Continuity / Handoff and AirDrop very intermittent

Question

Level 1

8 points

Continuity / Handoff and AirDrop very intermittent

I have problems with some continuity features, especially Handoff, between my devices. Sometimes it's working, sometimes not and it's generally very unreliable. For handoffs requiring also documents transfer via iCloud, it's totally unusable.

My setup:

- iPhone 5S 64GB (iOS8.1), iPad Air 128GB (iOS8.1), Late 2013 MacBook Pro 15" (Yosemite)

- All devices have Bluetooth enabled, AirDrop enabled, are on the same WiFi (802.11ac) network SSID, all using same Apple ID

Now the problems:

- AirDrop between iOS devices worked usually fine, but sometimes required turning on/off bluetooth and/or AirDrop. Seems to get a little better with iOS8.1, even though not perfect still

- AirDrop between iOS and Yosemite worked only when AirDrop "Everyone" setting was used on MacBook, "Contacts Only" was sufficient for iOS. The Picture in target circle for MacBook was sometimes missing (only grey bubble was showing) and when used, sometimes responded with transfer "Error". MacBook also usually takes much longer to appear as a target in general.

- Handoff works with enabled apps from iPhone to iPad and MacBook, from iPad to iPhone and MacBook, but from MacBook only to iPhone, NOT iPad. It suddenly stopped working even though it worked ok before. Tried restarts and resets of all devices, enabling and disabling Bluetooth and AirDrop, nothing helped.

- Handoff which requires also iCloud for documents transfer (like opening new document in iWork apps) hardly ever works instantly, sometimes not at all. I suppose it's related to my iCloud Drive general slowness issue I've posted in iCloud forums - it just can't upload and download the file to/from iCloud in time (despite being barely 300kB in size) for Handoff to work correctly and open the same file on the other device.

I suspect Bluetooth might be an issue, as the Bluetooth problems seem to be mentioned elsewhere and apparently are not adressed in full by iOS8.1 (pairing problems, etc), but that's just an observation.

Any ideas? Anyone experienced the same issues?

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.1

Posted on Oct 23, 2014 5:08 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 23, 2014 9:50 AM in response to Phantomski

Same problem here.

I think continuity has been working for me since yesterday. I don't know why, but suddenly my iMac and Macbook Pro has stopped seeing my iPhone.

Handoff doesn't work too.

Just as a clue, could be that iCloud see my account different because sometimes takes my @me account and sometimes @mac?

This is annoying...

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Answer 2

vrungel

Level 1

1 points

Nov 6, 2014 11:06 PM in response to Phantomski

My beef with the Handoff is it stops working from my iPhone 5S to the late-2013 rMBP when I move out of range of the Mac (i.e. go outside) then come back. At that time the Handoff only works in the direction from the iPhone to the Mac, but I'm unable to handoff anything from the Mac to the iPhone. The only way I've been able to consistently get the Handoff working in both directions again is by logging out of iCloud on the iPhone then back in. Needless to say that this is very annoying.

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Answer 3

DM-

Level 1

5 points

Nov 7, 2014 4:55 PM in response to Phantomski

Same intermittent behavior for me. Handoff will work correctly from all devices (iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Pro) some times and then not at other times. No configuration changes or reboots in between either. In my case, the failing scenario is most often iPhone 6 plus to Macbook Pro Retina 13" (2014). Handoff for safari and mail apps not appearing on Macbook Pro desktop finder. In general, like the original poster describe, the feature is just "buggy". I'm very surprised Apple released it in this state and can only hope that they improve it in subsequent IOS and OS X releases. It is like magic when it works - just need it to work more often :-).

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Answer 4

Dec 23, 2014 11:58 PM in response to Phantomski

Same here. Its totally intermittent condition. What's the use of this feature if you always need to restart just to get the continuity between your devices. I just turn off for a while my idevices then turn back on then the handoff feature will not work at all, then i need to restart my devices the get the continuity work again. i got iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, iPhone 5 and Macbook Pro.

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