Handoff on MBA Mid 2011

[whsbuss]

I have a Late 2011 MBP 15-inch and handoff/AirDrop does not work. Same wifi network IP6 and MBP and BT is on both devices. Is there something needed?

 

[UncleSchnitty]

I have a Late 2011 MBP 15-inch and handoff/AirDrop does not work. Same wifi network IP6 and MBP and BT is on both devices. Is there something needed?

The MacBookPros need a different Bluetooth card. The MacBook airs came with bt4.0le while the cMBPs did not. That's why the 2011 mba can have handoff without mods and the mbp can not

 

[johny979]

Did you do the tutorials correctly?

Yes
but as I read in other thread, Apple changes requirements and now is neccesary MBA 2012

 

[whsbuss]

The MacBookPros need a different Bluetooth card. The MacBook airs came with bt4.0le while the cMBPs did not. That's why the 2011 mba can have handoff without mods and the mbp can not

Anywhere I can get one that's compatible?

 

[Glassed Silver]

Still waiting for a USB + Terminal command solution or anything close to that.

It'll be some time until I open my iMac, that's when it gets an SSD and a larger HDD for my games (Windows 7 and Steam).

I'd rather not buy dedicated cards for something that should be workable with a USB BT LE stick, unless there's any reason why it's technically not possible.
I'd love to know in that case.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[bookemdano]

Well despite following dokterdok's instructions to the letter (I tried twice) I've not been able to get this working on my MBA 2011 with the official Yosemite release (I never tried any of the Betas).

After following all the instructions I still get:

Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes
Handoff Supported: No
Instant Hotspot Supported: No

and no checkbox to enable Handoff in System Prefs->General

I'm not sure if I truly screwed it up twice or if this is just an issue with the general release version (haven't seen a success story from anyone else performing the steps on that version, just from people that upgraded to it).

My board ID is Mac-742912EFDBEE19B3

I have uploaded the two kexts I modified per the tutorial here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6o66tvct1m75h99/bookemdanohandoffkexts.zip?dl=0

Would UncleSchnitty or any other knowledgable user be willing to take a look and see if you spot anything I did wrong? Much appreciated.

Edit: For grins I tried it a third time. Still no-go. One thing to report, after dropping in the modified kexts via Kext Drop I run the "sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel" command. Here's the output from that command:

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
Password:
/ locked; waiting for lock.
Lock acquired; proceeding.
kext file:///System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext/ is in hash exception list, allowing to load
IOBluetoothFamily.kext has invalid signature; omitting.

Is the message about IOBluetoothFamily.kext having an invalid signature normal?

 

[UncleSchnitty]

Well despite following dokterdok's instructions to the letter (I tried twice) I've not been able to get this working on my MBA 2011 with the official Yosemite release (I never tried any of the Betas).

After following all the instructions I still get:

Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes
Handoff Supported: No
Instant Hotspot Supported: No

and no checkbox to enable Handoff in System Prefs->General

I'm not sure if I truly screwed it up twice or if this is just an issue with the general release version (haven't seen a success story from anyone else performing the steps on that version, just from people that upgraded to it).

My board ID is Mac-742912EFDBEE19B3

I have uploaded the two kexts I modified per the tutorial here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6o66tvct1m75h99/bookemdanohandoffkexts.zip?dl=0

Would UncleSchnitty or any other knowledgable user be willing to take a look and see if you spot anything I did wrong? Much appreciated.

Edit: For grins I tried it a third time. Still no-go. One thing to report, after dropping in the modified kexts via Kext Drop I run the "sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel" command. Here's the output from that command:

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
Password:
/ locked; waiting for lock.
Lock acquired; proceeding.
kext file:///System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext/ is in hash exception list, allowing to load
IOBluetoothFamily.kext has invalid signature; omitting.

Is the message about IOBluetoothFamily.kext having an invalid signature normal?

For some reason even when zipped Kext files seem to get corrupted when exchanged thru email or dropbox. That said I did help someone a few minutes ago thru FaceTime since there was no easy way to get the kext not to be corrupted.

The omitting could be because of a corrupted kext file OR more likely you forgot the

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

I would do more FaceTime walk thrus but its getting late here and I still have to reinstall all my programs after a fresh install so if you still need help tomorrow morning or afternoon shoot me a pm with FaceTime # and I could do a walk thru.

