Learn how to transfer photos, documents, audio, video, and other files between your Mac and a Windows computer using a Bluetooth connection.
Send files from Mac to Windows PC
• Open Settings on your Windows PC (you can launch it directly by pressing the Windows + I keys)
• Select Bluetooth & devices and make sure Bluetooth is activated
• Open System Settings on your Mac and select Bluetooth
• Scroll down to the Nearby Devices section, and you should see your Windows PC here, click the Connect button next to your PC name
• You should now get an alert on your Windows computer, click it
• Make sure the number on your PC screen matches the number on your Mac screen, then hit Yes or Allow to finish pairing
• Scroll down in your Windows PC Bluetooth settings and click Send or receive files via Bluetooth
• Click Receive files
• Open the built-in Bluetooth File Exchange app on your Mac, it's located in Applications > Utilities folder
• Select the files you want to send to your PC from the Finder interface and hit the Send button
• Choose your Windows PC from the list of devices and click Send
• Your Windows PC will start receiving the file, and after the transfer finishes, it will show a “Save the received file” window
• Click Finish to save the file in the location shown, or click Browse to select another location and save it there
Send files from Windows PC to Mac
• Launch Mac’s System Settings, click Bluetooth, and make sure it’s on
• Head to General > Sharing and ensure Bluetooth Sharing is enabled
• Open Settings on your Windows PC and select Bluetooth & devices
• Make sure Bluetooth is on, and click Add device (plus button) at the top, followed by Bluetooth
• Select your Mac, and you will get an alert on your Apple computer; make sure the numbers on your Mac and PC screens match and hit the Connect button in both places
• With the computers paired, click your Mac’s name at the top of the Bluetooth settings on your PC
• Scroll down and click Send or receive files via Bluetooth
• Click Send files
• Click your Mac on the “Select where to send your files” screen and hit Next
• Click Browse, select what you want to send from File Explorer, and then click Open, then click Next
• Hit Accept on your Mac to receive the incoming Bluetooth file transfer request
• Your PC will start sending the files to your Mac; once the transfer is successful, you’ll find these files in your Mac’s Downloads folder
Your Mac is pretty safe on your private home network, but what about when you're surfing the Web in coffee shops? Anyone with a computer and rudimentary hacking skills could target you, which is why it's important to make sure your Mac's built-in firewall is enabled and that stealth mode is turned on.
macOS's firewall feature blocks unwanted network traffic coming into your computer, and stealth mode makes your Mac essentially invisible to hackers snooping for computers to target. They aren't foolproof features, but they will keep most people from finding and attacking your Mac on public networks.
First, you need to make sure your Mac's firewall is enabled:
• Open "System Settings..." from the Apple menu
• Go to "Network"
• Click "Firewall" and enable it
Next, enable stealth mode:
• Click "Options..."
• Scroll down and enable "Enable stealth mode" setting
• Click OK
"Automatically allow built-in software to receive incoming connections" and "Automatically allow downloaded signed software to receive incoming connections" should already be checked. Those settings let the apps you already have communicate through the firewall without you having to take any extra steps. Leave those checked unless you know what you're doing and plan to manage app network access manually. You should leave "Block all incoming connections" disabled, unless all you're doing is surfing the Web.
Did you know that you can quickly access information about your router, and check if your network is performing well? See your BSSID, signal-to-noise ratio, and even the transmit rate between your router and computer. All it takes is a press of a button and a click of your mouse/trackpad.
If you hold down the Option (alt) key and click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar, it will provide you with details about your router and the network you're using. The items in gray are all pieces of additional information seen only in this mode.
• IP Address: This is your computer's IP address.
• Router: Your router's IP address. You can type this into your browser to access your router's web interface.
• Security: Your router's security. Most routers on the market offer WPA2 Personal, and it keeps your network encrypted.
• BSSID: This is your router's MAC, or hardware address. It acts as an identifier for your router that lets it talk to other network-connected devices.
