Bluetooth died with update to MacOS Ventura and Bluetooth Controller will not power back on

Hello all,


I have a 2018 Mac Mini that has luckily never had a bluetooth issue. I made the mistake of installing Ventura the day it was released (I normally wait a few weeks to let someone else figure out/get terrorized by all the weird one-off bugs). From the moment Ventura was installed the bluetooth has been "off". Clicking the bluetooth toggle in any of the numerous locations like the menu bar and system preferrences shows that bluetooth is trying to start (little spinning icon but it never switches to "on")


I have tried all the workarounds like rolling back to Monterey (still dead), reset the SMC, and reset the NVRAM, sudo pkill bluetoothd and blueutil to try and power on bluetooth. BlueUtil shows the power state as 255 but the BlueUtil documentation gives two options: 0 is off and 1 is on. I also ran Apple Diagnostics and it gave the ADP000 all clear.


I opened the system report and the following is shown for the Bluetooth controller.


 Bluetooth Controller:

 Address: NULL

 State: Off

 Chipset: BCM_4350C2

 Discoverable: Off

 Firmware Version: v0 c0

 Product ID: 0x0001

 Supported services: 0x382039 < HFP AVRCP A2DP HID Braille AACP GATT Serial >

 Transport: UART

 Vendor ID: 0x004C (Apple)


Any insights?


-Michael


Mac mini, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 27, 2022 1:12 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 31, 2022 4:27 PM

Hello,


I do not have the same options on os Ventura. I had an extensive call with Apple Support and they said there were a lot of reports of this issue. They took a data dump and their engineering team is working on it.

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68 replies

Nov 3, 2022 7:19 AM in response to MikeontheMike

I've got exactly the same issue as you Mike, made my Mac Mini completely unusable now with no ability to connect keyboard/mouse/headset any more. Please do post any updates here if you get them from Apple Support. I'm guessing another update will be required to fix this, it's almost like there's no drivers for the bluetooth hardware in Ventura, you would think with Apple's closed eco system they would be testing their own software against all their own hardware platforms to avoid these sorts of issues.

Nov 22, 2022 5:58 AM in response to MikeontheMike

I hear you brother.

been faithful to Apple but within one year :

  • lost 512gigs of photos cause Apple wasn’t aware of bug (most of people still don’t know it) related to reading sim profile which may lock you out of your phone and stop accepting your passcode ,
  • lost MacBook Pro (it was 10 years old but it was a killer after I upgraded sad and ram myself , sadly they couldn’t determine what’s wrong+they don’t sell batteries for such old models+even if they did determine and sold the batteries , they could refuse fixing because of “unauthorised” modifications [after the warranty expired 8 years ago anyway 🤣) ,
  • my Mac mini (latest purchase) got Bluetooth bricked ,


oh! Have I mentioned that my brand new Apple Watch Series 7 doesn’t respond properly to accessibility gestures for 20-40% of the time ? And that my AirPods Pro sometimes connect to wrong device ? 🤣🫡

Sep 11, 2023 3:45 AM in response to WildeChild63

Had the same issue with my early 2011 MacBook Pro running Ventura via Open Core.

System information showed BT module firmware v0 c0 and status as 'off'.


SMC and PRAM reset did not solve it; neither did a reinstall of Ventura.


Eventually appear to have solved my problem by accident. I booted in recovery mode using a flash drive with the Catalina Patcher setup. I had been intended to try a full OS rollback but when I attempted it, the Catalina Patcher would not run now that the Open Core EFI partition is in place. I then quit the process and restarted the machine (not wanting to do anything drastic just yet).


However, after the restart the BT was working again and the firmware now reported as v16938 c847. In my case the v0 c0 indicated missing (possibly USB-1.1 related) firmware, not a hardware issue. Might be that whatever legacy bit of firmware was missing was added back by the Catalina recovery boot.


Hope this helps.

Feb 9, 2023 3:34 AM in response to dgtlptry

To bring this to an end: Today I received a new Mac Mini M2 in return for my broken Mac Mini 2018. It took a while...4 month to be exactly, but in the end Apple´s great customer care convinced me once again.


