Handoff Breakdown With Activation Tool

[johny979]

How is possible calls works for me, but I can´t see anything about handoff when I use imessage or mail???

If calls works, I have all configure ok?

 

[flowsy]

How is possible calls works for me, but I can´t see anything about handoff when I use imessage or mail???

If calls works, I have all configure ok?

Calls work via WiFi, Handoff needs Bluetooth LE.

 

[johny979]

Calls work via WiFi, Handoff needs Bluetooth LE.

Whats LE?

I hace MBA 2011 and with tutorial of this page I activate all options for work

 

[vobb]

These extra steps worked for me after numerous tries on my Mid 2011 MBA. Handoff now working. Worth a try for anyone hitting a wall. Worth adding to the OP UncleSchnitty?

What exactly are your commands and when are you using it? Just after deleting and before rebooting? Ill add it to the original I just want to make sure I have the right info. Honestly I didn't run into half of these issues but it may be because I did a clean install of Yosemite vs installing on-top of Mavericks. It looks like a lot of issues are coming from people who had bad permissions and something up with their caches before starting.

I can confirm that these extra steps worked for me as well.

This is what I did:

1. Deleted the files in /System/Library/Extensions/
2. Ran sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel then sudo kextcache -system-caches
3. Reboot
4. Kextdropped the modded files, then -system-prelinked-kernel and sudo kextcache -system-caches again
5. Reboot
6. After these steps Handoff finally showed up in system preferences and is now working on my mid 2011 MBA. However my wifi was a little unstable after all this, but repairing the disk permissions seemed to sort that out.

 

[flowsy]

Whats LE?

I hace MBA 2011 and with tutorial of this page I activate all options for work

Bluetooth L(ow) E(nergy) - and your MacBook Air supports it.

Did you log out of iCloud on all your devices - restart - and log in again?

 

[johny979]

Bluetooth L(ow) E(nergy) - and your MacBook Air supports it.

Did you log out of iCloud on all your devices - restart - and log in again?

Yes
Yesterday I do all this steps
And if calls works I think everything is configure ok?

Only oroblem I have is impossible to pair MBA with iphone6 with Bluetooth, but I read is problem ios 8.0.2 and in 8.1 fixed
I modify kext with tutorial and now all options appears on and activate
Airdrop and calls works perfectly but handoff no

 

[Impstoker]

Awesome!

Followed the instructions and it works a charm on my mid 2011 MacMini.
Thank you!

 

[flowsy]

Yes
Yesterday I do all this steps
And if calls works I think everything is configure ok?

Only oroblem I have is impossible to pair MBA with iphone6 with Bluetooth, but I read is problem ios 8.0.2 and in 8.1 fixed
I modify kext with tutorial and now all options appears on and activate
Airdrop and calls works perfectly but handoff no

They don't need to be paired, just bluetooth enabled on all devices as well as Handoff enabled on all devices. But I guess you don't mean "pairing".

Can you Airdrop something to your Mac?

 

[johny979]

They don't need to be paired, just bluetooth enabled on all devices as well as Handoff enabled on all devices. But I guess you don't mean "pairing".

Can you Airdrop something to your Mac?

I can Airdrop from MBA to iPhone, but in the other way I can't
If I select in iPhone a Photo, in Airdrop options not appears my macbook, but in my macbook if I search my iPhone appears

Strange??

 

[flowsy]

Strange??

Very strange... My last try would be repairing permissions on the Mac, but I'm sure you already did that. Maybe restart all the devices one more time. Hmm...

I'm sorry, hope somebody else can help you out.

 

[handsome924]

There are a ton of threads about this and I just wanted to put all the findings in one place with the updated procedures since there have been a lot of modifications recently.

Basically Handoff requires a built in Bluetooth 4.0 LE card to work but Apple has blacklisted some of the models that came standard with BT4.0LE so a modified Kext is required. If your system does not have BT4.0LE you will need to replace the card (and possibly modify Kext) to get handoff to work.

Breakdown:

Macbook Air:Early 2008-2010: Requires new bluetooth/wifi card and modified Kext.

Macbook Air:Mid 2011:Requires modified kext only

Macbook Air:Mid 2012-2014: Works OTB

cMacbookPros:Mid 2009-Mid2012 requires new bluetooth/Wifi card and Modified Kext.

