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I can't get Handoff/Continuity to work for the life of me

gamesetmatch

gamesetmatch

macrumors regular
Jan 29, 2008
143
4
Palm Springs, CA, USA
My Mac is Handoff UNSUPPORTED. I know that.

SMS relay is working okay now. However, FaceTime is not. The settings are identical in both my Macbook and iPhone. I CAN make a call FROM my Mac, but I DON'T RECEIVE any notification when the iPhone is ringing on my laptop.

Annoying and frustrating. Logged in and out of Facetime, iCloud account, reset network settings, and back and forth. NOTHING.

Wi-Fi network = the same for both devices
iCloud account = same for both devices
Phone number = registered on both devices

Notification Center on the Mac = alerts, popups and bounce icon enabled.

I still can't figure out why I cannot recieve calls on my Mac.

Any ideas? Maybe a bug in Notification Center?

Thank you very much in advance to whoever guides me through the necessary steps to fix this.

Kind Regards,

-Mark.
 
gamesetmatch

gamesetmatch

macrumors regular
Jan 29, 2008
143
4
Palm Springs, CA, USA
I have an Aluminum Macbook, late 2008, model 5,1, Intel Core 2 Duo.

SMS relay works. I can make calls from my Mac, but I'm unable to receive notifications when the iPhone is ringing.

Maybe something is messed up with the Notification Center preferences.

Sigh.

-Mark.
 
I

iFoggy

macrumors member
Apr 26, 2011
87
6
Dragonforce said:
I'd like to add that apparently handoff and ANY Continuity function aren't properly working if you have only your mobile phone # registered, and not a single email address to receive and send iMessages from.
Click to expand...

Brilliant....thanks for that tip, that was all I needed to do to enable the popup on my Mac after struggling with everything else :)
 
M

matthewadams

macrumors 6502
Dec 6, 2012
379
168
cookies! said:
Handoff is absolutely not fully functional for a lot of posters on the GM on this forum...

I have the encryption key in my chain but Handoff only works in some directions and on Safari for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there is no information about what happens when 2 devices fail with exchanging the keys. Because that happens more than often and once they failed, they stop trying to exchange keys again.
The only way around is to edit a specific .plist on the OSX side of things (which i mentioned in detail in the 2011 mbp handoff thread) and do a network reset on the iOS sides of things :(
 
B

bbfc

macrumors 68040
Oct 22, 2011
3,910
1,676
Newcastle, England.
cookies! said:
handoff isn't fully functional without 8.1 beta right now, and they might need a second GM candidate to get it fully functional too. and phone/sms handoff absolutely doesn't work without 8.1
Click to expand...

SMS Relay and Phone Calls are working for me on Yosemite GM and iOS 8.1.
 
A

apfelbaum

macrumors member
Aug 31, 2014
69
114
Germany
matthewadams said:
Yeah, there is no information about what happens when 2 devices fail with exchanging the keys. Because that happens more than often and once they failed, they stop trying to exchange keys again.
The only way around is to edit a specific .plist on the OSX side of things (which i mentioned in detail in the 2011 mbp handoff thread) and do a network reset on the iOS sides of things :(
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for this hint here and the information you provided about this in the other thread, I finally got EVERYTHING working, handoff in both directions between Mac and iPhone, I can make and receive phone calls and SMS on my Mac, instant hotspot works and Airdrop works.

So far I never got everything working and fixing one thing did break something working before, but after making this clear cut and signing off iCloud on all devices (what I tried before but wasn't enough), deleting the all those files in Library and the handoff key in keychain and resetting settings and network settings on the phone everything works :D
 
M

matthewadams

macrumors 6502
Dec 6, 2012
379
168
apfelbaum said:
So far I never got everything working and fixing one thing did break something working before, but after making this clear cut and signing off iCloud on all devices (what I tried before but wasn't enough), deleting the all those files in Library and the handoff key in keychain and resetting settings and network settings on the phone everything works :D
Click to expand...

Glad to have helped, but yet I think a lot of people will encounter this issue and I'm surprised there is no proper "time-out" on when a device should try again if it failed on first attempt.
I encountered this once again a few days ago and decided to wait for 24 hours only to find nothing has changed and the devices still wouldnt try, which is why I ended up going down the "reset" route again.
 
M

merrickdrfc

macrumors 6502
Jan 8, 2011
474
133
Doncaster / Berlin
I have Handoff & Continuity (except SMS) working on my current setup, no messing about required.

iPhone 6 - iOS 8.0.2
2014 15" rMBP - OS X 10.10 GM1 (upgraded from 10.9)

Obviously SMS won't work because it needs iOS 8.1, but it's just worked for me out of the box.
 
E

Examinus

macrumors member
Jan 17, 2010
70
13
My Handoff and Continuity burst into life this evening even though I installed 8.1 and Yosemite CGM the other day.
 
A

apfelbaum

macrumors member
Aug 31, 2014
69
114
Germany
matthewadams said:
I encountered this once again a few days ago and decided to wait for 24 hours only to find nothing has changed and the devices still wouldnt try, which is why I ended up going down the "reset" route again.
Click to expand...

