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Is there any way to connect my iPhone 4 to my Mac Mini via Bluetooth so that I can play music on my iPhone and hear it on the speakers connected to my Mac?

When I try to connect to my computer via my iPhone's Bluetooth screen, it says "Connection Unsuccessful: 'My Mac mini' is not supported." However, if I take a look at the Bluetooth page in the system preferences of my Mac, I see that the following two services are listed for my iPhone: Audio Source and AVRCP Device (I had to enable the "Show More Info" option to see these).

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  • Sorry buddy, afraid not. Best think to do would be to get a splitter cable for your computer speakers etc, if your going that far you might as well get a nice dock too.
    – user3051
    Jan 30, 2011 at 11:02
  • See also: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/13894/…
    – Senseful
    May 18, 2011 at 23:33

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While browsing the this site, I found a link to another answer that might be useful. So, it looks like a Sony Ericsson MBR-100 wireless dongle attached to the computer should do the trick. I've never used it (or even heard of it before today) but it sounds like it should work.

The reason the computer doesn't work is that both the computer support the A2DP profile but both as a server but not as a receiver. There might be a software solution to get the Mac to support A2DP as a client but I don't know of one.

Another option which doesn't quite do what you want but might be useful would be to use the Remote app on your iPhone to control your iTunes library remotely. This allows you to uses the iPhone as a remote control for your iTunes.

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    That question you link to is actually mine. I ended up buying a Sony DRC-BT30, and it's pretty good. It would work the way you mention, however, I was hoping for a software only solution.
    – Senseful
    Feb 10, 2011 at 21:43
  • @senseful Oops! I hadn't noticed that was your question. Seems these Apple products are great but some types of usage just aren't catered for. Had iPod Touch plugged into stereo last week and couldn't find a way to control it from across the room. Feb 10, 2011 at 23:50
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Airfoil now has this feature. Turn on Airfoil Speakers 4.5 or later on your Mac, with Wi-fi turned on on both Mac and iPhone. In your music player app, click the airplay button and choose the name of your Mac. Audio from your iPhone music player app will be input to your Mac.

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    While this might be the best way to solve the Senseful's actual problem, it doesn't answer the question per se, since it asks only about pairing over bluetooth.
    – segiddins
    Oct 3, 2012 at 15:37
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    This way works, and rocks.
    – alex gray
    Mar 1, 2015 at 18:41
  • "Airfoil Speakers " changed name to "Airfoil Satellite"..... so... Macbook: "Airfoil Satellite" and on iphone cast through airplay. It works Dec 18, 2017 at 20:11
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AirFoil works fo this, although when I've used it there is a 1-2 second lag, making it impractical for realtime use, but good for streaming music.

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    It seems like AirFoil doesn't use Bluetooth, and it works the other way around: Mac -> iPhone. I want iPhone -> Mac.
    – Senseful
    Apr 22, 2012 at 20:24
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Over bluetooth might be a little hard. But why not over Wifi (You can also have an Ad Hoc connection between your Mac and the iPhone)? Then you could even use an Air Play cilent on the Mac to 'push' content form your iPhone to the mac. I have tried AirPlayer with limited success, but I am sure the newer versions would be much better.

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I use 5K Player, and this provides a Airplay receiver which you can run on your Mac to Airplay from iOS devices.

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