MacBook Apple Pay verifies with old iPhone

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Level 1

8 points

MacBook Apple Pay verifies with old iPhone

When I try to pay for something via Apple Pay on my Macbook the Mac searches for my iPhone via Bluetooth for verification of some kind but it can never find my iPhone, thus I can never complete the purchase on my Mac. I get a message saying something like This Mac cannot locate Nick’s iPhone 3. Please make sure you have Bluetooth turned on and that your phone is nearby (That’s a yes in both cases).

I can complete Apple Pay transactions on my iPhone without a problem.

Both devices are newish and up to date.

In Apple Pay settings on my phone I have Allow Payments on Mac turned on.

For some reason Apple Pay on my Mac is not seeing my current iPhone. My Mac does see the iPhone without problem when I use it for Air Drop so it isn’t a Bluetooth issue.

Under my name in System Settings on my Mac the Devices section does show Nick’s iPhone 3 as being a current Apple device that I own. This is correct.

I have seen another list of devices pop up at some point on my Mac but for the life of me I can’t remember how I summoned it. It was quite recent though. The list was a list of my devices accessible for use with Apple Pay but it was out of date because the phone detailed on the list was Nick’s iPhone 2. Nick’s iPhone 2 was my old phone that I restored to factory settings and deleted from my list of owned devices before giving it away over a year ago.

In summary my guess is that when I try to complete an Apple Pay transaction on my Mac the Apple Pay part of the Mac is searching for my old iPhone 2 to verify the transaction and not searching for my current Nick’s iPhone 3.

Does anyone know how I can remedy this problem? If I’m correct in my assumption then I need to edit the list devices that Apple Pay on my Mac searches for but I have no idea how to do this. As I said above, the list of devices accredited to me in System Settings on my Mac does show Nick’s iPhone 3 as a current device and does not show the old Nick’s iPhone 2. This is correct and as it should be. Apple Pay obviously doesn’t use the same list of owned devices.

Any help you can give would be much appreciated.

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Nov 26, 2025 8:32 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

nicpalm Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 1, 2025 10:46 AM in response to Jeff Donald

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I tried the method that exactly as you suggested but it did not work. However after a couple of failed attempts I made one adjustment to your instructions and was able to cure the problem.

In my successful attempt, after disabling “Allow Payments on Mac” I restarted my iPhone and then re-enabled “Allow Payments on Mac” when the phone was back on. Then I restarted my Mac (per your advice). I was then able to complete a purchase on my Mac via Apple Pay.

It was your suggestion that gave me the idea of restarting both devices so thanks again for your input. That problem has been bugging me for a few months so I’m pleased to get it resolved.

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Answer 2

Jeff Donald

Level 8

44,562 points

Nov 27, 2025 12:54 PM in response to nicpalm

Please follow this path,

iPhone > Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Apple Pay Defaults > Allow Payments on Mac > enable, if it is enabled, momentarily disable then re-enable > restart Mac?

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Answer 3

nicpalm Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 1, 2025 10:48 AM in response to Chattanoogan

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Yes my Macbook Pro is two years old and does have TouchID built in. I was wondering why a Mac with TouchID would even need to verify a purchase by contacting my iPhone (which also has TouchID). Anyway if you see my reply above to another contributor you will see that I have managed to fix the problem. When making the successful purchase after the fix my Mac still had to contact my iPhone for verification via my fingerprint on the phone, so I guess this is as it should be. I don't know how one would complete an Apple Pay purchase on a Mac if their iPhone wasn't available, but that is a question for another day. Anyway thanks for replying.

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Answer 4

nicpalm Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 1, 2025 10:51 AM in response to Jeff Donald

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I tried the method that exactly as you suggested but it did not work. However after a couple of failed attempts I made one adjustment to your instructions and was able to cure the problem.

In my successful attempt, after disabling “Allow Payments on Mac” I restarted my iPhone and then re-enabled “Allow Payments on Mac” when the phone was back on. Then I restarted my Mac (per your suggestion). I was then able to complete a purchase on my Mac via Apple Pay.

It was your suggestion that gave me the idea of restarting both devices so thanks again for your input. That problem has been bugging me for a few months so I’m pleased to get it resolved.

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Answer 5

Dec 1, 2025 11:58 AM in response to nicpalm

Thanks for the follow-up reply.

I was scratching my head on this one too. 🤷🏼

FWIW, I’d been completing ApplePay transactions entirely from my fingerprint-reading MBP for years and was therefore at a loss.

Your solution to effectively “walk the devices” back-into “sync and cooperation” was great troubleshooting.

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Answer 6

Nov 27, 2025 12:57 PM in response to nicpalm

You say it’s a “newish” Mac … does it have TouchID built-in ?

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