If you've ever had to forget a Bluetooth device on one Mac and re-pair it on another, you've run into the gap in Bluetooth handover on macOS. It's a common problem for anyone working across two Macs — a desktop and a laptop, or a personal Mac and a work Mac — and it's worth understanding what handover actually is before looking at how to automate it.
What is Bluetooth handover?
Bluetooth handover is the transfer of an accessory's active connection from one host device to another. The accessory itself doesn't change — a Magic Mouse is still a Magic Mouse — but which computer it's actively talking to switches. Done well, handover feels instant: you sit down at a different Mac and your mouse, keyboard, or trackpad just works there.
Apple already does this for some of its own accessories. AirPods hand over between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac automatically as long as they're all signed into the same Apple ID — that's Continuity, built on iCloud.
Why macOS doesn't do this for Magic peripherals
Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad don't get the same treatment. Bluetooth still only lets one of these accessories talk to one Mac at a time, and macOS has no built-in mechanism to move that connection to a second Mac automatically. The manual process is the same one described in our Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard guides: forget the device, wait for it to show up on the other Mac (see how pairing mode works), then pair it again there.
Apple's Universal Control solves a related but different problem — sharing one cursor across two Macs' screens. It doesn't move Bluetooth pairings, and it requires the same Apple ID on both Macs, which rules it out entirely for a work-Mac-plus-personal-Mac setup on separate accounts.
How LinkFlick automates the handover
LinkFlick runs on each Mac you want to switch between and handles the unpair-and-repair sequence for you. Trust each Mac once, then handing off a device is a single click (or a hotkey) — LinkFlick disconnects it from the source Mac and reconnects it on the destination in about 10 seconds, entirely over Bluetooth and your local network, with no iCloud or Apple ID dependency.
Getting started
- Install LinkFlick on every Mac you want to hand devices between.
- Link your Macs once: click Invite on one Mac and Accept on the other. The link survives restarts.
- Click a device, pick a destination Mac, and LinkFlick handles the Bluetooth handover automatically.
For setup details specific to your peripherals, see the Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad guides.
Frequently asked questions
What is Bluetooth handover?
Bluetooth handover is the process of moving a Bluetooth accessory's active connection from one host device to another — for example, a Magic Mouse disconnecting from one Mac and reconnecting to a second Mac — without the user manually forgetting and re-pairing the device each time.
Does macOS support Bluetooth handover natively?
Not for most accessories. AirPods are the exception — they hand over automatically between your Apple ID devices via Continuity's Automatic Device Switching. Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad don't get this treatment — moving them between two Macs still means manually forgetting the device on one Mac and re-pairing it on the other, unless you use a tool like LinkFlick to automate it.