Bluetooth Connection between M1 Mac and iOS

TidBITS Talk
1

Having an issue which I see has happened to others. I was trying to set up an M1 MBA running 12.2.1 to have Messages synced via ICloud and Text Message Forwarding to it enabled on my iPhone X running 15.3.1. But the SMS will not be sent. The Mac and the phone are communicating, as phonecalls can be answered or initiated on the Mac. But the Bluetooth system prefs show the phone as not connected, so I tried to see if connecting would help. The iPhone connects for a couple of seconds and then disconnects with a dialog that the M1 is not supported and an offer to ‘forget this device’. Occasionally it will get as far as offering me a passcode, but then the connection fails with the same dialog.

I have reset networking on the iPhone and restarted it. I have killed bluetooth on the Mac with sudo pkill bluetoothd and have shut it down and restarted since there is no option on an M1 to clear NVRAM or reset SMC. This has not helped. I see System Prefs claims the Mac is discoverable, but the menubar icon for BT says Discoverable: Off. Initiating a pairing from the phone does not work either (and the fact I can means the Mac is discoverable!)

Has anyone found a way to make this work?

2

Text message forwarding does not rely on having an established Bluetooth connection. My iPhone 13 Pro Max relays SMS messages to my various Macs without one. It just needs a working internet connection at the phone and all of the Macs.

3

I’m signed into the same AppleID on both phone and Mac. On the Mac, Messages prefs are set to “Enable Messages in iCloud” and there are no options pertaining to Messages in the iCloud SysPref pane. Phone has iCloud settings set to use iCloud for messages, and Messages settings have Text Message Forwarding set to allow the M1 Mac to send and receive SMS messages from the phone. ‘Send as SMS’ is also on for if iMessage is unavailable. It doesn’t work even if it off, nor does it make any difference if iMessage is on or off.

Breaking news! I may have fixed it. The phone was set to send and receive from the phone number. Setting it to also use my AppleID has suddenly allowed the SMS texts to be sent from the Mac. What a byzantine system.