 

[bookemdano]

For some reason even when zipped Kext files seem to get corrupted when exchanged thru email or dropbox. That said I did help someone a few minutes ago thru FaceTime since there was no easy way to get the kext not to be corrupted.

The omitting could be because of a corrupted kext file OR more likely you forgot the

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

I would do more FaceTime walk thrus but its getting late here and I still have to reinstall all my programs after a fresh install so if you still need help tomorrow morning or afternoon shoot me a pm with FaceTime # and I could do a walk thru.

I know I did do the sudo nvram command first thing, but decided to do it again since you mentioned it. I issued the command, entered admin pw, rebooted, used kext drop to replace the two kexts, then issued the final two commands. Interestingly enough I got a different output from the sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel command. This time it said:

kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext IOBluetoothFamily.kext

So I was extremely hopeful upon rebooting. Alas, no change at all:

Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes
Handoff Supported: No
Instant Hotspot Supported: No

and no option to enable handoff in System Preferences->General

I swear I am not an idiot. I pay a lot of attention to details and unless I misinterpreted some step of the tutorial I know I followed it completely.

Argh. OK I give up for tonight. Thanks for your reply.

 

[UncleSchnitty]

I know I did do the sudo nvram command first thing, but decided to do it again since you mentioned it. I issued the command, entered admin pw, rebooted, used kext drop to replace the two kexts, then issued the final two commands. Interestingly enough I got a different output from the sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel command. This time it said:

kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext IOBluetoothFamily.kext

So I was extremely hopeful upon rebooting. Alas, no change at all:

Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes
Handoff Supported: No
Instant Hotspot Supported: No

and no option to enable handoff in System Preferences->General

I swear I am not an idiot. I pay a lot of attention to details and unless I misinterpreted some step of the tutorial I know I followed it completely.

Argh. OK I give up for tonight. Thanks for your reply.

Shoot me a pm tomorrow if you still need help. Don't worry we will get you running

 

[robotphood]

I'm getting the same problem as bookemdano.

Mid 2011 MBA
Upgraded from Mavericks to Official Yosemite release today.

I'm getting the invalid signature as well:

Mickeys-Air:~ mickeynguyen$ sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
Password:
kext file:///System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext/ is in hash exception list, allowing to load
IOBluetoothFamily.kext has invalid signature; omitting.
AirPortBrcm4360.kext has invalid signature; omitting.

 

[Gnawbert]

I'm very grateful for the user who created that amazing tutorial for how to do... whatever it is, but I'm just not that comfortable lifting up the hood of my OS and digging in it. Chickened out halfway through.

This is ridiculous on Apple's part. One of the signature features I was excited about was Handoff, and the MBA 2011 was listed as supported, I checked.

I can't figure out why it Apple upped the requirements at the last minute, because by all accounts it had been working, but I'm very disappointed. It seems like a truly scummy move.

 

[kjason33]

I was successfully able to get this working by following the instructions posted by dokterdok! FYI, I have a mid-2011 MBA which was upgraded from Maverick to Yosemite.

Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes
Handoff Supported: Yes
Instant Hotspot Supported: Yes

Also for those of you have issues, below is what I saw in Terminal after applying the KEXT files:

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
Password:
/ locked; waiting for lock.
Lock acquired; proceeding.
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67050 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA16 for kext VBoxUSB.kext
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67050 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA16 for kext VBoxDrv.kext
kext file:///System/Library/Extensions/LfEtherConfig.kext/ is in hash exception list, allowing to load
kext file:///System/Library/Extensions/LfConnectDriver.kext/ is in hash exception list, allowing to load
kext file:///System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext/ is in hash exception list, allowing to load
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext IOBluetoothFamily.kext
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext AirPortBrcm4360.kext

 

[jlblodgett]

So what is the effect on my machine if I happen to mistype at any point along the process?

 

[bige12]

It seems like everybody that has a Mid 2011 MBA- Hand Off is not available at all. If you check in the General settings on the MBA if you do not see Allow Hand-Off that means we do not get it. but if you see Allow Hand Off in that area that means you computer can do it.

