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iBlazed

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 27, 2014
1,594
1,249
New Jersey, United States
Are you supposed to actually pair your Mac to your iPhone with bluetooth first? I'm trying to do it and my 2013 MBA refused to connect to my iPhone 5. Have no idea how to get this feature running.
 
Here's how it works. No one really knows for sure but this is how I got it to work. On your Mac with DP 3 go to settings > general > enable handoff. On the iPhone/iPad side running iOS 8 beta 3. Settings > general > enable handoff. Then try restarting both devices. On the mac you should see your device in the Bluetooth pannel of the settings app. If this doesn't work try logging out of iCloud on both devices, restart both devices, Log into iCloud on iOS device then log into iCloud on the mac.
 
Here's how it works. No one really knows for sure but this is how I got it to work. On your Mac with DP 3 go to settings > general > enable handoff. On the iPhone/iPad side running iOS 8 beta 3. Settings > general > enable handoff. Then try restarting both devices. On the mac you should see your device in the Bluetooth pannel of the settings app. If this doesn't work try logging out of iCloud on both devices, restart both devices, Log into iCloud on iOS device then log into iCloud on the mac.

I see the iPhone in the bluetooth panel, but are you actually supposed to pair the devices? Because when I try to I always get an error of some sort.
 
i am not seeing enable hand off in settings?

Click on Apple icon from top left corner. Then go to System Preferences -> General. And then enable "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices"

Make sure your Mac and iPhone are on same network and using same iCloud id on both devices.
 
Your Mac may not be compatible then.

In Settings > General,

my mid-2011 MBA has the setting for Theme (light/dark) but no choice to enable handoff. It was upgraded to Yosemite starting with DP1.

my early-2011 MBP has NO setting for Theme but I can enable Handoff. It was upgraded to Yosemite yesterday with DP1. Of course there are updates in the MAS. Will see if DP3 removed these.
 
This setting is also gone on my Macbook Air 2011 on DP3, while the device should be compatible according to this graphic:

apfeleimer_handoff_compatibility.jpg
 
In Settings > General,

my mid-2011 MBA has the setting for Theme (light/dark) but no choice to enable handoff. It was upgraded to Yosemite starting with DP1.

my early-2011 MBP has NO setting for Theme but I can enable Handoff. It was upgraded to Yosemite yesterday with DP1. Of course there are updates in the MAS. Will see if DP3 removed these.

After updating the MBP to DP1, settings > general match the MBA. I ordered the mid-2012 WiFi/bluetooth card. We'll see if that works.
 
Unfortunately none of this answers my question if you're supposed to actually go through the process of linking your Mac and iPhone via Bluetooth before enabling handoff
 
Unfortunately none of this answers my question if you're supposed to actually go through the process of linking your Mac and iPhone via Bluetooth before enabling handoff

No, iCloud links that by itself. If you see their devices in the Bluetooth pannel of your mac then your good. You can even test if they are linked with icloud because if you try to delete the device from Bluetooth it will say "this device can't be removed. Please sign out of icloudto remove this device" or something like that. So if you see your device in bluetooth settings pannel automatically you're good.
 
This setting is also gone on my Macbook Air 2011 on DP3,

yup the option is also gone from my MBA2011

So can we confirm the option is still available on other machines on DP3 (macrumers reported the option in the general settings as being removed but added on the ios side)
 
And oddly even though my handoff isn't working, airdrop is working great. Can't figure out what the issue might be. Also, I'm not getting calls and texts on my Mac.
 
I haven't paired anything. I just enable handoff on my 5s and enable handoff on my iMac and that is all I did and it works.

Both of my devices are also on the same iCloud account and signed in with both on the same WiFi network. If this matters, I'm not sure but that is my current setup.

I am receiving phone calls, I can make phone calls and also receiving texts on my Mac from the green bubble people.

Prior to DP3 I was getting green texts on my Mac but phone calling didn't work and handoff was not very consistent. With iOSb3 and 10.10DP3 things are much much better.
 
I haven't paired anything. I just enable handoff on my 5s and enable handoff on my iMac and that is all I did and it works.

Both of my devices are also on the same iCloud account and signed in with both on the same WiFi network. If this matters, I'm not sure but that is my current setup.

I am receiving phone calls, I can make phone calls and also receiving texts on my Mac from the green bubble people.

Prior to DP3 I was getting green texts on my Mac but phone calling didn't work and handoff was not very consistent. With iOSb3 and 10.10DP3 things are much much better.

Wish I could say the same. I have the same setup, logged in on the same iCloud account on both devices. No dice, they refuse to communicate. Very unfortunate.
 
After tons of wrestling the OS's and signing in and out of iCloud a few times, it finally started working! So happy! What an amazing feature. Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that Back to my Mac was unchecked, it started working after I checked it in.
 
This setting is also gone on my Macbook Air 2011 on DP3, while the device should be compatible according to this graphic:

Image

no one i know ever got it working on MBA 2011 in previews 1 and 2 anyway. looks like it won't be available for mba 2011 at this rate :(
 
I am having the same issue, I get my phone calls on my mac but cant get them to show up on my ipad all on ios 8/yosemite. Hand off doesnt show up either. I cant sign out of icloud on yosemite due to parental controls is what it says.
 
I am having the same issue, I get my phone calls on my mac but cant get them to show up on my ipad all on ios 8/yosemite. Hand off doesnt show up either. I cant sign out of icloud on yosemite due to parental controls is what it says.

They're only supposed to show up on your Mac. You're not supposed to be able to take phone calls on your iPad.
 
I've had similar experience as the original post here
Running 5s and 2011 mid MBA.....have never been able to get handoff to work on DP1-DP3
I was able to get SMS working on each DP versions
I now can also use calls to and from the MBA....each call placed or received activates FaceTime which i can see listed above next to the apple logo so I'm guessing calling feature uses the wifi link
Each time i try to connect via bluetooth it tells me "network unavailable" so I'm guessing this is the issue which is preventing the handoff feature from working
From what I can gather, I would sum it up as thinking:
WiFi = sms / phone calls (continuity) features
Bluetooth = handoff features
 
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