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Q: Bluetooth Support of Keyboards / Missing Dialogue Screen.

I have an iPhone 4S. Yes, not the newest and most shiny of the iPhones but I'm still in the cool-kids club.

I'm trying to pair an external Bluetooth keyboard and the dialogue screen telling me what passcode to enter on the keyboard is failing to show up. I know this screen exists as it's present on my iPhone 3gs.

How do I provoke my 4S into cooperating with this process?

iPhone 4S, iOS 9.2.1

Posted on Mar 25, 2016 10:52 AM

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Q: Bluetooth Support of Keyboards / Missing Dialogue Screen.

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  • by Ingo2711,

    Ingo2711 Ingo2711 Mar 25, 2016 11:04 AM in response to Ikearat
    Level 7 (25,824 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 25, 2016 11:04 AM in response to Ikearat

    Just to make sure, as you can only pair your keyboard to one device at a time, is the keyboard still connected to your 3gs?

    Set up and use third-party Bluetooth accessories - Apple Support

     

    Does the 4s support this accessory?

  • by Ikearat,

    Ikearat Ikearat Mar 25, 2016 1:04 PM in response to Ingo2711
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 25, 2016 1:04 PM in response to Ingo2711

    Yes. The keyboard is disconnected from the old phone. The procedure for this involves "holding" the three keys, Shift, Fn (function) and the letter "B" keys. The keyboard indicates it is un-paired and ready to accept a new pairing with sounds and a change in the status light on the keyboard device.

    The link you provided for the third-party support was my first stop and it does not offer any suggestions as to why the phone does not show the pairing dialogue related to the passphrase (4-digit number). The 4S data sheet shows Bluetooth 4 support so according to these specifications, this should work.

    Additional information;

    Upon further experimentation with this issue I found that if you "guess" the 4-digit passphrase and enter it on the keyboard, the phone briefly displays the correct passphrase screen and then replaces that screen with an error message telling the user that the "guess" entry is incorrect.

    If my understanding of anything is reliable, the phone should show you the passphrase code screen -before- the user enters anything on the keyboard so that the user knows exactly what to enter on the keyboard. The passphrase screen is being suppressed for some reason.

    The keyboard successfully pairs with Android, PalmOS and desktop computers including my iMac 27". Only the IOS devices such as my iPhone and iPad fail this pairing task.

     

    Edit: My Apple Bluetooth keyboard pairs (and is now unpaired) with my iPhone 4S. The Apple keyboard does not request a passphrase confirmation and as such, does not provoke the same pairing failure. The phone is not showing the passphrase screen when the Bluetooth pairing specification requires it.

  • by Ingo2711,

    Ingo2711 Ingo2711 Mar 25, 2016 1:30 PM in response to Ikearat
    Level 7 (25,824 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 25, 2016 1:30 PM in response to Ikearat

    Did you check with the Bluetooth manufacturer to make sure that your accessory works with your iOS device?

    Some 3rd party keyboards might not be supported by the iOS firmware on iDevices.

    Also check this article again, just in case.

    Get help connecting a Bluetooth accessory with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support