snarfquest]

Additional info....

I can start a call on my MacPro. I can hear the call on the MP speakers. It however won't use the MIC in my Apple Cinema Display. If I pick up my iphone the call continues and works..


Accepting calls on my MacPro works fine however!

 

[LouieSf]

.

 

[iPhil]

The "handoff" section in Mac System Preference isn't there in PB3 of Yosemite..

The rest of it is all good ...

 

[dtidmore@msn.co]

Its alive!!!

Well after this mornings release of iOS8, I upgraded my iP5s and iPad. I had fallen back to my Mavericks clone as I wanted to make backups before I upgraded and I don't have the greatest faith in iTunes 12 at the moment. The upgrades went well. I then swapped back to my Yosemite DP8 environment and as expected, NO continuity features worked with the exception of the phone feature. I then remembered that when I gave up a few days ago, I had returned my iCloud login back to my .me account. I change that along with the settings in FaceTime and verified Airdrop and BINGO! application handoff started working perfectly. Can't say that I am really happy with NO iOS indication except from the lock screen however.

That said, I still can't get zero config tethering to work. Sometimes it shows up in my WiFi list, others it does not and even when it shows (above all the others in a section of its own), when I click it, it winds up failing.

Still I am a happy camper at the moment.

 

[wolfpackfan]

P.S.
Oh, I couldn't try the last tip regarding checking the "Everyone" setting in Airdrop. I can find that setting no trouble at all on the iPad but I've scoured Finder and OS X Help and I can't find anywhere where you can change any settings at all for Airdrop on the Mac ?!?!??!
I can use it and send a file from one iMac to another but I can't find the Airdrop "Everyone" settings on the Airdrop screen in Finder, nor in any pull. down menu in Finder or in Preferences in Finder !?!?!

Ditto. Everyone keeps saying Finder should say "Everyone" but I've yet to see how to turn this on. I'd just like to get AirDrop to work between my Mac and iPad.

 

[ljmac]

Ditto. Everyone keeps saying Finder should say "Everyone" but I've yet to see how to turn this on. I'd just like to get AirDrop to work between my Mac and iPad.

Just click on the blue text at the bottom and you can change if you like to use contacts only or everyone or none.

Have all that working but no hand-off at all despite being on the same wi-fi and also on same apple id???? Anyone knows what is the problem?

 

[SuperMatt]

I followed a suggestion I found on another thread, which was the following:

Sign out of iCloud on my Mac and my iPhone. Sign back in.

Handoff works now!

 

[JoeTomasone]

Cant get mine to work either, Just "upgraded" to DP7 and the handoff feature in system preferences seems to have vanished. Searching "handoff" via spotlight shows it located in general, but alas it must be hidden. Running on a mid 2011 MBA. iPhone 5 with ios8 GM.

Almost went through all the trouble with the kexts, but want to try and avoid that.

Same problem here. Has anyone figured out why it's hidden/missing?

 

[JoelBaka]

Wonderfull Thank you for this thread!

I just updated to iOS8 and phone calls and iMessage seem to work!
No handoff and unfortunatly also no Airdrop But I'm happy that at least
the calling and texting works!

MacBook White Unibody late 2009, Core2Duo, 2,26 ghz, LME 0.4, 250GB HD, 4GB RAM.
Yosemite Public Beta 3 on partition.
&
iPhone 5C, 8GB. iOS8.

 

[roland.g]

I noticed that on my iPhone my iCloud was signed in as my original mac.com account that I have to use as my Apple ID and iTunes account, but for some reason my MacBook Air was signed in as me.com. That didn't affect my contacts and everything from syncing but Hand Off/Continuity didn't work. I logged out on my Air and signed back in as mac.com and it works... at least some of the time.

Browsing on the Air brings up a Safari icon on my iPhone.
Messages on either brings up the icon on the other but the text typed doesn't hand off.
Mail seems to work better from Mac to phone but only once have I gotten the mail icon to appear on the Mac after starting a draft on the phone.
Maps hands off.

I was able to place a phone call using FaceTime on the Mac but I will say the process was a bit strange. Rather than a dedicated phone call button like the FaceTime video and audio button I had to go into my contacts, highlight the phone number and right click to bring up the "call xxx.xxx.xxxx using iPhone" submenu.

 

[hohochichi]

I've tested the handoff function several time (iphone ios 8 & OSX 10 public beta 3), I must turn on airdrop and wait for the airdrop to connect my phone and Mac, then all the handoff function, including phone call on mac, little icon on my iphone lockscreen.....appears and works! I really think this is a bug and apple need to fix it!

 

[king974]

Must be more to it then that.

My "interesting" screenshots in attachments.

I bought this MacPro Mid 2012 at the very VERY VERY end of when they were actively being sold. It's an Apple Custom config and from what I gather from conversations with my sales rep when I was buying it, mine is one of the very last produced. I waited ... a while... at the time for it to be built and shipped. Tracing the tracking number it was shipped from the factory in China. What is most interesting is my bluetooth reports as 0x6. This is the factory card, I haven't touched it.... Yet I don't have handoff. Curious.

Now to find a hack specific to me to get this to work

Having exact same issue with mid-2011 MBA. I have BTLE and 0x6. No option for Handoff in settings. Anyone have an idea why?

 

[Donfor39]

[
-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:

Hope this helps.

Thank You got the phone calls working last night and now handoff working...via mcbpro/iphone5...in time for iPhone 6 being delivered

 

[dwest73]

I've tested the handoff function several time (iphone ios 8 & OSX 10 public beta 3), I must turn on airdrop and wait for the airdrop to connect my phone and Mac, then all the handoff function, including phone call on mac, little icon on my iphone lockscreen.....appears and works! I really think this is a bug and apple need to fix it!

I got the exact same problem. Truly annoying.

 

[sunfire7]

Thank You healeydave for your little tutorial.

I was able to get handoff and instant hotspot working between my 5s and my air .

The problem I was having is that the ipad was on 5ghz band and 5s on 2.4ghz. What I did was change the 5ghz band name temporary on the time capsule and that did the trick for the two devices to recognize each other. I switched the 5ghz name back after confirming handoff and instant hotspot working and it still work like it should.

A note on how the instant hotspot works:

You can leave it off on your iphone but it still appears on the ipad's wifi list (as long as bt is enabled on both ipad and iphone).

If you connect via your ipad, the hotspot enables automaticaly on your iphone and ipad connects.

When you finish using the hotspot, it will not turn itself off right away, it will wait some minutes then it will turn off automatically.

Great!

 

[CJM]

So handoff sort've seems to work with AirDrop between my phone and MBA, but I can't for the live of me get calls or SMS to work. Will perhaps restart and try on a different wifi network later.