Solved: Bluetooth Devices Not Connecting to OSX
I’ve exclusively used Bluetooth devices to connect to my docked MacBook Pro for many, many months. It’s been a blissful period of time…one that came to a crashing halt this morning. After spending an aggravating period of time getting things working, I wanted to share with the Internet broadly (one) solution to getting both an Apple Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard and Magic Mouse (re)paired with OS X. I will note that I first ‘lost’ my Magic Mouse, and after a restart of my computer subsequently was unable to pair my Apple Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard.
Problem:
After months of blissful Bluetooth connectivity, I’ve awoken to discover that neither my Magic Mouse nor my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard are properly pairing. First my Magic Mouse failed to scroll, which led me to remove the Magic Mouse and attempt to pair it to my computer again. This attempt failed. I then rebooted my computer, and was still unable to pair my computer and Magic Mouse. After another restart, my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard was also unable to be be used as an input device with my computer. It is important to note that, while the Bluetooth Device Manager reported this failure to pair, both devices are reported as ‘connected’ under the Bluetooth icon in the OX X menu bar. Neither device, at this point, is responding to any input.
Solution:
- Delete com.apple.Bluetooth.plist. This file is found at HD/Library/Preferences.
- Turn off Bluetooth on your Mac. This is done by clicking the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar and selecting ‘Turn Bluetooth Off’.
- Unplug input-based USB devices (e.g. any USB mice, keyboards, Wacom tablets, etc).
- Shut down computer. Do *not* restart, but do a full shut down.
- Turn off your Bluetooth devices.
- Boot computer.
- Turn Bluetooth on.
- Begin pairing devices. This involves clicking: Bluetooth icon in menu bar >> Set up Bluetooth Device >> Select Bluetooth device >> Follow on-screen instructions. In the case of your keyboard, I would suggest pressing the ‘Enter/Return’ button several times after entering the passphrase shown on your screen.
This should result in your devices being reconnected.
What May Have Provoked/Complicated My Problem:
Shortly before I had this issue with my Bluetooth devices, I updated my MagicPrefs app. This application is meant to give more complete functionality to your Magic Mouse, and to Apple’s new Magic Trackpad as well. Suspecting this might be driving my problem, I removed both applications by:
- Quitting MagicPrefs by clicking on its icon in the menu bar and selecting ‘Quit’.
- Drag MagicPrefs.app (found in your Applications folder) to the trash.
- Open the Preference pane, right-click on Magic Prefs and select ‘Remove MagicPrefs Preference Pane.’ Do the same for the Magic Menu item in the Preferences pane.
I removed these applications prior to the above written solution. This may, or may not, be required to resolve the Bluetooth pairing problem; I haven’t investigated any correlation between the MagicPrefs application and my problem, but felt it valuable to note this element of my troubleshooting process.
This is A GREAT TIP !…. Thanks a lot, you have saved my day….
Thank you so much, I was dreading going to the apple store to have this figured out. You saved the day with this. I was at my witts end.
Happy to help!
thank you man, I was really mad about it. Have deleted that file, disconnected bluetooth, shut down the mac, disconnected USB keyboard and USB mouse (microsoft ones, hehehe), restarted the computer, the Keyboard works normally not the mouse, this was found and paired automatically, I’ve only had to click “continue” and Whoala!! keyboard and mouse working again. THANKS
Glad to have helped!
Thanks for your advice Christopher. I have linked to this post on my blog: http://haizdesign.com/blog/mac-osx/bluetooth-support-stops-on-imac/
Thanks – appreciate the link. Glad that I could help towards fixing the problem!
You are AWESOME! What an easy fix. Thanks so much for posting.
Instant repair!! Thank you so so much! Saved me a long wait at the apple store!
Worked for me! I will direct anyone with a similar issue (lot of mac using friends) to your site.
Thanks, and glad to hear it worked!
Thank so much!
Glad to have helped!
Thank you!! You are awesome!!
Glad I could help!
Great easy fix. Right to the point. Thanks!
Glad I could be of assistance!
Tried everything without success but this suggestion worked for me!
