Handoff/Universal Clipboard stopped working on one Mac after 14.4 update

[donawalt]

1 Mac at my house does not work with Handoff/Universal Clipboard. I also have an iPhone, iPad, and another Mac, they all interchange data via Universal Clipboard fine. This just started with MacOS 14.4. This Mac neither sends stuff to other devices via Universal Clipboard, or receives it. All other devices in the same room work fine among each other, but not to the offending Mac.

If I have Notes up on my iPhone right next to my Mac, I do see the Notes icon in my task bar, it says “Notes from iPhone”. But clipboard data is not shared.

Mac is a M3 Pro Max.

I have tried:
- turning bluetooth off/on
- turning handoff off/on
- restarting Mac
- testing in Safe Mode
- verified all devices on same Apple ID/iCloud and logged in
- deleting the 3 bluetooth preferences files in Library/Preferences and ~Library/Preferences
- reset bluetooth from Terminal via ‘sudo pkill bluetoothd’

I also see that no other devices are discoverable in the area (iPhone, iPad, other Mac) when I go into Bluetooth settings. I do see two sets of AirPods previously connected, and if I bring them near and turn on they do connect.

I filed a feedback report.

Any ideas? Is there a plist file that could be corrupted that I could delete?

Thanks!

 

[donawalt]

Found it!

1. Finder>Library>Preferences
2. Find the file, com.apple.coreservices.useractivityd.plist
3. Delete it.
4. Restart

After that it works fine both ways! I had a dickens of time finding this solution, hopefully this helps someone else!

 

[jardel]

Found it!

1. Finder>Library>Preferences
2. Find the file, com.apple.coreservices.useractivityd.plist
3. Delete it.
4. Restart

After that it works fine both ways! I had a dickens of time finding this solution, hopefully this helps someone else!

Hello donawalt,
I didn't find this file in my Mac Sonoma (com.apple.coreservices.useractivityd.plist), and I continue facing this issue with my MBP.
Do you have another suggestion?

Thanks,

 

[donawalt]

@jardel are you sure you are in your user library and not the System Wide Library? It should be in Macintosh HD-> Users -> <your user name> -> Library -> Preferences

 

[derekww]

@jardel are you sure you are in your user library and not the System Wide Library? It should be in Macintosh HD-> Users -> <your user name> -> Library -> Preferences

I found the file, in the user's library, deleted it. The problem remains, and that's my only Mac that doesn't observe Universal Clipboard, even though all of the other Continuity functions work fine. It's running macOS 12.7.3.

 

[jardel]

@jardel are you sure you are in your user library and not the System Wide Library? It should be in Macintosh HD-> Users -> <your user name> -> Library -> Preferences

Du bist der beste!

Everything works well now!

Thank you so much. This issue bothers me for a while.

 

[donawalt]

Some people have reported issues with UC on Monterey due to things conflicting like Ad Guard. You may try batting both ends of the copy/paste into Safe mode and see if it works there. If it does, you can narrow down what causes it. It may work better on MacOS 13 and 14 too.

 

[jardel]

I found the file, in the user's library, deleted it. The problem remains, and that's my only Mac that doesn't observe Universal Clipboard, even though all of the other Continuity functions work fine. It's running macOS 12.7.3.

Hello derekww,

Mine works well. I'm using MacOS 14.4.1