Using Bluetooth phones with Mac OS X

Like so many Mac operations, getting pictures from a Bluetooth phone to your Mac is actually very simple once you have done it once. If you've never done it, you may not have a clue where to start, and your phone's manual probably sends you off to get some piece of Windows software that won't help you at all. That's OK: everything you need is already built into your Mac. Here I'll lead you through the whole process, complete with screenshots. With your phone, the procedure may be slightly different on the phone side, but I'll show two examples.

Note: your cell phone provider may have deliberately crippled your ability to do this so that they can charge you more money for emailing your photos!

Note: the usual instructions you find have you SENDING files from the phone to your computer. Here, we're doing it the opposite way: GETTING files FROM the phone with our computer.

The first thing to do is to turn on Bluetooth on your phone. On my Motorola phone, that's Settings -> Connection -> Bluetooth -> Setup. On my wife's Nokia, it's Settings -> Connectivity -> Bluetooth.

Back on the Mac, open System Preferences -> Hardware -> Bluetooth. Click on Devices and then Set Up New Device. Select Mobile Phone as the Device type. After clicking Continue, your phone should show up in the next screen. If it doesn't, power cycle your phone and then try again. Click continue there, and your Mac will make an initial connection to your phone to gather information.

If you still have trouble, check that some other program isn't already using your phone. For example, I have to turn off my BluePhone Elite software before I can do this.

The next step is "pairing". Your Mac is going to show a screen like this:

Pay attention to your phone now: it will be asking you whether it is OK to pair with your computer. When you affirm that it is, it will ask you to enter the passkey that your Mac screen is displaying. Type that in with the phone's keyboard. If you do that correctly, the two devices will be "paired". Your phone may ask you once more if it's OK to accept the connection; you say that it is.

The next screen on your Mac would allow you to use the phone to access the Internet (assuming you have that feature with your phone service) and with Address Book. As we're just after pictures here, we'll skip those features.

Back at System Preferences -> Hardware -> Bluetooth -> Settings, click "Show Bluetooth status in menu bar". A Bluetooth icon will appear and disappear in your top menu bar as you click that on and off. It's the same icon shown for Bluetooth in System Preferences -> Hardware but won't be blue.

Click on that Bluetooth icon in your menu bar and choose Browse Device. Your phone should be in the list; select it and click Browse. Your phone will probably again ask you if it's OK to connect with the Mac (it may have a setting where you can tell it that it's always all right to do this). After getting permission if necessary, your Mac will display folders on the phone. Navigate to the appropriate place (different on every phone), select your pictures, and click Get. A Save dialog will pop up, and that's it: the pictures will transfer to your Mac. This picture shows my Motorola phone; your screen may look slightly different and the path to your pictures folder is probably different too.

After I transfer them, I hit the "Trash" icon to delete them all.

Before you leave a comment, please read ALL the comments. If this doesn't work for you, I CAN'T HELP YOU and quite possibly no one else can either. READ THE COMMENTS!

Click here to add your comments




Mon Nov 13 14:14:17 2006: Subject:   bruceg2004


This is good, except for Verizon users - we cannot browse our pictures on a Treo-650. I am not sure about other models, but Verizon has crippled this feature, in an attempt to get your to buy ringtones from Verizon, instead of using a bluetooth file transfer to the device. Very, very annoying. I think there was a lawsuite about this, and Verizon is supposed to enable this in a future software update on the phone.

- Bruce




Mon Nov 13 16:10:17 2006: Subject: Maybe this works?   TonyLawrence


Possible answer: http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=8015
That says you *CAN* send an Album..

But that's sending from the phone, not what I outlined here.. they've disabled browsing your phone FROM the computer also?



Sun Dec 10 09:27:33 2006: Subject:   anonymous


You can't do anything that requires OBEX, including OOP (Obex Object Push). These are required features for browsing and uploading/downloading from your Verizon phone. There are seem patches for certain phone models that will activate the standard USB/Bluetooth OBEX features, but the OOP code was completely removed from all new Verizon firmware, and that is required in most cases for the Mac OS X bluetooth device browsing feature.

