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Handoff not working on 2011 MacBook Air
- Thread starter shahrezsyed
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For those that have handoff working...is this feature alone worth upgrading your MBA? I have a mid 2011 and tried editing all the kext files yesterday to no avail. I'd really like to get this working and am thinking about going to a 2014 MBA if its not enabled at launch.
First I would try again with the kexts edits. Many many people including my self got handoff to work with the mba 2011. So don't give up on that. If you pm me your email And Mac id I'll do the edits for you and send them to you if that's what you need.
Is it worth an upgrade? I say no but you may benifit from the upgrade in other ways but I would not recommend updating just for handoff.
I appreciate it...I'll wait until release and see what happens. It it's something that can be done with a software tweak I hope Apple will enable it. If it still doesn't work then I may take you up on that help offer.
Not a problem. Just shoot me a pm when you want me to do it. It takes a few min once you know what you are doing(and what causes problems) I highly doubt that they will enable it in the final release because they purposely blacklisted the airs and minis. But waiting till release will mean you won't have to drop the kexts as often.
Hm. So you finally got it working? Wow. But you still needed to replace the WiFi hardware, yes?
No you don't have to, just use dokterdok's tutorial and it works on and MBA/mini with BTLE
Wow! Very weird of Apple if they don't implement this in 2011 MBA with the solution right in front of them. Bordering on evil I would say.
I submitted a bug report to Apple and this was the reply:
Engineering has determined that there are no plans to address this based on the following:
MacBook Air 2011 doesnt have the necessary bluetooth firmware fixes to run Handoff.
It's not a bug it was a conscience decision on their end to not make it compatible. Hence the "black listing of airs and minis"
Yea I thought that a bug report was the best way to get an answer from them. I did not tell them that handoff is working fine on my MBA with the blacklists removed from the kext's. Thank you UncleSchnitty
Thanks to dokterdok's tutorial I was able to get Handoff and the new AirDrop, that makes the device discoverable instantly working on PB6. I figure Instant Hotspot will start working once iOS 8.1 is out.
Shame Apple decided that the 2011 MBA is obsolete in this respect even though it clearly supports all the aforementioned features.
Hat tip to the guy who took his time to put this guide together and helping us enable a feature that was supposed to be there from the very beginning. Here's to hoping Apple won't mess with these kexts, but since they don't plan on supporting BLE on this model I figure they won't change the extensions any more.
Shame Apple decided that the 2011 MBA is obsolete in this respect even though it clearly supports all the aforementioned features.
Hat tip to the guy who took his time to put this guide together and helping us enable a feature that was supposed to be there from the very beginning. Here's to hoping Apple won't mess with these kexts, but since they don't plan on supporting BLE on this model I figure they won't change the extensions any more.
Just a heads up, some of the updates do change the kext back so keep a backup of them so you can drop them with kextdrop when it gets screwed up.
did you log out of iCloud on your mac and iPhone/ipad? sometimes it does take a few to make the handshake connection
I did... but the issue is that the "Handoff" setting in System Preferences on the MBA never shows up after the changes and rebooting, so I have no way of turning it on or off...
I modified the instructions for clarity:
TUTORIAL
Modified from Dokterdoks original
1. Download and install 0xED in your Applications folder, you can get it from here:
http://www.suavetech.com/0xed/
2. Download and install KextDrop in your Applications folder, you can get it from here:
http://www.cindori.org/software/kextdrop/
3. Open Terminal and type :
Code:
sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"
4. Restart your machine.
5. Open Finder, type CMD+Shift+G and go to /System/Library/Extensions/
6. Copy the files below to your desktop and then delete the originals. Make an extra backup copy of the 2 files in a separate folder just in case.
Code:
IO80211Family.kext
IOBluetoothFamily.kext
7. Go to Terminal, and type: (exactly as below)
Code:
ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'
8. Your result should look like : Mac-742912EFDBEE19B3, (yours might be different.). Copy it to your clipboard (Select and CMD+C). Don't close terminal yet.
9. Open Finder and hit CMD+Shift+G, go to ~/Desktop/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/Plugins/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS
Note: if you have a different OS language, you might need to replace "Desktop" in the path with your local translation.
10. Right Click on AirPortBrcm4360, and choose OPEN WITH: OTHER: 0XED
11. In the upper right hand corner under search text" search for "Mac-" (without the quotes).
12. Look at the first result, for example, it might be Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86
13. Delete the numbers after Mac- and Manually type your Mac- numbers (from step 8 be very careful not to delete anything else just the numbers.
14. Press down arrow till you get to the last Mac- (should look like Mac-2E6FAB96566FE58C)
15.Delete the numbers after Mac- and Manually type your Mac- numbers (from step 8 be very careful not to delete anything else just the numbers.
