Handoff is a great new feature of Apple’s forthcoming operating system, Yosemite. If you’re not familiar with Handoff, it will allow you to start an activity (such as writing an email) on one device and continue it on another. Not all Macs will support it, though. Here’s how to check if yours will.
Go to the Apple Menu, choose About this Mac, then click More Info, and then click on the System Report Head to the Apple Menu, then go About This Mac > More Info > System Report > Bluetooth. Look at the LMP Version. The version needs to be 0x6 for Handoff to work.
You can also access this information with a terminal command:
system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType | grep LMP
Comments
2 responses to “Find Out If Your Mac Will Support Handoff In OS X Yosemite”
Yep — Apple up to their usual tricks. My 3 year old iMac does not make the grade any more.
So I guess it was a good move to relegate it to a media centre tucked away in a cupboard and use my PC for all the crucial stuff…
Usual tricks? It requires a particular bluetooth set of features to be able to work. Those features didn’t exist 4 years ago when your mac was designed.
The macbook air, mac mini and iPhone 4S were among the very first products to implement BT 4.0 when it was released. If anything Apple hardware will have a longer reach backwards to allow this to work than if it was any other vendor.
Mavericks is working on my 2007 macbook, and the upgrade was free. The latest operating system running extremely well on 7 year old hardware, and making the upgrade free, somewhat negates the argument. The feature will work on any apple harwdare that can physically run it, not much more they can do than that.
So the PC you are running instead of the iMac you keep in the cupboard(!?) will work with this then? Why not sell the iMac, they hold their value very well.
Or you can just upgrade the internal BT card to this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-BCM94360CD-802-11ac-Wifi-Bluetooth-4-0-Card-for-2013-21-5-27-iMac-/111382033777?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item19eee2f571
I’m running the Yosemite Beta with a Mid-2011, 13″ MacBook Air and I’ve had trouble getting Handoff to connect to my phone. I do have LMP Version 0x6 but I get an error saying the Network is Unavailable when I try to connect for Handoff. I’m also not finding the option to turn on Handoff in System Preferences / General.
The weird part is I am able to connect over the BluTooth for tethering my iPhone’s Personal HotSpot. It will allow me to share my phone’s Wifi signal, but not Handoff.
Any Ideas why I’m not getting access to Handoff? Is there a Firmware update or something like that I need to do? Or is it maybe just a glitch with the Beta and I should wait it out?