You need to use Bitpim (www.bitpim.org) for any Verizon phones on Mac OS X. Unless of course you are using a Motorola phone from Verizon. In that case, Bitpim has a problem accessing it for the most part. For Motorola Verizon phones on Mac OS X, the only way to really access it is to either run Windows through Parallels or Bootcamp. I have a minimal Windows XP install through Parallels that I run in a tiny screen with "Motorola Phone Tools v4" (no earlier versions work with the new firmware) and access my phone via Bluetooth with a nice interface for navigating pictures, ringtones, movies, etc. You need the standard Motorola Drivers (www.modmymoto.com), and you can find "Motorola Phone Tools v4" through eMule, Bittorrent and other places, or you can simply purchase it for $29/$49 depending on the version.

Again, these are the ONLY ways to access locked down Verizon phones, unless your phone model that has an equivalent model from Alltel, Cingular or Sprint, in which case you can flash your phones Firmware with the firmware of any of those 3 carriers. This will give you completely UNBLOCKED features while retaining your Verizon cell service. Of course, if you have the Verizon RAZR V3m, forget about it... no V3m firmware has been leaked to the wild yet... have to wait on that. For other phones, try using google and search for the model of your phone along with the words "flash" and "firmware". For Motorola flashing, go to www.modmymoto.com



Thu Apr 26 12:12:40 2007: Subject: It doesn't work   anonymous


If I try to transfer a file from the phone to the computer a message appears in the Bluetooth File Exchange Application, it says "The last operation failed: bad request". Why this?



Thu Nov 22 07:07:22 2007: Subject:   anonymous


I just had my VERIZON RAZR firmware updated today and now OBEX works. Latest version is 24.1_01.19.05. This update allows you to remove the horrid VERIZON banner on your phone, put different pics on the inside and outside screen, and shows you both EV sig strength and 1X sig strength.



Wed Jan 9 02:24:14 2008: Subject:   anonymous


I do all of those steps, but when i get to the part about browsing devices my phone and computer wont connect. It says that Device does not have the necessary services. I have the Samsung Gleam, and a MacBook and i cannot get the computer to see my phone. I cant get it to browse on cingular phones, but not verizon. help ... please. Anyone know how to fix this ????



Wed Jan 9 08:49:39 2008: Subject:   TonyLawrence


That's Verizon.

They cripple your phone so that it won't work.

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Fri Feb 8 16:13:38 2008: Subject:   anonymous


i followed the steps you listed and it shows all my picture files on the screen but when i try to save them to my computer it doesnt get past the transferring window, it just says waiting for target to respond... can you help me out at all as to why its doing this?



Fri Feb 8 16:25:36 2008: Subject:   TonyLawrence


OS and version?



Fri Feb 8 16:49:00 2008: Subject:   anonymous


My computer is a macbook... OS X...?
my cell phone that im trying to get pictures off of is a LG 800



Fri Feb 8 16:51:57 2008: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Apple Menu "About this Mac" will tell you the version.

And you aren't with Verizon, right?



Fri Feb 8 17:04:27 2008: Subject:   anonymous


version 10.4.11

no, my cell phone provider is Bell Mobility



Fri Feb 8 17:24:34 2008: Subject:   TonyLawrence


OK, your version is OK (though Leopard is better)

It's possible that Belll Mobility has programmed your phone not to allow this.. as you can see in comments above, Verizon plays that game too.





Tue Feb 19 07:31:03 2008: Subject: T-Mobile Dash   anonymous


Using T-Mobile Dash and OS X 10.5. After pairing, a "browse" command returns: "The device does not have the necessary services." Not sure if I can send from the Mac, but I want to get photos and videos off the Dash. Thanks for any assist.

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Tue Feb 19 13:00:58 2008: Subject:   TonyLawrence


I'm pretty sure T-Mobile is one of the ones who want to get money from you from sending the pics..



Tue Mar 11 20:16:42 2008: Subject: Name Card?   Taylor


I have a question. So i did all of that, i got to the part where it even said 'your device has been paired', yet i go to send something and it goes to my phone, but then it says something about a failure with a name card. Thing is, i have a 2GB micro memory card..sooo i dont know whats up with that..



Sun Apr 27 19:34:42 2008: Subject: OSX is as retarded as windows   anonymous


I thought such stuff only happened in windows... but it seems osx can be pretty retarded too. How the fuck do i transfer the contents of the whole memory card to my hard drive, without manually going through each and every folder and subfolder and copying the files... the bluetooth client wont let you copy folders... how utterly retarded.... and i've been googling without success for software that lets you do that.