Thanks, Christopher! Followed your procedure and, voila, it worked like a charm. Now that the magic mouse problem is solved, I could use some advice on why my iMac intel (late 2009), with Lion, is constantly freezing and will not shut down unless the power button is held. Repair disk permissions seems to work, but eventually the freezing returns.
I have a Macbook Pro that has the same problem, and disk permissions always seem to resolve things. I *think* (note emphasis!) that it has to do with how Lion (and its predecessor) move into hibernation mode. I’m guessing that it’s not stepping the power down properly, which is leading to disk problems, which in turn means that the computer won’t shut off. Are you turning off the computer after each use, or letting the device got to sleep/hibernate?
I get a message that says this configuration of mac osx and bluetooth software could be invalid or unsupported
Nice! Excellent tip!
Thanks!
I had the same message as ck88 had, after losing mouse and keyboard after the battery went flat on the mouse.
This walkthrough fixed it.
Really appreciate it!!
Thank you so much. This worked perfectly. I had a lousy morning as I had to use a mouse for over 4 hours (couldn’t delete the .plist file via ForkLift; finally remembered that even though I never use it, Finder still exists and deleted the file there). My day has improved significantly!
MagicPrefs was causing me a very bad window focus problem, but that was several OS “upgrades” ago. I wouldn’t touch it personally.
But I keep an alternate mouse (USB wireless) on my desk because I lose my Magic Mouse regularly when a) I turn it off to recharge the mobi rechargeable or b) I forget to recharge and have to insert batteries. It almost never reconnects on its own, so I have to put batteries into the other mouse, open System Prefs and reconnect the MM. It’s so annoying and I was just searching to see if I could put the MM icon either on the dock or the menubar just to cut down on some steps.
Thanks for a great and well-written guide. Made my bluetooth problems go away like that
I love the internet, you can like… find everything here! =)
Glad it helped!
That worked great! My bluetooth mouse & keyboard were working one second and then suddenly stopped… this was an easy fix. Thanks!
Christopher,
I owe you a beer. Knocked my mouse off the desk to the floor, no obvious damage but it no longer worked. Plugged in the old wired mouse and proceeded to order a new one; then realized the keyboard quit working, too. They showed up connected, but no pairing. Cleaned (Onyx), restarted, and restored the mini with no luck. Found this tip and hey hey, you made my day. Cancelled the order for the new mouse.
Thanks a million.
PS: I have a brewery in my basement, so I’m serious about the beer. ;>)
Thanks for your post. For others looking for solutions to delayed OSX v10.8x desktop responsiveness on the keyboard and mouse. Christopher’s post corrected our situation.
My wife’s new 2013 iMac with OSX Mt Lion started taking many minutes to boot to the desktop but once there for an additional 5 to 8 minutes both the keyboard and mouse were locked and non-responsive. This occurred even when bluetooth keyboard and mouse were replaced with wired versions. Very strange and frustrating. Our own troubleshooting and a call to Apple Care could not resolve the problem. I noticed in the system.log file references to “KCGErrorInvalidConnection… with cryptic references to bluetooth, which lead us to Christopher’s post. Following his procedure and reestablishing the iMac’s link to the bluetooth track pad and keyboard cleared both our slow boot and input device issues. System works fine now with wired or wireless input devices.
You have saved me. Seriously. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what happened to my keyboard and mouse. I read way too many responses in various forums. None helped [especially the ones that were over my head
]. This was easy to understand and it worked. Thanks so much!
Happy that my solution was able to help
This is probably a ridiculous question but how does one “shut down” the computer with out the use of a mouse or keyboard (disconnected USB and shut off bluetooth first…)
Hi Cassie,
You can either use a wired keyboard or mouse (if you have one) or could manually power off the Mac (using a long-press on the power button).
~Chris
Bless you, this has been driving me mad for ages. Whenever my mouse batts died I needed a restart to reconnect it to my imac though this time neither the mouse nor keyboard connected on a restart and your solution sorted it out. Saved a lot of frustration on a very busy day, thanks eternally
Nicola
Glad that it helped
Ok, noob question. How do I turn Bluetooth back on without a USB connected mouse?
Hi @SplOo – this should help: http://superuser.com/questions/92804/how-to-enable-bluetooth-in-mac-with-shortcut-or-command-line