RetinaMacBook Pros: Works OTB.

cMacPros:Early2008-2013 requires new bluetooth/Wifi only

NMacPros:Works OTB .

MacMini:Early 2009-2010 requires new bluetooth/Wifi Card and modified Kext.

MacMini:Mid 2011-2012 Only requires Modified Kext

iMac:Mid 2007-2011 requires bluetooth/Wifi Card and Modified Kext

iMac:Late 2012-2013 works OTB

I will also update the list above if someone lets me know that something is off. Since I don't have access to all these machines I cant try them all out to know 100%


Kext Mod. TUTORIAL
Modified from Dokterdok’s original

1. Download and install 0xED in your Applications folder, you can get it from here:
http://www.suavetech.com/0xed/

2. Download and install KextDrop in your Applications folder, you can get it from here:
http://www.cindori.org/software/kextdrop/

3. Repair your disk permissions. Go-> Utilities-> Disk Utility, then First Aid, Repair Permissions.

Then open Terminal and type :

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

4. Restart your machine.

5. Open Finder, type CMD+Shift+G and go to /System/Library/Extensions/

6. Copy the files below to your desktop and then delete the originals. Make an extra backup copy of the 2 files in a separate folder just in case something doesn't work.
Code:
IO80211Family.kext
IOBluetoothFamily.kext
7. Go to Terminal, and type: (exactly as below)

ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'

8. Your result should look like : Mac-742912EFDBEE19B3, (yours might be different.). Copy it to your clipboard (Select and CMD+C). Don't close terminal yet.

9. Open Finder and hit CMD+Shift+G, go to ~/Desktop/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/Plugins/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS
Note: if you have a different OS language, you might need to replace "Desktop" in the path with your local translation.

10. Right Click on AirPortBrcm4360, and choose OPEN WITH: OTHER: 0XED

11. In the upper right hand corner under “search text" search for "Mac-" (without the quotes).

12. Look at the first result, for example, it might be Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86

13. Delete the numbers after Mac- and Manually type your Mac- numbers (from step 8 be very careful not to delete anything else just the numbers.

14. Press down arrow till you get to the last Mac- (should look like Mac-2E6FAB96566FE58C)

15.Delete the numbers after Mac- and Manually type your Mac- numbers (from step 8 be very careful not to delete anything else just the numbers.

16. Click Save (the red circle)

17. Open Finder and hit CMD+Shift+G to open the "Go to" popup, and go to ~/Desktop/IOBluetoothFamily.kext/Contents/MacOS

18. Right Click on IOBluetoothFamily, and choose OPEN WITH: OTHER: 0XED.

19. In the SEARCH field (upper right corner) type:MacBookAir then enter.

20. You will find a block of text containing
Code:
'MacBookAir4,1''MacBookAir4,2''Macmini5,1''Macmini5,2''Macmini5,3'
Manually replace the numbers with ones only so they all look like:
Code:
'MacBookAir1,1''MacBookAir1,1''Macmini1,1''Macmini1,1''Macmini1,1'
Important: Be careful not to add any character while doing the replacement.

21. Click SAVE (the red circle button) and quit 0xED.

22. Open KextDrop, and Drag and drop the IO80211Family.kext that you modified into the window.

23. Click INSTALL.

24. Repeat steps 22 and 23 but for your modified IOBluetoothFamily.kext

25. Go Back to Terminal, and type the following commands. Wait for each one to finish.

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

You should see:
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext IOBluetoothFamily.kext

kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext AirPortBrcm4360.kext

sudo kextcache -system-caches

Nothing should show here.
Finally

nvram -p

Scroll thru the print out here to make sure it says "kext-dev-mode=1"


26. Reboot. Make sure you have an Internet connection for the next steps.

27. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> GENERAL, at the bottom click ENABLE HANDOFF.
(if this is not available then something went wrong and you have to use KextDrop to put your old kexts back in then run

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

sudo kextcache -system-caches

again, repair your permissions and start over)

28. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> ICLOUD, click on SIGN OUT.

29. On your iOS Device, go to SETTINGS> ICLOUD and SIGN OUT.

30. Restart your Mac and iOS device.

31. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> ICLOUD, and enter your credentials to sign in. (make sure keychain is active)

32. On your iOS Device, go to SETTINGS> ICLOUD and SIGN IN.(make sure keychain is active)



Troubleshooting:

1:Make sure your keychain is enabled under Preferences-> iCloud on both devices.