Thu Jun 5 23:36:34 2008: Subject:   anonymous


You are absolutely right!
The MAC team wrote this code has done a very smelly job!



Mon Mar 16 22:36:56 2009: Subject:   anonymous


So I've got an LG VX-5500 and OS 10.4. It gets to the "gathering information" page of the wizard, and then the wizard stops and returns an error like "failed to connect." The phone asks for a pass number, then quits. Then the computer asks for a passcode, and the window closes. It seems that both the phone and computer recognize that each other exist, but there is something that's dropping the connection. Should I try bitpim, even though my model of phone isn't supported?



Mon Mar 16 22:54:39 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Does your provider allow this? That's the usual problem..



Tue Mar 17 18:13:26 2009: Subject:   anonymous


It's Verizon. Do they disable all phones from bluetooth connection, or is there a way I can fix it? One of the reasons I got a bluetooth phone was so that I could connect it to my computer.

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Tue Mar 17 18:21:27 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


I don't know if Verizon disables this on all phones, but they certainly do this on some.

You may be out of luck.. I use AT&T but I have an older phone too - they may be up to the same crap by now.



Sun Apr 12 00:29:31 2009: Subject:   anonymous


i did all that and i can send pics from my mac to my phone but when it browses my phone it comes up with all the folders but apaprently theyre empty why is it doing that?



Sun Apr 12 00:55:29 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


I don't know - are you looking in the right directory?



Sun Apr 12 00:59:06 2009: Subject:   anonymous


yes double checked it like 4 times lol think computers hate me it will open some folders but not the particular one i want which is nothing special just another pic folder



Sun Apr 12 10:58:43 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Sorry - no idea.



Sat Apr 25 13:22:28 2009: Subject:   anonymous


I followed all of the instructions listed above, but when I reach the last step that should display the folders on my phone the box is empty. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?



Sat Apr 25 19:16:56 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Same answer as to the person just above you. Phones work differently, sorry.

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Sat Jun 6 21:13:07 2009: Subject:   anonymous


thank you so much - this was so helpful!



Sat Jul 4 23:24:56 2009: Subject: Thanks   anonymous


I got connected but got stuck after that. This tutorial got me back on track. Downloaded an image from my Nokia 2760 with no problems. Thanks!



Thu Jul 16 21:09:31 2009: Subject:   anonymous


Okay, so I'm with At&t. My cel phone is the new LG Xenon. I followed all of your steps, and got to the final part, and when I clicked on browse device, and allowed my phone to connect.. all it told me was "failed to connect: bad request" or something close to that. You said that Verizon disabled that... but what about At&t or what used to be Cingular?



Fri Jul 17 02:15:52 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


As I said above, it still works with my old Motorola, but they may have disabled that in yours - I do not know.



Sat Oct 10 06:07:42 2009: Subject:   Tash


Hey thanks heaps for this and i thought it was great but when i go browse device after all the other steps and click my bluetooth name from the list then browse device it goes away and then NOTHING comes up. :( Please Please HELP!!! PLEASE. thanks



Sat Oct 10 11:32:40 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


I'm sorry - read the article and all the comments again: THIS MAY NOT WORK WITH YOUR PHONE. Your greedy cell carrier may have deliberately disabled the feature. ASK THEM.



Sat Oct 31 21:21:39 2009: Subject:   Andi


I have a blackberry curve with at&t and i cant get it to work. i go through all the steps and then i get to the end to send the file and it says my phone doesn't have the necessary services. Please help. Thank you. Great step by step instructions.

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Sat Oct 31 22:23:07 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Sigh...

If you actually READ everything here, including all the comments, then you know the answer: I DON'T KNOW WHY YOUR PHONE CAN'T DO THIS. What does the second paragraph say? How many people asked the same thing in comments? What was the answer every single time?

It was: your cell phone provider may have deliberately crippled your ability to do this.

How many times do I need to say the same thing? I DON'T KNOW WHY YOUR PHONE CAN'T DO THIS. I don't know if your software is broken, if you are just doing it wrong or if your cell phone provider deliberately crippled it. I DON'T KNOW.

Got it yet? I DON'T KNOW.



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