Did this just suddenly happen on devices where it worked before or on devices that just were upgraded to Yosemite/iOS 8? Would certainly not be a lot of fun if it doesn't work reliably and you had to do this reset every few weeks or days.
 
C

crslade

macrumors newbie
Oct 7, 2014
4
0
I followed the steps matthewadams posted in the other thread and thought to post them here, since it worked for me and it was a little hard to find the other thread:

Before beginning make sure you have a backup of stuff that will get deleted when you sign out of iCloud (safari passwords, pictures stored in iCloud, etc.) Most of them should return when you sign back in, but always have a backup.

Make sure your sharingd is not being blocked by the firewall on your Mac. My firewall blocked it and that is why it didn't setup right for me. Also, if you reset your Phone, handoff might stop working and you will have to repeat the process over again.

1) Turn off handoff on the Mac and phone.
2) Sign out of iCloud on the mac and the phone. Make sure you can approve iCloud keychain requests from another device, or approve it with a security code.
3) Sign out of messages and FaceTime on your computer and phone.
4) On your phone reset network settings.
5) On your mac, delete 2 files in ~/Library/Preferences. com.apple.sharingd.plist, and com.apple.ids.deviceproperties.plist. Also open keychain access and search for handoff. Delete the encryption key.
6) Sign back on to iCloud on your computer and phone. Make sure you leave handoff turned off. Also make sure you enable Keychain on both your phone and Mac. This will require you to approve each device from another device, or for you to approve it with a security code. If all you have is your phone and mac, you will need to approve it with a security code.
7) Sign back into messages and FaceTime on your computer and phone. On your phone, make sure you select Use your appleId for faceTime and messages.
8) Make sure your computer picks up your phone number for messages and FaceTime as well.
9) On your phone, go to Settings > FaceTime and turn on iPhone Celluar Calls.
10) On your phone, go to Settings > Messages, turn on Text Message Forwarding (Requires iOS 8.1 and latest Yosemite GM release) Hopefully your computer is an option to turn on. Your phone will ask for a code, hopefully your computer will provide one. Your Messages App should have a popup with the verification code. Put the code in on your phone. Hopefully your computer will then verify the code and dismiss the popup.
11) Turn on handoff on your phone and your computer.
12) Try using safari, mail, or creating a message on one device and see if the handoff appears on the other device.


Good Luck. And thanks to matthewadams for figuring it out.
 
Last edited:
M

melman101

macrumors 68030
Sep 3, 2009
2,751
295
I installed Public Beta 5 and now the IOS -> Mac OS X doesn't work.

However Mac OS X -> iOS works fine.

Weird.
 
gamesetmatch

gamesetmatch

macrumors regular
Jan 29, 2008
143
4
Palm Springs, CA, USA
What happens to me is that:

on OS X I can send and receive iMessages and SMS. In this case, Notication Center on my Mac shows that a new message has been received and it even plays a sound.

I can start a call from my Mac. However, when my iPhone rings, there's no notification on the Mac.

Both devices are set up under the same Apple ID/icloud account, using the same WiFi network, and the same options for FaceTime. iPhone Cellular calls is turned on.

I guess this is something related to the Notification Center preferences, but I cannot seem to figure this out yet. Handoff is set to OFF as my Mac is unsopported.

Any suggestions? Already tried signing out & back in from my accounts on both devices and making sure that Notification Center is set to receive alerts and sounds.

Of note, everything is OK between my iPhone and my iPad Air. Calls and texts are received at the same time, and notifications show up.

Mark.
 
C

crslade

macrumors newbie
Oct 7, 2014
4
0
melman101 said:
I installed Public Beta 5 and now the IOS -> Mac OS X doesn't work.

However Mac OS X -> iOS works fine.

Weird.
Click to expand...

You might want to try to restart your phone and your computer. It might fix it. Also, do you have the latest iOS8.1 release 2 on your phone? If not, you might need to upgrade to get it working. Also, check your firewall settings and make sure that sharingd can accept incoming connections.

If it still doesn't work after that, then you might need to reset your handoff key, by following the steps I outlined above.
 
M

melman101

macrumors 68030
Sep 3, 2009
2,751
295
crslade said:
You might want to try to restart your phone and your computer. It might fix it. Also, do you have the latest iOS8.1 release 2 on your phone? If not, you might need to upgrade to get it working. Also, check your firewall settings and make sure that sharingd can accept incoming connections.

If it still doesn't work after that, then you might need to reset your handoff key, by following the steps I outlined above.
Click to expand...

I'm worried about turning off iCloud. I don't have the firewall on :).

I'm not on iOS 8.1 Beta 2.

So that's why I think I might wait. I don't really want to mess with stuff regarding iCloud and such.
 
W

woodyb7a4

macrumors newbie
Oct 11, 2014
1
0
To get mine to work

Im on a 13-inch MBA mid 2012, Seemed like i was doing everything on here and other forums with no luck. Started randomly trying other things, when i turned on share library on home network in my iTunes, it started working. I feel its very strange because it should be completely unrelated to my iTunes library. But now my calls transfer, mail and safari are also working with handoff from my mac to my phone and vice versa. so idk if it was luck or not but it seemed to do the trick for me. Hope this helps someone. Also I'm on 8.0.2 iPhone 5 and Yosemite gm candidate version 3.
 
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