2:Make sure you iDevices have a charge over 25% (sometimes it turns handoff off if battery is too low)

3:Make sure Handoff is enabled under Settings-> General-> Handoff on iDevices

4:Make sure they are on the same wifi network and bluetooth is on on all devices.

5:Make sure you aren't pairing your devices under bluetooth.


Hopefully this can be one place to get all the facts strait.
Goodluck!
Thanks to DokterDok,MacVidCards, mikecwest, Lem3ssie and anyone else I forgot...

Hi UncleSchnitty, just to confirm, i have MBP Early 2011, Mac-94245B3640C91C81, any place which can get the bluetooth model which can works?

thank you very much.

 

[Mitman]

thanks! i have a late 2011 13" Macbook pro. do you know if i will need to just edit the kext or also upgrade the bluetooth card?

 

[Dmal99]

so any9one know why when i do the kext cache command, the edited i80211family kext changes don't list?

 

[deepshark]

There are a ton of threads about this and I just wanted to put all the findings in one place with the updated procedures since there have been a lot of modifications recently.

Basically Handoff requires a built in Bluetooth 4.0 LE card to work but Apple has blacklisted some of the models that came standard with BT4.0LE so a modified Kext is required. If your system does not have BT4.0LE you will need to replace the card (and possibly modify Kext) to get handoff to work.

Breakdown:

Macbook Air:Early 2008-2010: Requires new bluetooth/wifi card and modified Kext.

Macbook Air:Mid 2011:Requires modified kext only

Macbook Air:Mid 2012-2014: Works OTB

cMacbookPros:Mid 2009-Mid2012 requires new bluetooth/Wifi card and Modified Kext.

RetinaMacBook Pros: Works OTB.

cMacPros:Early2008-2013 requires new bluetooth/Wifi only

NMacPros:Works OTB .

MacMini:Early 2009-2010 requires new bluetooth/Wifi Card and modified Kext.

MacMini:Mid 2011-2012 Only requires Modified Kext

iMac:Mid 2007-2011 requires bluetooth/Wifi Card and Modified Kext

iMac:Late 2012-2013 works OTB

I will also update the list above if someone lets me know that something is off. Since I don't have access to all these machines I cant try them all out to know 100%


Kext Mod. TUTORIAL
Modified from Dokterdok’s original

1. Download and install 0xED in your Applications folder, you can get it from here:
http://www.suavetech.com/0xed/

2. Download and install KextDrop in your Applications folder, you can get it from here:
http://www.cindori.org/software/kextdrop/

3. Repair your disk permissions. Go-> Utilities-> Disk Utility, then First Aid, Repair Permissions.

Then open Terminal and type :

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

4. Restart your machine.

5. Open Finder, type CMD+Shift+G and go to /System/Library/Extensions/

6. Copy the files below to your desktop and then delete the originals. Make an extra backup copy of the 2 files in a separate folder just in case something doesn't work.
Code:
IO80211Family.kext
IOBluetoothFamily.kext
7. Go to Terminal, and type: (exactly as below)

ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'

8. Your result should look like : Mac-742912EFDBEE19B3, (yours might be different.). Copy it to your clipboard (Select and CMD+C). Don't close terminal yet.

9. Open Finder and hit CMD+Shift+G, go to ~/Desktop/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/Plugins/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS
Note: if you have a different OS language, you might need to replace "Desktop" in the path with your local translation.

10. Right Click on AirPortBrcm4360, and choose OPEN WITH: OTHER: 0XED

11. In the upper right hand corner under “search text" search for "Mac-" (without the quotes).

12. Look at the first result, for example, it might be Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86

13. Delete the numbers after Mac- and Manually type your Mac- numbers (from step 8 be very careful not to delete anything else just the numbers.

14. Press down arrow till you get to the last Mac- (should look like Mac-2E6FAB96566FE58C)

15.Delete the numbers after Mac- and Manually type your Mac- numbers (from step 8 be very careful not to delete anything else just the numbers.

16. Click Save (the red circle)

17. Open Finder and hit CMD+Shift+G to open the "Go to" popup, and go to ~/Desktop/IOBluetoothFamily.kext/Contents/MacOS

18. Right Click on IOBluetoothFamily, and choose OPEN WITH: OTHER: 0XED.

19. In the SEARCH field (upper right corner) type:MacBookAir then enter.

20. You will find a block of text containing
Code:
'MacBookAir4,1''MacBookAir4,2''Macmini5,1''Macmini5,2''Macmini5,3'
Manually replace the numbers with ones only so they all look like:
Code:
'MacBookAir1,1''MacBookAir1,1''Macmini1,1''Macmini1,1''Macmini1,1'
Important: Be careful not to add any character while doing the replacement.