• Channel: This is your WLAN channel, and it determines which radio frequency the router uses to transmit information.
• RSSI: Received Signal Strength Indicator measures how well a device "hears" a signal from the router. It's useful for determining if you have enough signal to get a good wireless connection.
• Noise: This measures how much radio noise is interfering with the RSSI signal. Signal-to-noise ratio is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. It is defined as the ratio of signal power to the noise power, often expressed in decibels.
• TX Rate: The transmit rate is the speed of the data that is transmitted between your router and your computer. Right now I have a speed of 450 Mbps.
• PHY Mode: This is the wireless protocol that the router uses, according to the IEEE 802.11 wireless standard.
• MCS Index: This number corresponds to the protocols uses to encode the radio signal.
macOS Tahoe 26 gets a handy feature that allows your Mac to automatically connect to your iPhone or cellular iPad’s Personal Hotspot when no known Wi-Fi is available. Additionally, Mac can also be configured to automatically join the Personal Hotspot of a family member’s iOS device.
Make sure that Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Personal Hotspot are enabled on your or a family member’s nearby iPhone or cellular iPad. You can enable all these from the Settings app. In case of connecting to a family member’s iPhone or cellular iPad, make sure that person is added to your family group.
To allow your Mac to automatically connect to personal hotspots:
• Open System Settings on your Mac running macOS Tahoe 26
• Click Wi-Fi
• Scroll to the bottom and set “Ask to join hotspots” to Automatic in place of Never or Ask to Join
Going forward, your Mac will automatically connect to your iPhone or iPad’s cellular hotspot when no Wi-Fi is available and your iOS device has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Personal Hotspot enabled.
To allow automatic connection to a family member’s hotspot:
• Go to System Settings > Wi-Fi and choose Automatic for “Ask to join hotspots"
• Open the Settings app on that family member’s iPhone or cellular iPad, tap Personal Hotspot > Family Sharing, select your name and set it to Automatic instead of Ask for Approval
From now on, your Mac will auto-join the hotspot of your family member’s iPhone or cellular iPad when Wi-Fi is unavailable, and your family member’s iOS device is nearby with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Personal Hotspot enabled.
There is a delay in automatically switching to an iPhone or iPad’s personal hotspot after your Mac disconnects from regular Wi-Fi. This process is not seamless, and you may experience an offline period of up to a minute or more. However, if you boot up your Mac and Wi-Fi is unavailable from the start, your computer may automatically connect to Personal Hotspot from the beginning.
To improve privacy, your Mac (or any other of the Apple devices) can identify itself to each network using a different Wi-Fi address, and might rotate (change) the address periodically.
To communicate with a Wi-Fi network, a device must identify itself to the network using a unique network address called a Media Access Control (MAC) address. If the device always uses the same Wi-Fi MAC address across all networks, network operators and other network observers can more easily relate that address to the device's network activity and location over time. This allows a kind of user tracking or profiling, and it affects all devices on all Wi-Fi networks. The Private Wi-Fi Address feature is designed to address this concern.
Using a private Wi-Fi address helps reduce tracking of your Mac by Wi-Fi network operators. Tracking can occur when your address always appears the same to other devices and networks.
Turn this feature off or on for a network:
• On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings..., then click Wi-Fi in the sidebar
• Click the "Details..." button
• Click the “Private Wi-Fi address” pop-up menu, then choose an option:
Off: Private Wi-Fi address is turned off. This Mac can be identified and tracked on this network, and across other networks.
Fixed: A fixed private address allows this network to track this Mac, but helps reduce tracking across other networks.
Rotating: A rotating private address reduces tracking on this network, and across other networks.
• Click OK
A private Wi-Fi address doesn't affect how you join or use most Wi-Fi networks. For improved privacy, allow your device to continue using a private addresses with all networks and software that support it.
If your Mac is a managed computer, you may not be able to change this setting. Contact a system administrator in the school or organization that provided you with the computer for more information.
