Cannot pair bluetooth - iPhone to Macbook Air

CuriousGeorge03 wrote:

I’m having the same issue with Ventura 13.0 and IPhone 14 Plus. I agree that it is not necessary for Desktop files, Photos, etc. But, it is definitely an issue for Mirroring for streaming content and apps that I cannot utilize on my laptop. I agree that a significant reason for having all Apple products is their ability to communicate electronically without issue. This is a major issue for me and others! Please fix with the next update. No need to have removed the capability anyway.

No, you cannot pair an iOS device and a computer, or even 2 iOS devices using Bluetooth. It is not necessary for ANYTHING. It is not necessary for Mirroring, it is not necessary for streaming content (I do both on a daily basis without pairing) because content streaming and mirroring use Wi-Fi, not Bluetooth. It is not necessary for Airdrop, for sharing messages between devices, for file transfer. There is NO function that you might want to do that requires pairing Bluetooth.

dartimcoo wrote:

I went to apple.com/feedback and reported this as a bug under macbook, and linked this thread and pointed out it currently has 711 users with the same problem. Don't know if it will help, but it can't hurt. That's how we can report it to Apple, if anyone else cares to bug them. If all 711 people posted feedback about bluetooth at once maybe they'd notice and listen ;-)

All that demonstrates is that 711 people don’t understand how Apple devices communicate. They don’t use Bluetooth. Never. Not required for anything. Airdrop and mirroring establish the connection using BLE, which does not require pairing, but use Wi-Fi for data communication because BT is much too slow.

My interest in the connection between a MacBook Pro and an iPhone via Bluetooth was based in the following:

When I am at my summer camp I access the internet via the hotspot on my iPhone. As I understand it, the MacBook Pro can autoconnect with the iPhone hotspot as long as both devices are logged in to the same iCloud account. However because Mac and the iPhone are not connected via WiFi yet, they cannot autoconnect via WiFi and a prompt comes up to announce that the iPhone hotspot is available, do I wish to connect?

What I am trying to achieve is true autoconnect to my hotspot, ie, I want it to connect to my iPhone hotspot by default in instances where the general WiFi connection I use (at home) is unavailable. My thoughts were that if the iPhone and the Mac could connect via Bluetooth, then they would be associated with each other and the WiFi would then autoconnect.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the definition of what they mean by autoconnecting: that they in fact mean that this notification pops up asking if I want to connect to my hotspot and offering a connect button. If so I consider that less attractive than the thing just auto-joining which I prefer.

Jiggering around with the settings with the local router shut off and disconnected I noticed the auto-join option for the hotspot becomes visible, but checking it doesn't survive and it disappears once the local router is reconnected.

Am I all wet in what I am looking for? Anybody figured this one out already?

This is a very long thread, so it’s sort of understandable that you didn’t read it before posting, even though the answer appears in it many times. But to summarize:

Apple devices do not support or require computer to computer or smart device to computer Bluetooth pairing. This is intentional. They do not require it because all data sharing functions are available without pairing, including continuity functions, data sync functions, backups, data transfer using AirDrop. Some of these functions (e.g., AirDrop) use BlueTooth Low Energy (BLE, once called Bluetooth 4 before 5 and 6 were released). BLE is an app-to-app protocol rather than device to device, and it does not require pairing. The do not support it because it is a potential security vulnerability.

But even though your phone and computer can’t connect using paired Bluetooth that does not limit their use for data sharing in any way.

The one thing that you can use BT for is using the phone’s personal hotspot as a “modem” for the computer. But even then you are better off using the Personal Hotspot to create a Wi-Fi network that multiple devices can connect. BT is severely speed limited. Using the Personal Hotspot as a Wi-Fi router has given me up to 500 mbps when my iPhone 16 is connected to a 5Guc network.

I did those exact instructions, and my MacBook Pro connected directly to the Personal Hotspot, but it wasn’t listed on the phone. Because as I said, the only possible Bluetooth connection from a computer is to Personal Hotspot. I could access the internet on my MBP through the personal hotspot.

It's not just Macs, from my experience. It's any device that has a pairing code. For example, I found the problem first with my BT security keys that I use for two factor authentication. I was trying to connect them to my iPhone 14. Apple support sent me to the Genius Bar to get a new phone. But they also had the same problem with their iPhone 13. And they confirmed that my phone was healthy. It turns out to be bug in ios 16. I was hoping 16.1.1 would fix it, but it does not. And, before anyone says it's not supported, I was using my security keys with my iPhone 13 and ios 15.x.

