Handoff not working anymore after update to Ventura 13.3

Hi!

If possible, try these recommendations:

1. Check that Handoff is enabled: Go to System Preferences > General and ensure that the option "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices" is enabled.
2. Check that Bluetooth is enabled: Handoff requires Bluetooth to be enabled on both your Mac and your other devices. Go to System Preferences > Bluetooth and ensure that Bluetooth is turned on.
3. Sign out of iCloud and sign back in: Go to System Preferences > Apple ID and sign out of iCloud. Then sign back in and check if the Handoff feature is working.
4. Restart your devices: Try restarting both your Mac and your other devices and see if the Handoff feature starts working again.
5. Reset the Bluetooth module: If none of the above steps work, you can try resetting the Bluetooth module on your Mac. To do this, go to System Preferences > Bluetooth, hold down the Option key and click on the Bluetooth icon. Then select "Reset the Bluetooth module" and follow the prompts.

As an update to this. As stated in the previous post I ended up signing out of iCloud on one of the Macs and re-signing in. At present (going on 4 days now) everything seems to be working as designed. Not holding my breath. Given the many strange things nothing seems beyond strange. That said the issues seem to be with Macs and Ventura as all of the Continuity/Handoff features continued to work between iPads and iPhones. Also strange is that signing out of iCloud on one Mac "cured" the problem on two Macs. Seems to point to an iCloud/Ventura issue.

I can confirm what @warner272 described:

The update to macOS 13.1.1 initially fixed all issues.

Then Handoff / Universal Clipboard stopped working for me again under 13.3.1 for my iPhone.

But this time a restart of the iPhone fixed the issue again (which was not the case before), and in the process a progress window appeared on the Mac for less than a second "connecting to iPhone" (or something like this).

The iPhone shows up in the Finder's sidebar and can be accessed from there. So the iPhone is generally visible to the Mac and part of my setup / Apple ID. But the configuration screen did not appear until I connected by cable. Then I had to "trust the device" again, which I had already done after the updates to the latest versions of iOS and macOS.

I checked the firewall settings as suggested by @VicoMurray: Universal Control is added to allow incoming connections.

For my iPad Handoff still works fine with my Mac, both Universal Control and Universal Clipboard.

On the iPad, too, the configuration screen in the Finder would not show up until I connected via Cable and did the "trust the device" step.

It started working (for now) again. The 13.3.1 (a) update may have done it but I also updated my iPad and iPhone to 16.4.1 (a) at the same time. So maybe it's the Ventura update or the whole package. Fingers crossed. Because I use handoff a lot.

See if booting into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and then rebooting normally will fix it permanently.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

Reply

Thanks!

1. Sign out of iCloud and sign back in: Go to System Preferences > Apple ID and sign out of iCloud. Then sign back in and check if the Handoff feature is working.

Worked!!!!

My solution is logging out and re-logging in iCloud in my Mac

Good luck guys!

Not sure if this is still a problem but 99% sure this will fix it:

Sign (out and) in on Facetime on your Mac.

Logging into FaceTime to fix handoff?? Sounded unlikely...but tried it and it instantly fixed the problem and now indeed Handoff works as expected. Did nothing else besides log into FaceTime on Mac. Weird -but nice- find! Thanks!

Turn off on Bluetooth and Sign out in iCloud solved the problem.

For me it was the mismatch in settings for Facetime Gestures/Reactions. Switching them off across devices worked like a charm for me.

This recurring problem is recurring again. (Handoff/Continuity/Login with AppleWatch) It used to happen frequently prior to Ventura. Up until macOS 13.3 I hadn't experienced any issues across iMac 24, MacBook Air M2, iPhone 14Pro, AppleWatch 8 and several iPads. After 13.3 it just stopped working with the two Macs. After following the steps signing out of iCloud brought it back. UNTIL 13.3.1. All devices are running the current versions. Now it's back again. I'm about to sign out of iCloud again to see if that fixes the issue this time around (again.) What Apple's advice to sign out of iCloud doesn't tell you is just how destructive that process is. I've lost data and settings each time I have to do that. Getting my bank card set back up on Apple Pay is a multi-day process.

An interesting note. Both times this occurred (13.3 and 13.3.1 and corresponding other updates) the problems manifested 4 days after updating systems to the latest OS updates. This is consistently inconsistent.

I had a similar problem with copying and pasting from/to iPhone to Ventura 13.3 M1. I just solved it by adding UniversalControl.app to the Firewall Settings. I found the details here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/124v25i/comment/je6bngz/

I hope this helps.

Update: I've had the problem consistently for weeks now, even if iCloud stuff/restarting sometimes fixed it for a few hours. BUT, I did the latest Ventura update yesterday and so far, it hasn't been back.