EricPSmith
commented
9 years ago Followup notes after two weeks...
- I've noticed that when my Mac is starting up, my wireless keyboard and trackpad don't work at the initial login screen. Bluetooth dongle's blue light, which is usually flashing, is solid at that point. Don't know whether this is related to having enabled FileVault, which appears to change the OS X startup sequence. Just using built-in keyboard to login at this point.
- Encountered issues with Mac's sometimes not seeing iPhone for AirDrop, while iPhone seems to always see Mac. Research revealed that briefly enabling and then disabling Airplane Mode on iPhone is a quick way to restart both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on that device, which has thus far been successful in making iPhone visible again to Mac. This seems like it may be an Apple issue.
- Once the previous issue got sorted out, I found I could reliably use AirDrop with it set to Contacts Only on iPhone, rather than the less restrictive Everyone setting
- Choosing all default options in the series of confirmation dialogs that came up while signing out of iCloud on Mac resulted in two sets of contacts on signing back in, one under iCloud and one On My Mac. If I were to do this again, and felt confident that my contacts in iCloud were correct, I would delete contacts on Mac while signing out, and let iCloud repopulate them on signing back in
- I was pleasantly surprised to also discover Handoff icon appearing in OS X app switcher, when appropriate.
Overall very pleased with these new capabilities, which were brought to my 'older' Mac so easily.
Thanks Again!
Eric
dokterdok
pauloman80
enrique89
jwilker
Hi folks,
Just thought I would share my very positive experience with enabling Continuity on my MacBook Pro (late 2011) using CAT 2.0.0 and a GMYLE Bluetooth 4.0 LE dongle. I got through the process on the first try, with only very minor blips that were easily solved, and everything is up and running smoothly now. Perhaps this end-to-end description of the process will be helpful to other new users as well. :-)
I launched CAT from OS X Finder and ran System Diagnostics from the script’s menu, which provided a very clear picture of the tool’s findings about my system, and what it could do. Then I ran the Activate Continuity command, plugging in my new Bluetooth dongle when prompted. The script didn’t seem to detect the dongle, but then I remembered reading that built-in Bluetooth had to be disabled first. With built-in Bluetooth disabled, I started over with Activate Continuity; this time CAT detected the dongle on insertion, and ran through to completion without incident.
CAT kept me apprised of what it was doing all along, in clear language that I could understand, which I found really helpful. On completion, it provided several followup steps I would need to take to get everything working, and then prompted me to reboot.
On completion of reboot & login, I reenabled Bluetooth, which was now working through the new dongle, and then re-paired my Apple wireless keyboard & trackpad. Pairing with the keyboard was flaky at first, but un-pairing and re-pairing resulted in a solid connection that has been reliable ever since.
Handoff was already enabled on both my Mac & iPhone 5S, so no changes were required there. Signing out of iCloud in OS X and then signing back in again was a bit unnerving, based on all the OS X prompts about deleting local data (while leaving data intact in iCloud), but I just followed all the default prompts, and iCloud services appear to be working fine again after all that.
The Continuity feature I was most interested in was AirDrop between Mac & iPhone, so that’s where I focused my testing. In OS X Finder, I selected a file, and then chose sharing > AirDrop from the Finder toolbar. My iPhone did not appear in the AirDrop sharing dialog, but when I changed AirDrop on the iPhone from Contacts Only to Everyone and then closed Control Center, the iPhone appeared as an available target in OS X for sending the file. I proceeded with sending the file to the iPhone, which asked for permission to receive the file, transferred the file, and then asked which of several apps to open it in.
Transferring files from iPhone to Mac was even easier. I simply selected a file within an iOS app, tapped share, and tapped my Mac to send it there. The file immediately transferred to the Mac’s Downloads folder, with no permission required.
And while I didn’t do any specific Handoff testing, I did later notice that having a Numbers spreadsheet open on my iPhone did yield a Numbers Handoff icon to the left of my OS X Dock.
When I look at how easy this was compared to what the early adopters went through, I feel really lucky and grateful. Being able to use a tiny $11 dongle while leaving my MacBook Pro hardware intact is so much easier than locating and installing a non-standard Wi-Fi & Bluetooth card (and potentially losing Wi-Fi & Bluetooth when booting from Recovery HD). Likewise, running a comprehensive and communicative shell script from Finder is far easier than performing the many technical steps described by Uncle Schnitty at MacRumors.
Kudos and deep thanks to CAT’s developer(s), and to all who contributed to making this so smooth and easy for the rest of us. I’ve just made a donation as well. :-)
Eric