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General discussion

Bluetooth problems between iPhone and Snow Leopard

Feb 22, 2010 2:23PM PST

1/ I can't pair my iPhone G3 (OS 3.1.3) to my iMac 3.06 Intel C2D Snow Leopard 10.6.2.
USB Connected to the Mac, Bluetooth see the iPhone but says is not connected.
I am not able to use Bluetooth between them. (Even not paired which I never was able to do on Snow Leopard)
Bluetooth is of course activated on both apparel.

2/ On my old iMac G4 Leopard (dead now !), when I was connecting the iPhone, iTunes was opening almost immediately, it doesn't do it anymore. If I open iTunes 9.0.3 manually, the iPhone is visible in iTunes window.

Discussion is locked

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Bluetooth
Feb 22, 2010 9:43PM PST

I have never connected my iPhone to my Mac via Bluetooth, not even sure that you can.
What are the benefits of doing so?
You can't sync that way and it does not give you faster internet service.

The iTunes opening on connection thing, mine stopped doing that about 18 months ago and no matter what settings I change, it will no launch iTunes by itself. No biggie as I do not always want it to do that when all I am doing is charging it.

P

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Bluetooth
Feb 23, 2010 10:02AM PST

At first I would ask why those 2 Apple products iPhone and iMac have a bluetooth installed if they are unable to use (between them).
Then I would say Bluetooth is much more easy to use for a short document transfer (like a single picture) then Sync which has anyway an other goal.
I also find the Sync function via iTunes far from satisfactorily. It still impossible to choose a direction for the Sync function.

But that was only one aspect of my request.
Why Bluetooth still saying that iPhone is not connected ?
Why I couldn't pair my iPhone ?

Did I missed something in the setting or did Apple put some limit to Bluetooth in iPhone ?

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Bluetooth
Feb 24, 2010 2:34AM PST

Bluetooth on the iPhone is designed for connecting to other devices like BT headphones or SatNav devices (TomTom) but not to the Mac.
It will connect to the Mac, using the system preferences and BT Pan, but will only display "No usable devices found"
Bluetooth on the iMac is designed for connecting to other BT peripherals like printers, speakers, headsets but not to the iPhone.

I agree that transferring short files would be quicker with BT but that does not happen.
iTunes sync is a two way street for some things like contacts, apps, photo's (using iPhoto) but not for music. Just like the iPod.
Transferring photo's is hardly slow.

P

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bluetooth
Feb 24, 2010 2:16PM PST

Thank again mrmacfixit for your explanation.
I can't say they satisfy me but I have to accept those limitation. For my next cell, I will probably look for something less fancy but closer to my need.

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Did you forget tethering?
Mar 11, 2010 6:03AM PST

You can use bluetooth on the iphone to tethering.

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Some tries
Mar 11, 2010 6:09AM PST

I had several problems to pair again my mac and my iphone after a fresh install of snow leopard.
With bluetooth I've always had many problems, both when I was on windows and now that I'm on mac.
You can try to power off bluetooth on both devices and the power on them again.
On the iphone a chance is even to completely power off the device and then power on it again.
After succesfully paired the devices, you usually can do tethering via bt, unless your operator avoid tethering.

Bye,
Magobaol

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(NT) In the US, the "operator avoid tethering"
Mar 11, 2010 7:54AM PST