OS X Yosemite & iPhone 5 (iOS 8.0.2) - Phone calls not working on Mac ("iPhone Not Available")

Question

Level 1

0 points

OS X Yosemite & iPhone 5 (iOS 8.0.2) - Phone calls not working on Mac ("iPhone Not Available")

I have the following setup:

mid-2013 MacBook Air recently upgraded to OS X Yosemite
iPhone 5 running iOS 8.0.2

Bluetooth & Wi-Fi are enabled on both. Both devices are definitely connected to my same local wi-fi network (Linksys WRT1900AC router). Airdrop is now open to Everyone, which is what worked to get Handoff to function.

However, I cannot make or receive phone calls on my Mac. When I try to initiate a phone call from my mac, it looks like it is attempting to dial, then after a few seconds the dialog changes to say ...

"iPhone Not Available"

"Your iPhone and Mac must be on the same Wi-Fi network"

I do not have the firewall enabled on my mac's network connection, nor do I have anything fancy setup on my router that would segment these devices from each other.

I have also signed-out of FaceTime on both devices, rebooted both, and signed back in using my Apple ID (iCloud) account.

What gives? Aren't these upgrades supposed to be pretty smooth and user-friendly??

If there are any system logs or anything I can look, please point me in that direction.

Thanks.

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 17, 2014 7:16 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Oct 18, 2014 1:24 AM in response to rmaz410

I have this same issue too. I'm using MacBook Pro Mid 2012 model and an iPhone 5 running 8.0.2.
However my concern is that the call feature might be having trouble because i have my iCloud account linked to my apple id.
I tried removing one of the id's but still the problem remains and now my handoff function is not working after trying that.

Reply

Answer 2

rmaz410 Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 20, 2014 6:34 PM in response to Srikanthskumar

Wow, I think I resolved the issue. I configured my router a while ago to enable goth the 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz wireless networks. I noticed that someone found a requirement that both devices (iPhone & Mac) need to be on the same subnet for phone calls to work. They were both indeed on the typical 255.255.255.0 subnet provided by the router's DHCP server. However, my MacBook Air was connected on the 5 GHz radio and my iPhone was showing active on the 2.4 GHz network.

I now disabled the 5 GHz radio on my router and rebooted it. Phone calls between my iPhone & MacBook Air now work!! Why aren't the technical requirements of this setup spelled out anywhere and made available to the public? I would have to imagine this sort of very common setup was tested by Apple, right??

Reply

Answer 3

ngalang

Level 1

0 points

Oct 21, 2014 1:28 PM in response to rmaz410

how did you disable the 5GHz radio?? I'm using an airport extreme.

Reply

Answer 4

ngalang

Level 1

0 points

Oct 21, 2014 1:40 PM in response to ngalang

I found a solution as well.

Airport Utility on my Mac wasn't picking up my 6th generation Airport Extreme, and so i restarted the router and it popped up on the Airport Utility. After that, I was able to make calls seamlessly.

Reply

Answer 5

markwmsn

Level 6

16,757 points

Oct 21, 2014 2:32 PM in response to rmaz410

rmaz410 wrote:

They were both indeed on the typical 255.255.255.0 subnet provided by the router's DHCP server. However, my MacBook Air was connected on the 5 GHz radio and my iPhone was showing active on the 2.4 GHz network.

The important part isn't the mask (255.255.255.0), though they do need to match, or the frequency. What's critical is that both devices be in the same subnet as identified by the address part (typically 192.168.x.y for local networks with the mask you mentioned); "x" is the same for the whole subnet, but "y" would be different for each device. Sounds like your 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks were using different subnets.

Reply

Answer 6

Nov 13, 2015 1:46 PM in response to markwmsn

I had the same problem. Turns out that rmaz410 was right and I was on the wrong subnet, but after getting them on the same subnet (both 2.4 and 5g) I still don't see Use cellular data on my iPhone. Anybody come across this problem?

Reply

Answer 7

TMack409

Level 1

0 points

Jan 10, 2016 11:18 AM in response to rmaz410

I disabled the 2.4GHz signal on the Linksys WRT1900AC (leaving only the 5GHz signal). Reboot everything iOS and Router. Works perfectly! Problem is, I don't want to leave the 2.4GHz channel turned off...

Reply