This is what I found in the Help section:

Turn on Handoff
To use Handoff, your Mac must have OS X Yosemite, and your iOS devices must have iOS 8. You must also be using supported devices.

Make sure you’re signed in to iCloud using the same Apple ID on your Mac and iOS devices.

Make sure Bluetooth is turned on on all your devices.

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Bluetooth.

Open Bluetooth preferences for me

On your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Tap Settings > Bluetooth.

Make sure Handoff is turned on on all your devices.

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click General, then select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.”

***If you don’t see the option below “Recent items,” your Mac doesn’t support Handoff. Looks like MID 2011 MacBook Airs

On your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Go to Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps, then tap to turn on Handoff.

If you don’t see the option, your iOS device doesn’t support Handoff.

 

[gcornelius]

Handover and Mid 2011 MBA

For the last several months I was under the impression my Mid 2011 MBA would work with handoff since it has Bluetooth 4LE. Am VERY disappointed that Apple changed the specs at the very last minute. Most of cannot afford to keep up with the latest and greatest. Is this really a hardware limitation at this point?

It seems like everybody that has a Mid 2011 MBA- Hand Off is not available at all. If you check in the General settings on the MBA if you do not see Allow Hand-Off that means we do not get it. but if you see Allow Hand Off in that area that means you computer can do it.

This is what I found in the Help section:

Turn on Handoff
To use Handoff, your Mac must have OS X Yosemite, and your iOS devices must have iOS 8. You must also be using supported devices.

Make sure you’re signed in to iCloud using the same Apple ID on your Mac and iOS devices.

Make sure Bluetooth is turned on on all your devices.

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Bluetooth.

Open Bluetooth preferences for me

On your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Tap Settings > Bluetooth.

Make sure Handoff is turned on on all your devices.

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click General, then select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.”

***If you don’t see the option below “Recent items,” your Mac doesn’t support Handoff. Looks like MID 2011 MacBook Airs

On your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Go to Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps, then tap to turn on Handoff.

If you don’t see the option, your iOS device doesn’t support Handoff.

 

[UncleSchnitty]

Are people even reading the posts on here or are they just writing to complain it doesn't work out of the box? You 100% can get Handoff working with a kext edit. Doing it correctly takes maybe 15min. I posted the tutorial and have personally walked members thru this and it works.

The reason apple decided not to make the Airs and Minis work out of the box is because in 2011 they hadn't updated the Macbook Pros or MacPros with Bt4.0Le cards yet. As mad as you are about your computer not working with handoff now imagine if you spent $3,000 on a computer and it doesn't work but a $500 mini or a $700 Air did. You would be real pissed especially once you learned its because of hardware inside your very expensive machine. I understand those people being mad but people who just don't want to take the time to do a kext edit now thats just lazy.

It seems like everybody that has a Mid 2011 MBA- Hand Off is not available at all. If you check in the General settings on the MBA if you do not see Allow Hand-Off that means we do not get it. but if you see Allow Hand Off in that area that means you computer can do it.

This is what I found in the Help section:

Turn on Handoff
To use Handoff, your Mac must have OS X Yosemite, and your iOS devices must have iOS 8. You must also be using supported devices.

Make sure you’re signed in to iCloud using the same Apple ID on your Mac and iOS devices.

Make sure Bluetooth is turned on on all your devices.

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Bluetooth.

Open Bluetooth preferences for me

On your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Tap Settings > Bluetooth.

Make sure Handoff is turned on on all your devices.

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click General, then select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.”

***If you don’t see the option below “Recent items,” your Mac doesn’t support Handoff. Looks like MID 2011 MacBook Airs

On your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Go to Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps, then tap to turn on Handoff.

If you don’t see the option, your iOS device doesn’t support Handoff.

For the last several months I was under the impression my Mid 2011 MBA would work with handoff since it has Bluetooth 4LE. Am VERY disappointed that Apple changed the specs at the very last minute. Most of cannot afford to keep up with the latest and greatest. Is this really a hardware limitation at this point?

 

[UncleSchnitty]

I modified some steps 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]

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.

 

[Manchkin]

Unfortunately, the reason behind Apple's decision not to support Handoff in MBA 2011 is quite simple: they want you to buy a new Mac.

