External bluetooth speaker connects w iPhone but not Macbook Pro or Mac Air laptops

I've seen some responses advising to "remove the device" from my Bluetooth devices on my laptops but that is my problem. The external device is not being recognized by either of my laptops. Have tried rebooting, turning Bluetooth on and off and no luck. Connects fine with my iPhone but not laptops. If I click on Bluetooth in system settings, I see the little spinning icon indicating it is looking for Bluetooth devices, but it never connects and can't figure out why it is fine with the phone, but not the computers.