21. Click SAVE (the red circle button) and quit 0xED.

22. Open KextDrop, and Drag and drop the IO80211Family.kext that you modified into the window.

23. Click INSTALL.

24. Repeat steps 22 and 23 but for your modified IOBluetoothFamily.kext

25. Go Back to Terminal, and type the following commands. Wait for each one to finish.

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

You should see:
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext IOBluetoothFamily.kext

kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext AirPortBrcm4360.kext

sudo kextcache -system-caches

Nothing should show here.
Finally

nvram -p

Scroll thru the print out here to make sure it says "kext-dev-mode=1"


26. Reboot. Make sure you have an Internet connection for the next steps.

27. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> GENERAL, at the bottom click ENABLE HANDOFF.
(if this is not available then something went wrong and you have to use KextDrop to put your old kexts back in then run

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

sudo kextcache -system-caches

again, repair your permissions and start over)

28. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> ICLOUD, click on SIGN OUT.

29. On your iOS Device, go to SETTINGS> ICLOUD and SIGN OUT.

30. Restart your Mac and iOS device.

31. Go to > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> ICLOUD, and enter your credentials to sign in. (make sure keychain is active)

32. On your iOS Device, go to SETTINGS> ICLOUD and SIGN IN.(make sure keychain is active)



Troubleshooting:

1:Make sure your keychain is enabled under Preferences-> iCloud on both devices.

2:Make sure you iDevices have a charge over 25% (sometimes it turns handoff off if battery is too low)

3:Make sure Handoff is enabled under Settings-> General-> Handoff on iDevices

4:Make sure they are on the same wifi network and bluetooth is on on all devices.

5:Make sure you aren't pairing your devices under bluetooth.


Hopefully this can be one place to get all the facts strait.
Goodluck!
Thanks to DokterDok,MacVidCards, mikecwest, Lem3ssie and anyone else I forgot...

does this work for an Mid 2011 iMac with a Blootooth Dongle?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7oaqjh6c5jgxkuf/Screenshot 2014-10-19 17.55.53.png?dl=0

 

[Dmal99]

I can confirm that these extra steps worked for me as well.

This is what I did:

1. Deleted the files in /System/Library/Extensions/
2. Ran sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel then sudo kextcache -system-caches
3. Reboot
4. Kextdropped the modded files, then -system-prelinked-kernel and sudo kextcache -system-caches again
5. Reboot
6. After these steps Handoff finally showed up in system preferences and is now working on my mid 2011 MBA. However my wifi was a little unstable after all this, but repairing the disk permissions seemed to sort that out.

omg thank u thank u thank u!!1 it workeD!! you should add this to the official guide IMHO

 

[szana]

suposedly mid 2009 MBP are also upgradable (referring to first post)
but I don't understand how that should be done?

I compared the pictures of 2009's bluetooth chip with BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX

2009's card's got 2 cables - the BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX got 4 … is this going to work?

 

[UncleSchnitty]

I can confirm that these extra steps worked for me as well.

This is what I did:

1. Deleted the files in /System/Library/Extensions/
2. Ran sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel then sudo kextcache -system-caches
3. Reboot
4. Kextdropped the modded files, then -system-prelinked-kernel and sudo kextcache -system-caches again
5. Reboot
6. After these steps Handoff finally showed up in system preferences and is now working on my mid 2011 MBA. However my wifi was a little unstable after all this, but repairing the disk permissions seemed to sort that out.

A lot of people have been saying that works for them, I didn't run into having to do the extra steps. However I added the cache clear after deleting (whats one extra reboot) it seems to be an issue with people who updated and didn't clean install. Since it doesn't hurt anything I added it.

does this work for an Mid 2011 iMac with a Blootooth Dongle?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7oaqjh6c5jgxkuf/Screenshot 2014-10-19 17.55.53.png?dl=0

I have not seen dongles work with anything so this guide is not for dongles its for built in wifi/bluetooth.

suposedly mid 2009 MBP are also upgradable (referring to first post)
but I don't understand how that should be done?

