Handoff not working on 2011 MacBook Air

[bunger]

I have just stepped through the process a second time, paying very close attention to various settings to ensure all was exactly as it should be. Still no option to enable Handoff in System Preferences > General.

 

[bunger]

Does anyone know whether maybe those instructions were for the pre-release version of Yosemite? Seems kinda strange that it would work for some 2011 MBA's but not others...

 

[bunger]

For those of you who have tried the steps and can't get the Handoff option to display, try rebooting your computer after you delete the original Kext files but BEFORE you begin to make any changes. In other words, reboot after Step 6

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

Your computer will reboot with no wireless or bluetooth, so copy the instructions to a text doc to still have access. Then continue with the procedures. That seemed to do the trick for me.

 

[revenantananias]

what is dokterdok's tutorial

i tried looking, and could not find it. I am trying to get handoff to work on my wife's macbook air mid 2011. I want it badly, but do not want to buy a new laptop, this one runs great still.
Sorry if this is annoying- i just could not find it.

 

[bunger]

i tried looking, and could not find it. I am trying to get handoff to work on my wife's macbook air mid 2011. I want it badly, but do not want to buy a new laptop, this one runs great still.
Sorry if this is annoying- i just could not find it.

Post 72 on page 3.... Or....

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/20123594/

 

[justywusty]

Thanks for this! Got it working

Step 25 took longer than I expected (I thought something was wrong)...but then it completed. Also, note that Step 24 should say "Repeat steps 22 and 23..."

I modified the instructions for clarity:
TUTORIAL
Modified from Dokterdok’s 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.

 

[UncleSchnitty]

Thanks for this! Got it working

Step 25 took longer than I expected (I thought something was wrong)...but then it completed. Also, note that Step 24 should say "Repeat steps 22 and 23..."

I have updated my tutorial a lot this weekend and I posted everything on one page. The original worked very well for fresh installs but now its been updated with more that trouble shoot a lot of issues people run into.
Handoff Breakdown

 

[rafalovitch]

help plz....

did the first 24 steps with no problem
on step 25. when entering the second line i got :"Can't create kext cache under /Users/orirafa1 - owner not root."
what to do ?? did i do something wrong ?
i'm afraid to restart my macbook air...
thanks !
my email is rafalovich.tom@gmail.com if it helps...
update: i solved it, thanks for the guide !! everything seems to work on my macbook air mid 2011
every thing works with iOS 8.1 except the calling feature, any thoughts why?

 

[jdag]

There are many many posts about this, so I will submit the fix that worked for me in several threads in the hope that it helps people:

I was struggling yesterday, and was having very mixed results ranging from handoff not working at all to it working on my iPhone only. I found an article offering a suggested fix, and it worked for me.

It appears to me that the "missing link" is the FaceTime setup (this was the only article I found that referenced FaceTime settings).

In my case, I had to sign into FaceTime using my AppleID (which I believe was set in the past, possibly disconnected at some point). Anyhow, it does make sense that this would be a potential gap in Handoff functioning, and it corrected my issue immediately.

Good luck...this is clearly not an example of "it just works".




The full article can be found at: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/continuity-calling-handoff-not-working-ios-8-try-out-fix-1466213



Step-1: Open the Settings app on your device running iOS 8

Step-2: Click General

Step-3: Click Handoff & Suggested Apps

Step-4: Turn Handoff option Off and turn it On again

Step-5: Tap General at the top of return to the previous menu

Step-6: Tap Settings at the top of return to the previous menu

Step-7: Tap FaceTime

Step-8: Put the iPhone Cellular Calls option Off and then put it back On again

Step-9: Once the action is completed, reboot the iPhone or the iPad

 

[chanaum]

Help a french man

hello

sorry i speak english a little. I have a macbook air 11,6 2010.I read on my MBA its necessary to replace the wireless wifi bluetooth for handof with yosemite .I have a card with BT2 at the end and in this forum i see i need a BT2BX .What the difference with the BCM94360CS2. The longer is the not the same . Is the wifi works fine?
Is that difficult to change kext in terminal never open terminal.....
Thanks and sorry for my english

 

[haralds]

Here you are. The third picture shows a little piece you have to snap off the hinge piece, they solder the wires on so you have to clip it off but as you can see everything goes back perfectly.
the 4th picture shows how the new card is a little longer and the last picture is the wires rerouted so it looks just like normal again. I hope this helps people with the air. any questions feel free to ask.

Thank you, it worked great. Until I understood it, I stripped down a lot more than I needed. All you really have to do is open the cover, unplug the battery, and swap the cards. I ended up using a black tape over the old screw hole to prevent shorts on the new card. You can then unfasten the hinge on the left in the image and lift out the clamp for the BT cable. Then refasten. You might be able to pull the cable through the remaining plastic loop tie downs.
I ended up taking out the battery and unfastening and lifting up the main board to remove the plastic tie downs. But this is fiddly work requiring removing the screen connector and (I think) camera cable.
[doublepost=1515877426][/doublepost]I got everything to work correctly after SMC and PRAM reset, disabling SIP, and having CAT installed. This works on High Sierra including Watch Unlock.