I guess it is like always in life: There are people who accept the first given solution, even if they have to pay. And there are people, who keep on fighting for their right and try all possible ways till they reach the goal. Choose wich way you wanna go.....

Nov 8, 2022 9:50 PM in response to MikeontheMike

Messaged apple support.

They asked me to do Nvram reset. (I couldn't do it straight away because I didn't yet know command and option corresponding keys one my wired 90's keyboard). I told them I've done reboot, trying switching bluetooth through top menu bar control centre as well as through settings and that I've tried terminal commands, removing bluetooth plist files, etc.

They booked a call for next day. The moment they called it was all in Japanese (I mean...seriously? after chatting in English for 1h?) . Luckily I speak Japanese on communicative level.

Then, after getting connected to English speaking support, I was asked to type new command "sudo killall -9 BlueTool bluetoothd" and restart computer and after that did not help, to restart in recovery mode and open terminal and try again. No help. Then we hanged up and after 4h I received another call (which we previously agreed upon) and I was asked to install some profile in settings, install CaptureData app (they provided download links for both files) and give it full disk access, to record screen while I was trying to switch the bluetooth on and finally to run mentioned above app and to send them DMG file with captured system logs. Now I was instructed to wait for about a week for the problem to be (hopefully) solved.

That's the update for the moment . Perhaps the above terminal command line would help some of you . Dunno :/

Nov 9, 2022 8:08 AM in response to MikeontheMike

I have Mac mini 2018 that's two years old as well. I have Apple bluetooth Mouse, Tracker pad and Keyboard. The Mouse is laggy and disconnects. The keyboard disconnects then reconnects at times. Tracker is the only one with out lots of issues but does disconnect and reconnects at times. All working before the 13. What have Apple done with Ventura?

Nov 10, 2022 10:29 AM in response to MikeontheMike

FYI my Mac mini 2018 Bluetooth very old "magic" keyboard and mouse have been OK after Ventura 13.0 and 13.0.1, currently with the following info:


Bluetooth Controller:

Address: **:**:**:**:**:**

State: On

Chipset: BCM_4364B0

Discoverable: Off

Firmware Version: v122 c4439

Supported services: 0x382039 < HFP AVRCP A2DP HID Braille AACP GATT SerialPort >

Transport: UART

Vendor ID: 0x004C (Apple)

Nov 11, 2022 6:53 AM in response to HDieck

To my surprise, an Apple support representative (10 year veteran) reached out proactively to me via phone yesterday and was persistent until we were able to connect. Documented the issue and had me upload a log file. I have never had a tech company do that. It was nice to feel like a priority. Still suspect this will be a general OS update in the relatively near future, not a quick fix.

Nov 15, 2022 2:33 AM in response to HDieck

Had the same thing, first time I thought this has got to be a scam, someone claiming to be from Apple support calling me in the UK from Texas so didn't answer. Then got an e-mail, checked it all out and definitely seemed legit so messaged Josh back through the Apple website and said call again, he did and like you, took a load of captures of the issue. Hopefully it will help them get this sorted.

Nov 15, 2022 7:39 AM in response to Sparky1511

I had Josh from Austin Texas also reach out to me. On the third time of trying he got hold of me. He's captured some of the issue around the fact that all my bluetooth accessories are acting up. Disconnecting, and stuttering. Driving me up the wall. Jumping between the tracker pad and the mouse, all Apple products. All since Ventura upgrade. 13.0.1 didn't improve it.


Josh gave me a UK number to call to talk to a senior advisor about the issue. After being put on hold I was politely told to contact Josh again???? I think I prefer the USA support.

Nov 18, 2022 7:56 AM in response to MikeontheMike

I've had the same issues and was watching this post in hopes that my issue could be solved. I too, did everything. My apple rep said "oh, I've never heard of this!" and made me sound like an outlier, which I know I am not. I too have been doing data dumps for weeks now with no results. Nothing even to try.


Have any of you completely reinstalled system from scratch? (wipe drive?) I am trying to avoid that.


I have a 2017 imac. And I too, tried everything!!


Apple-- please help us!

Bluetooth died with update to MacOS Ventura and Bluetooth Controller will not power back on

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