Consider this: MBA 2012 and MBA 2011 have absolutely the same Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chipsets. You can google iFixit teardowns, they are the same. Yet MBA 2012 supports handoff, while MBA 2011 does not.

 

[soxfan04]

Help?!

My results of installing the edited kexts:

$ sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
Password:

IOBluetoothHostControllerUARTTransport.kext has no Info.plist file.
JMicronATA.kext has no Info.plist file.
IOBluetoothHostControllerUARTTransport.kext has no Info.plist file.
JMicronATA.kext has no Info.plist file.
IOBluetoothHostControllerUARTTransport.kext has no Info.plist file.
JMicronATA.kext has no Info.plist file.
IOBluetoothHostControllerUARTTransport.kext has no Info.plist file.
JMicronATA.kext has no Info.plist file.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is not valid; omitting.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
AppleBluetoothHIDMouse.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
AppleBluetoothHIDKeyboard.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
AppleBluetoothMultitouch.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
IOBluetoothFamily.kext is invalid; can't resolve dependencies.
/System/Library/Extensions/IOBluetoothFamily.kext - missing load info or dependencies array in applier function.
/System/Library/Extensions/IOBluetoothFamily.kext - missing load info or dependencies array in applier function.
Can't resolve dependencies amongst kexts for prelinked kernel.
Failed to generate prelinked kernel.

---

$ sudo kextcache -system-caches
IOBluetoothHostControllerUARTTransport.kext has no Info.plist file.
JMicronATA.kext has no Info.plist file.
IOBluetoothHostControllerUARTTransport.kext has no Info.plist file.
JMicronATA.kext has no Info.plist file.
IOBluetoothHostControllerUARTTransport.kext has no Info.plist file.
JMicronATA.kext has no Info.plist file.
IOBluetoothHostControllerUARTTransport.kext has no Info.plist file.
JMicronATA.kext has no Info.plist file.
IOBluetoothHostControllerUARTTransport.kext has no Info.plist file.
JMicronATA.kext has no Info.plist file.

Please advise. I'm on a MBA-Mid2011. Like everyone else
Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes
Handoff Supported: No

 

[mrbyu]

Unfortunately, the reason behind Apple's decision not to support Handoff in MBA 2011 is quite simple: they want you to buy a new Mac.

Consider this: MBA 2012 and MBA 2011 have absolutely the same Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chipsets. You can google iFixit teardowns, they are the same. Yet MBA 2012 supports handoff, while MBA 2011 does not.

You are right, I checked it on iFixit... so might it be that they excluded the MBA 2011 only because it would've looked stupid that 2011 MacBook Pro isn't supported, while the Air is, thus the MBP would've looked inferior? (which it is actually, that year the MBA was a better choice than a MBP in many terms...) I don't know, they made that move before, e.g. Power Nap is supported on the MBA 2011, but not on the MBP... anyway, now that I learned that the wifi chips don't even differ on the 2011 and 2012 MBA, this whole story hurts me even more...

 

[ball4lyfe]

Shoot me a pm tomorrow if you still need help. Don't worry we will get you running

I have the same issue bookemdano has and my board ID is the same as yours/his. I get this though:

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
Password:
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext IOBluetoothFamily.kext
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext AirPortBrcm4360.kext

I, too, did follow your instructions perfectly but no go...HELP

 

[soxfan04]

I have the same issue bookemdano has and my board ID is the same as yours/his. I get this though:

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
Password:
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext IOBluetoothFamily.kext
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext AirPortBrcm4360.kext

I, too, did follow your instructions perfectly but no go...HELP

Did you try repairing permissions? Finder >> Utilities >> Disk Utility (First Aid Tab should be selected) >> Repair Disk Permissions

And did you execute

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

Then reboot?

 

[mrbyu]

Sorry for the dumb question quys but if I have Yosemite on a separate partition, am I right to assume that if I by any chance mess up something with this tinkering, Mavericks on my main partition will be intact?

 

[soxfan04]

Sorry for the dumb question quys but if I have Yosemite on a separate partition, am I right to assume that if I by any chance mess up something with this tinkering, Mavericks on my main partition will be intact?

You are correct sir. You should be able to use the other partition. All of this should be reversible too. Make sure you keep a backup of the originals as stated in the tutorial. If all else fails, reboot while holding command + r and repair.