Bluetooth faxing under Mac OS X 10.3.x

One of Mac OS X 10.3.x's touted features is the ability to "send faxes using your built-in modem or Bluetooth cell phone, complete with cover sheet from any application," but some users are having difficulty.

MacFixIt reader Alexander Dvorak writes "I tried it on my Sony Ericsson T68i, but could not get it to work. I called Apple, and the senior tech there said that perhaps my phone could act like a modem, but not a fax modem. If I used a phone that was a fax/modem then the bluetooth faxing should work. He said that there was an internal document that said that Apple did not have a list of compatible phones that worked for faxing."

Another user, posting to Apple's Discussion boards, describes what happens when he attempts to send a fax through his T68i: "When I try to fax through it using Print->Fax and choosing it as the fax modem, it contacts my bluetooth phone. My bluetooth phone starts to dial the correct number, but then after a few seconds it stops and in the Fax utility it puts the fax job on hold for five minutes. "

The general method for setting up a Bluetooth phone for faxing under Mac OS X 10.3.x, as noted by a subsequent poster but not successful in all cases, is:

1. Launch /Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth Serial Utility
2. Set up a new outgoing modem port to the "Serial Port 1" of your connected Bluetooth phone. (use a name like "bt-spX" where X is the number of the selected serial port)
3. Repeat step 1 for each "Serial Port" of your phone.
4. Go to the applications' print dialog and click "Fax", which will set up the new faxes.
5. Try all new fax-ports, one of them should work.

If you have a Bluetooth-enabled phone that works, or does not work with Mac OS X 10.3.x's built-in faxing capabilities, please drop us a line at late-breakers@macfixit.com indicating your phone model and wireless carrier.

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