16. Click Save (the red circle)
17. Open Finder and hit CMD+Shift+G to open the "Go to" popup, and go to ~/Desktop/IOBluetoothFamily.kext/Contents/MacOS
18. Right Click on IOBluetoothFamily, and choose OPEN WITH: OTHER: 0XED.
19. In the SEARCH field (upper right corner) type:MacBookAir then enter.
20. You will find a block of text containing
Code:
'MacBookAir4,1''MacBookAir4,2''Macmini5,1''Macmini5,2''Macmini5,3'
Manually replace the numbers with ones only so they all look like:
Code:
'MacBookAir1,1''MacBookAir1,1''Macmini1,1''Macmini1,1''Macmini1,1'
Important: Be careful not to add any character while doing the replacement.
21. Click SAVE (the red circle button) and quit 0xED.
22. Open KextDrop, and Drag and drop the IO80211Family.kext that you modified into the window.
23. Click INSTALL.
24. Repeat steps 23 and 24 but for your modified IOBluetoothFamily.kext
25. Go Back to Terminal, and type the following commands. Wait for each one to finish.
Code:
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
Code:
sudo kextcache -system-caches
26. Reboot. Make sure you have an Internet connection for the next steps.
27. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> GENERAL, at the bottom click ENABLE HANDOFF.
28. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> ICLOUD, click on SIGN OUT.
29. On your iOS Device, go to SETTINGS> ICLOUD and SIGN OUT.
30. Restart your Mac and iOS device.
31. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> ICLOUD, and enter your credentials to sign in.
32. On your iOS Device, go to SETTINGS> ICLOUD and SIGN IN.
TUTORIAL
Modified from Dokterdoks original
1. Download and install 0xED in your Applications folder, you can get it from here:
http://www.suavetech.com/0xed/
2. Download and install KextDrop in your Applications folder, you can get it from here:
http://www.cindori.org/software/kextdrop/
3. Open Terminal and type :
Code:
sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"
4. Restart your machine.
5. Open Finder, type CMD+Shift+G and go to /System/Library/Extensions/
6. Copy the files below to your desktop and then delete the originals. Make an extra backup copy of the 2 files in a separate folder just in case.
Code:
IO80211Family.kext
IOBluetoothFamily.kext
7. Go to Terminal, and type: (exactly as below)
Code:
ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'
8. Your result should look like : Mac-742912EFDBEE19B3, (yours might be different.). Copy it to your clipboard (Select and CMD+C). Don't close terminal yet.
9. Open Finder and hit CMD+Shift+G, go to ~/Desktop/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/Plugins/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS
Note: if you have a different OS language, you might need to replace "Desktop" in the path with your local translation.
10. Right Click on AirPortBrcm4360, and choose OPEN WITH: OTHER: 0XED
11. In the upper right hand corner under search text" search for "Mac-" (without the quotes).
12. Look at the first result, for example, it might be Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86
13. Delete the numbers after Mac- and Manually type your Mac- numbers (from step 8 be very careful not to delete anything else just the numbers.
14. Press down arrow till you get to the last Mac- (should look like Mac-2E6FAB96566FE58C)
15.Delete the numbers after Mac- and Manually type your Mac- numbers (from step 8 be very careful not to delete anything else just the numbers.
16. Click Save (the red circle)
17. Open Finder and hit CMD+Shift+G to open the "Go to" popup, and go to ~/Desktop/IOBluetoothFamily.kext/Contents/MacOS
18. Right Click on IOBluetoothFamily, and choose OPEN WITH: OTHER: 0XED.
19. In the SEARCH field (upper right corner) type:MacBookAir then enter.
20. You will find a block of text containing
Code:
'MacBookAir4,1''MacBookAir4,2''Macmini5,1''Macmini5,2''Macmini5,3'
Manually replace the numbers with ones only so they all look like:
Code:
'MacBookAir1,1''MacBookAir1,1''Macmini1,1''Macmini1,1''Macmini1,1'
Important: Be careful not to add any character while doing the replacement.
21. Click SAVE (the red circle button) and quit 0xED.
22. Open KextDrop, and Drag and drop the IO80211Family.kext that you modified into the window.
23. Click INSTALL.
24. Repeat steps 23 and 24 but for your modified IOBluetoothFamily.kext
25. Go Back to Terminal, and type the following commands. Wait for each one to finish.
Code:
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
Code:
sudo kextcache -system-caches
26. Reboot. Make sure you have an Internet connection for the next steps.
27. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> GENERAL, at the bottom click ENABLE HANDOFF.
28. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> ICLOUD, click on SIGN OUT.
29. On your iOS Device, go to SETTINGS> ICLOUD and SIGN OUT.
30. Restart your Mac and iOS device.
31. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> ICLOUD, and enter your credentials to sign in.
32. On your iOS Device, go to SETTINGS> ICLOUD and SIGN IN.
Ive put all my finding and modified instructions in one thread Handoff Breakdown
I wanted a place where all the facts could be put together. Im deleting all my other thread subscriptions except for that (hah too many email alerts) If anyone needs my help Ill be helping people there.
I wanted a place where all the facts could be put together. Im deleting all my other thread subscriptions except for that (hah too many email alerts) If anyone needs my help Ill be helping people there.
I tried the steps twice, followed everything but still handoff is not showing up in general. I don't know what I could be doing wrong.