Cannot pair bluetooth - iPhone to Macbook Air

I have the same problem as a lot of people. Bluetooth used to connect all three devices, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and I could use Airdrop between them all for photos. Airdrop now only works between my iPhone and iPad, and MacBook Pro no longer recognises my iPhone and iPad on Bluetooth, although they recognise MacBook. In addition I can no longer copy from iPhone to iPad and vv. And just as annoying, some photos on my phone appear in Photostream on my MacBook, while others, taken minutes earlier, don't.

What is going on? I didn't pay premium prices to get substandard functionality.

Hdb1959 wrote:

me too

Then I suggest you read the other 8 pages of the thread you posted to, which explain over and over that BY DESIGN you cannot pair an iOS device with another iOS device or a computer, but also that there is no function that requires pairing an iOS device to other iOS devices or computers.

OK, I just had a post removed by apple for not abiding rules of the board.

whilst I admit that my writing was piqued. It was directly addressing a matter central to this thread. ‘Has it ever been possible to pair an iPhone and a Mac via Bluetooth’.

I believe that the experiences recounted in this thread, plus the fact that a developer created a piece of commercial software that relied on this feature, proves that yes, it was possible.

yet two posters continue to insist, as if with one voice and with unshakable authority that, no, it has never been possible.

I do believe that getting consensus on this fact is important to pressing forward with addressing this with Apple.

Is there anything that might be done to prove this irrefutably? Perhaps someone could create a video of this pairing in operation on an older system? And even Type2Phone in action. Or even tethering an iPhone Wi-Fi connection to a Mac via BT. That would be hot.

I do not man to be contentious but I seems valuable to get this right amongst ourselves because, as it has been pointed out, Apple is not on this board. 😳

Before I updated to Monterey I could pair my iPhone SE to my MacBook Pro easily. Now it says Pairing Unsuccessful.

I don't know why people are saying that Apple never meant for this to work this way when it always has worked that way before Monterey.

I had to buy a third-party program to easily transfer files to my MacBook Pro. I used to be able to do so with AirDrop (without iCloud). For business security reasons, I will never use iCloud. It is against our company policy to use "cloud" servers for client information. We are liable for our clients' data.

So, yes. It worked easily before Monterey no matter what people are saying in this thread.

duc174 wrote:

Before I updated to Monterey I could pair my iPhone SE to my MacBook Pro easily. Now it says Pairing Unsuccessful.

I don't know why people are saying that Apple never meant for this to work this way when it always has worked that way before Monterey.

Because Apple never meant it to work. And it has not always worked that way. It has never worked that way. You can use other ways to transfer content, as you have found out, with 3rd party apps that use BLE, which does not require pairing. You can also use Wi-Fi, but Wi-Fi is not Bluetooth.

I had to buy a third-party program to easily transfer files to my MacBook Pro. I used to be able to do so with AirDrop (without iCloud). For business security reasons, I will never use iCloud. It is against our company policy to use "cloud" servers for client information. We are liable for our clients' data.

So, yes. It worked easily before Monterey no matter what people are saying in this thread.

Why would it say "Pairing Unsuccessful" if it's not supported?

If it says "Pairing Unsuccessful" then there must be a "Pairing Successful".

It should say "Pairing Not Supported" if it wasn't supported.

And you are calling me a liar when I told you it worked every day before Monterey. Everyone in this thread should not be Gas-Lighted. We are not delusional.

Why is there even a Pairing option if it's not supported. You guys don't making any sense.

Sorry. It was working for me until I upgraded to IOS 16. The issue is not just with the connection between my new iPhone and my Mac, it was with any BT device that has a pairing code. So my AirPods work and my dumb shower radio work. But my iPhone and BT security key no longer works. There seems to be an issue with pair codes.

I went to the Apple Genius Bar and they reproduced the issue and supposedly put in a bug report. I've called Apple tech support and got escalated to supposed experts that all believed my phone should pair and act as a hardware security key.

Why Apple cannot get this working after having it work is a bit of a mystery. Not once have they said it shouldn't work.

Read all pages... Noticed a few irritated reactions especially from people that are convinced that BT 'never paired' etc etc etc. As published by others, BT did 'pair' in the past. You were able to pair older iPhones and IOS'es and older MBook's with older OS'es with each other; maybe it was never intended to work, it did work. And now it doesn't: "Pairing not supported". I miss the feature, other people miss it as well, all for our own reasons, so maybe apple should rethink their strategy, however that is up to them.

Shall we now get over that issue (or better: fact) and continue to respect each other's opinions and thoughts on this post?

Ref hotspot-not-connecting-to-MBPro with later OS: I did reset my phone internet settings, and yes, before connecting to my iPhone hotspot, I turned off the MBPro BT. My hotspot did connect to my MBPro. Better even, if I now switch on my BT again, the hotspot remains connected. After that, leaving BT on, I disconnected the hotspot, connected to my local wifi account, did some stuff on i'net and disconnected my local wifi, and re-connected to my hotspot again, still having BT 'on'. The hotspot connected and worked. I logged out from my account, logged back on, this all leaving BT on, and surprise surprise, I was still able to (re) connect with the iPhone-hotspot. Only when shutting down and restarting my MBPro I have to switch off the BT before reconnecting with the hotspot; as long as I do not shut down my MBPro I can (re)connect with hotspot, after switching on BT after first log-in to hotspot. Hope this contribution is useful to some.

Update on my post: I did do a SMC reset on the MBPro and now it is connecting to iPhone-Hotspot with BT left on. Weird, I did so before and it did not solve the connecting issue, however supposedly it did solve it now.

I have tried everything to connect my iPhone with my MacBook Air, all updated. Nothing. I have listened to all suggestions and ironically can connect my Samsung 23 ultra to my MacBook but not my phone 14 pro max. What on earth are you doing Apple??? Do you ever listen to your customers? Argh

Ray Green wrote:

I have tried everything to connect my iPhone with my MacBook Air, all updated. Nothing.

For what purpose are you trying to connect the two? If you could explain what, exactly you're trying to accomplish, perhaps someone could give you further suggestions.

What on earth are you doing Apple??? Do you ever listen to your customers?

Well, they certainly don't here in this user-to-user forum.

Ray Green wrote:

I have tried everything to connect my iPhone with my MacBook Air, all updated. Nothing. I have listened to all suggestions and ironically can connect my Samsung 23 ultra to my MacBook but not my phone 14 pro max. What on earth are you doing Apple??? Do you ever listen to your customers? Argh

That’s because BY DESIGN you cannot connect an iOS device to a computer using Bluetooth. There is absolutely no reason to connect an iPhone and a Mac using Bluetooth; it does not add any functionality that isn’t already available without using Bluetooth. That’s why Apple has never provided a way to do so.

Trying to transfer photos from my iPhone 12 running iOS 16.3.1 to my MBPro 16 running Mac OS 13.4.1 without having to connect a cable between the two. Sorry, but no idea what handoff and continuity are. I was hoping Photos would recognize the connection (as it does with a cable) to allow an import.

Neither will by iPhone 8 pair with my M1 book air both with latest software. However it just loves pairing with my old 2015 macbook pro still running Mojave. Tends to make me think it is the system upgrade on the mac that is the problem. Apple fix this. puuuuuuhleeese.

Various software vendors provide solutions to allow you to screen mirror and remote control an iPhone. You need to pair the iPhone to the computer such that the computer is used as a bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

This works perfectly with a PC (Dell 7590), but does not work with a Mac Book Pro.

So, there are use cases that require the paring of a iPhone to a Mac.