I compared the pictures of 2009's bluetooth chip with BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX

2009's card's got 2 cable - the BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX … is this going to work?

Image

Image

That doesn't look like the same connector or antenna arrangement so I wouldn't suggest it unless someone shows me directly that they have that working.

 

[Majesty1418]

Question about step 21

Go to disk utility and repair your permissions. That should fix that issue

So if you are performing this on a macbook pro would you still type "MacbookAir" into the search field in this step (Step 21). I'm reading this through over and over again. I ordered the card, I want to make sure I have a thorough understanding of each step before I proceed. Thanks for the write-up and help.

----------

Go to disk utility and repair your permissions. That should fix that issue

So if you are performing this on a macbook pro would you still type "MacbookAir" into the search field in this step (Step 21). I'm reading this through over and over again. I ordered the card, I want to make sure I have a thorough understanding of each step before I proceed. Thanks for the write-up and help.

 

[UncleSchnitty]

So if you are performing this on a macbook pro would you still type "MacbookAir" into the search field in this step (Step 21). I'm reading this through over and over again. I ordered the card, I want to make sure I have a thorough understanding of each step before I proceed. Thanks for the write-up and help.

Technically you do not have to touch the "IObluetoothfamily" kext with the pros after a new card is added. Basically the IObluetoothfamily has a line of code that says "do not allow MacMinis and Macbook Airs Pre2012 to use Handoff" even though they may have the hardware for it. However It does not hurt anything and many people have had success with doing it anyway. Also leaving that in the tutorial makes it an all around guide for the process.

Hope that clears things up.

 

[Majesty1418]

Technically you do not have to touch the "IObluetoothfamily" kext with the pros after a new card is added. Basically the IObluetoothfamily has a line of code that says "do not allow MacMinis and Macbook Airs Pre2012 to use Handoff" even though they may have the hardware for it. However It does not hurt anything and many people have had success with doing it anyway. Also leaving that in the tutorial makes it an all around guide for the process.

Hope that clears things up.

It definitely does. It makes things that much easier. Only one Kext to modify. Thanks once again for this post. Very helpful.

 

[UncleSchnitty]

It definitely does. It makes things that much easier. Only one Kext to modify. Thanks once again for this post. Very helpful.

Personally I have not tried it with only editing one kext on the macbook pros. Let us know if it works for you.

 

[Majesty1418]

Technically you do not have to touch the "IObluetoothfamily" kext with the pros after a new card is added. Basically the IObluetoothfamily has a line of code that says "do not allow MacMinis and Macbook Airs Pre2012 to use Handoff" even though they may have the hardware for it. However It does not hurt anything and many people have had success with doing it anyway. Also leaving that in the tutorial makes it an all around guide for the process.

Hope that clears things up.

Personally I have not tried it with only editing one kext on the mac pros. Let us know if it works for you.

Oh ok. Well, I'll be trying this on a Early 2011 MacbookPro, Not a MacPro.

 

[UncleSchnitty]

Oh ok. Well, I'll be trying this on a Early 2011 MacbookPro, Not a MacPro.

Sorry I miss typed, I meant macbook pros in that sentence

 

[UncleSchnitty]

I am pretty happy with were this tutorial is and at this point I think its pretty solid on its instructions.

 

[betajonsson]

Hi guys,

I have now tried this guide for several times but without getting it to work.

The first time i tried it I unfortunately forgot to take a extra copy of my Kext files. (I thought the files on the desktop was my "safety copy")

First time i tried a guide like this it was Mr Dokterdok’s original one. If that has anything to do with this problem. (He doesn't write anything about your step 7)

But anyhow I have now seen that my edited Kext files installs correctly into /System/Library/Extensions/.

But still no Handoff in the > SYSTEM PREFERENCES> GENERAL menu.

When I try this guide again after repaired my permissions and rund the two commands before that, I cant get the command (7) below to work. It just respond: -bash: Ran: command not found.

7. Go to Terminal, and type:exactly as below:
Code:
Ran sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel


Can someone give me a copy of the original Kext files if thats what i need to restore before try the guide again?

I run on a MBA mid 2011.

Thank you in advance!


Edit 20/9-14:
I tried once again and this time i deleted the Kext files in the original folder. Then run the command:
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
instead of:
Ran sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

Then it all worked out and I'm now up and running with handoff! Thanks for a great guide!