Macbook Air (mid-2012) won't pair with iPhone 6

Hi Lawrence.

I understand your frustration at some of the threads. However, I have followed the instructions to the absolute letter and also tried some other suggestions put forward. All to no avail. For a brief spell it appeared to work but that has now ceased. Very frustrating. Can't help feeling that there will be an update that will fix the problem at some stage so I guess I will have to wait.

Thanks for trying to help.

Handsoff works with my iMac (late 2012), but doesn't with my Macbook Air (mid 2012).

Both shows nothing under the bluetooth icon, but under the wifi icon, I see my iPhone in my iMac.

I don't see this from the MBA.

I'm connected to the same wifi on both machines, so I have no idea why iMac is able to see my phone, but not MBA.

Anyway I tested turning off wifi, handsoff still works, so it shouldn't matter.

Have tried logging out/in icloud in MBA, but it doesn't help.

What's the problem here?

Clicking the Send File to Device under the bluetooth icon did the the trick.

From a suggestion here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6537742?answerId=26856568022#26856568022

Lawrence, just wanted to say a big thank you. I was having the exact issues everyone is on about on here. I read your comments and just followed them and bingo, continuity/handoff all working fine. My iPhone and MBP were NOT paired which is what makes it work. I was getting hung up on them having to be paired for it to work. Suprisingly I booked a genius appointment and wasn't told this by the rep. He checked my iPhone 6+ and MBP both connected to a jam box which they did. Then said it must be a software issue and I'd just have to wait for a software update. I now know that this isn't the case. They just connect seamlessly if they both have Bluetooth on. So once again, cheers bud 🙂

Great; glad I could be helpful.

Well done Markojan! Your solution worked with me. Thanks a million.

I had the same problem. I was able to get it to work by turning on Personal Hotspot on my iphone. It can be found at Settings > Cellular> Personal Hotspot

My understanding is that in order to get the continuity and the handoff features to work all that has to happen is bluetooth on both apple devices. I had to do a clean install of yosemite to get my handoff and continuity to work because I had some aplication conflicts in my inplace version.

You need to have BlueTooth turned on, but NOT PAIRED. Continuity features use a connectionless BlueTooth profile and the pairing is app to app, not device to device. Thus, to use, for example, SMS continuity you must launch Messages on both the Mac and iPhone. You should then be prompted to enter a code on one that was sent by the other. If this doesn't happen quit the Mac Messages app and relaunch it. For call continuity you do the same with Facetime on the Mac.

Tried that too Lawrence. Still no luck. It is a mystery and very frustrating..

Have you gone through all of the steps here: Get help using Continuity with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite?

Is your logged in iCloud ID the same on your all of the apps on your phone (iCloud, Facetime, Messages, iTunes & App Stores)? Are you logged in to the same Apple ID on your Mac, and also Messages and Facetime on your Mac? Have you checked your iCloud address as one to use on both your Messages apps (Mac and iPhone)?

Yes. Tried all of that too. Have an Apple Store 20 miles away. May have to book an appointment. Thanks for your help though Lawrence. Keep up the good work.

Hi all,

Handoff worked once I succeeded to pair both iPhone and Macbook just once. Since then, "continuity" is being sporadic; works and then stop working for a while then comes back, then works only in one way mac-->iphone and not iphone-->mac.

Apple is really becoming annoying as this is not the first time things are just not working consistently. They are losing all I love about apple i.e. "things just work". Pity.

I followed the advice here and my iPhone 6 connected immediately to my mac book air. Problem solved at last having tried everything else!

http://www.iphonehacks.com/2014/10/bluetooth-problems-ios-8.html

Iphone 6plus and macbook pro mid 2014 same problem! Pleeeaaassseee fiiiiixxxxxxxxxx 😢