In addition to the problem already described, I did notice that when do connect my iphone to the macbook -- which instantly goes to not connected status -- the ios versions reported under the "i" are wrong. The Macbook says it 16.1 and my phone is 16.1.1. And, yes, I did do a forget my device a few times to make sure it was not remembering my phone when I was connecting with 16.1.0. Also, I don't know if anyone reported this, but when I look at the list of not connected devices, hovering over each device will have a pop-up box saying "connect". But the iPhone on the Macbook does not come up with a connect box. Lots of weird things. I certainly kept the Genius Bar guys going for a while!

But my BT is working fine with my Airpods and "dumb" BT devices. It's the pair codes that seem to be at the heart of the issue.

I'm not positive, but I think NFC is also screwed up. My BT security keys also use NFC and those didn't work either.

You cannot pair an iOS device and a computer of any kind using Bluetooth-by intentional design. Apple provides multiple ways to communicate between devices, and none of them require pairing using Bluetooth, except for using the phone’s personal hotspot, and that works, as I have already posted.

As you would know from reading the thread you posted to.

I don't think you read my message. My initial problem was with BT security keys and my iPhone. And yes there is a reason for an iPhone to communicate with a Macbook: when it acts as a security key. I went through multiple levels of Apple support and they sent me to the Genius Bar to get a new iPhone 14 because the problem started with my new 14. Turns out it was ios 16. My 13 was working fine. When I got to the GB, they had the same issues with multiple devices and combinations. They have reported this as a bug.

The issue seems to be with pair codes. Devices that use them don't work and the ones that don't, do. Perhaps we are talking about different issues but this thread was sent to me by Apple support as a place to monitor to see when a fix would be out.

I have the same issue on below configures.

iPhone 12/iOS Version 16.1.1

MacBook Air/M1,2020, MacOS Ventura Version 13.0.1

File airdrop is working from iPhone to MacBook;

File airdrop is not working from MacBook to iPhone.

Before Software Update, they worked well.

iPhone 12/iOS Version 16.0.2

MacBook Air/M1,2020, MacOS 12 Monterey

File airdrop is working from iPhone to MacBook;

File airdrop is working from MacBook to iPhone.

I read this (long and instructive) thread as I was not able to pair iPhone and iMac (or iPad) via BT. Do I understand correctly that it's impossible because all those devices are BT masters and cannot become slaves ? Was it always the case (that's what I understand here)?

In any case, documentation (as shown in various posts) and messages are a bit misleading. When pairing fails (for good reason) the message is "Pairing failed. Make sure iPhone is turned on, in range and ready for pairing". Which obviously it will never be…

I hadn’t considered that you couldn’t pair because they were both masters, but that could be correct.

The message is generic; it doesn’t know why you can’t pair or what the other device that you are trying to pair with is; if it could find that out it would be a security vulnerability as you could get information about the device without connecting to it.

Thanks for the reply. I understand the vulnerability threat. Nevertheless, the message could say that you cannot pair between masters (It does tell you cannot pair with the iPhone; does it know it is an iPhone or does it just get the name ?). Or at least Apple's doc should explain.

Clearly, reason is not MacOs with iOS, as iPhone and iPad do not pair either. It would be interesting to confirm the root cause (2 masters).

I read somewhere that in the BT protocol, a master could switch state to slave. So that would mean that iOS, MacOS forbid it (did they allow in the past and change for security reason ?) where PC allow. And then the error message is partially correct (wait to be ready for pairing)… even though there is no way to get it ready.

Yes. It was working on ios 15. My BT security keys were working and then they stopped working with ios 16. The subsequent updates have not fixed the issue and when I took the phone to the Genius Bar, they thought it was a bug and reported it as such. So, I'm pretty sure it's not expected behavior. The common element seems to be any device that has a pairing code. So "dumb" shower radios and airpods work fine. But anything that would have a pairing code appear does not seem to work.

I think it is the intended (even though not explained properly) behaviour. I would suspect that for some reason, they removed the slave mode from iOS or MacOS devices. It could be a security issue, a performance issue (they talked about BT speed limitations hindering AirPods, so the same could apply for inter devices communication) or a compatibility with some applications.