Cannot pair bluetooth - iPhone to Macbook Air

claudeFromToulouse wrote:

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.

They didn’t remove it; it was never there. Because there is absolutely nothing that it is needed for.

Does anyone know if the Ventura update on my MacBook air will solve the issue with the inability to pair with my iPhone 13 Pro? I had no issues with pairing prior to updating to Monterey but now cannot pair these two devices. Keeps giving me the Pairing unsuccessful - MacBook air not supported

KQMCI43 wrote:

Does anyone know if the Ventura update on my MacBook air will solve the issue with the inability to pair with my iPhone 13 Pro? I had no issues with pairing prior to updating to Monterey but now cannot pair these two devices. Keeps giving me the Pairing unsuccessful - MacBook air not supported

I do know that Apple will never release a version of iOS or Mac OS that can pair with another computer, and no version in the past has been able to either; if you remember doing it your memory is faulty. It is by design and is a security feature. But there is nothing that you need to do between iOS and Mac OS that requires pairing Bluetooth.

thanefromforest hills wrote:

My understanding is that it's an ios 16 issue and not Ventura. At least that is what I found. It was the move from 15 to 16 the immediately led to the problem.

It is neither. Apple has NEVER, EVER supported pairing an iOS device to a computer using Bluetooth, except for using a personal hotspot, and that still works. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!!!!!!

There is no conceivable function that requires Bluetooth pairing an iOS device to a Mac or PC, or to another iOS device.

Sorry. Tell that to Apple, then. They filled a bug report based on this exact issue and asked me to follow the issue on this forum.

As for reasons, just one reason is that I have BT security keys, such as the ones Google uses, that need to connect to both my iPhone and Mac to complete a key based two step verification process. As for the iPhone and Mac, iPhones can also be used as security keys. Not to be confused with the pop-up messages. I loved this feature because users should have two security keys and having one built into the iPhone was a great savings. See, this issue isn't just for me. It's impacting my entire office. We were all using these features until ios 15 rolled over to 16. Now I'm having to buy expensive USB-C security keys.

For more information on security keys and Apple, Google has a nice summary:

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6103523?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS

hello, you keep denying other users' need is not helpful. If you actually read through all requests, for example, some of us want to use one keyboard (from mac) to type in iphones (because certain apps are only on iphone like snapchat); i use type2phone and i emailed the developer, i got response like this, looks like it's a real apple bug and i am pasting the response here for other users' future reference:

Hi xxx,

Since the release of macOS 12.4 it is no longer possible to pair new devices to use with Type2Phone. We had hoped for Apple to swiftly fix this bug. They did not. It may even have gotten worse with the release of macOS 13.1

My hopes for Apple to fix the bug are gone. We working to find a workaround, but my hopes are low. No competititor has succeeded. Most likely, this seems to be the end of Type2Phone and similar apps.

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

I have the same issue, cannot pair and have used the forget device on both devices, reboot and tried to repair devices with no Success. I have a iPhone 13 Pro Max IOS 16.2 and trying to pair with MacBook M1 Pro Ventura 13.1

PLEASE can someone help. I have also put it the cable and Accepted "trust the device"

GIo

It's required for security keys. The Apple tech support thought it should work and were surprised when it didn't. I don't think Apple would remove functionality. But I'm mystified why they cannot get it resolved. I'm having to buy expensive physical security keys for my staff because the iphone cannot be used as a security key any longer.

Thanks to those who replied with actual helpful info... to those who chose the snarky comments, please. refrain. I had been able to receive a facetime call on my phone and it would pop up on the mac book air so I could use either. Now, I can't pair them together so this isn't possible anymore. Seems like many are having this same issue. Apple hasn't addressed it either. Very frustrating coming from a brand that touts the ability to cross-pollinate between devices ( as I HAD been able to do until recently)

Cannot Pair my iphone with macbook air (so very, very, very, tired of spending hours of valuable time trying, generally with low success rate to solve device problems). This time I'm just trying to do the simplest thing of transfering a file from iphone to macbook and now here I am.

Is anybody else just fed up with this?

error message air is not suppported

thank you

BeTurnip wrote:

Cannot Pair my iphone with macbook air (so very, very, very, tired of spending hours of valuable time trying, generally with low success rate to solve device problems). This time I'm just trying to do the simplest thing of transfering a file from iphone to macbook and now here I am.

Is anybody else just fed up with this?

error message air is not suppported

thank you

Have you tried reading anything at all in this thread.

That is not supported. It has never been supported.

There is no need to do so. Use Airdrop.

oomappie wrote:

I would like to know why the iPhone and Mac will not pair. iPhone SE iOS 15.7.1; iMac OS Ventura 13.1

That's an easy question to answer: They don't pair because Apple didn't design them to pair.

Perhaps if you explain why you think you need to pair, someone can explain how to achieve your goal.

@several who they don't pair and ask people to explain why - you are revealing a lack of understanding of earlier functionality. As several have noted - actually, in iOS 15 and macOS 11, it was possible to pair Bluetooth on iPhone with a MacBook Air M1 as a bluetooth device (and also on Apple intel macs) - functionality which continued to work when upgrading to macOS 12. in iOS 16 and macOS 13 as of today's date latest updates, it is now broken.

As others noted as well, the pairing of an iPhone as Bluetooth device on a Mac in this manner, made it possible to use applications sold in the App Store and approved by Apple such as Type2Phone from Houdah, allowing a user to quickly touch-type on a phone from a MacBook's keyboard, without having to buy a separate Bluetooth keyboard. Was very helpful for messaging apps.

It seems that Apple has changed the functionality and dropped a supported feature *without* making this clear. Worse, AppleCare support techs "Genius" level (i.e. entry level!) don't know this and so waste users time suggesting to reset network settings on Mac or Iphone, re-install macOS, reset all settings, etc., if one does have support.

Apple can do what it wants but it is legitimate to complain about a premium product company that markets for caring about the user experience, doing this. Also, increasingly, Apple *forces* users to update macOS and iOS. For example, my watchOS, I couldn't update a security fix, without updating to a major new version of watchOS which also required updating to a major new version of iOS 16 first, breaking bluetooth pairing on Mac-to-iPhone. Until recently, each device would receive many years of security updates to the earlier OS versions.

The type-to-phone apps also are still in the App Store without any notice, a store Apple runs at great profit. Houdah has graciously edited their App Store comments telling users not to buy the app until this is fixed if you have newer macOS / iOS, although it works on older systems still. Houdah - a great company! Now that's user-friendly support. Their products are extremely useful and Apple increasingly breaks the functionality / makes it more challenging for developers.

Daver2020 wrote:

I see lots of folks having apple equipment problems.... been going on for a while any fixes for Bluetooth connectivity problems between Mac & iPhones???

Please read the post right above yours.

No. The last update didn't work. I updated both iPhone and Macbook. I logged into my Google account, which uses security keys and my iPhone is listed as a security key, and when the pop-up came asking if it was me logging in and I pressed yes, nothing happened. I tried connecting the iPhone and Mac via BT and while I got a pairing code pop-up, the connection failed and I got the message saying a connection with a Mac was not supported.

I'm really mystified why Apple is pushing security keys and this functionality -- which was working with ios 15 -- is no longer working.