tbMBP 13" bluetooth issue

Ive been struggling with this issue ever since ive "upgraded" to the touchbar 15" from an old-school 17" fully loaded ( bluetooth 4.0 card included ) macbook pro .

After reading a **** ton about bluetooth, the only thing i could find is this :

- Every single apple device ( mouse / keyboard / airpods / etc ) uses a different bluetooth module than everyone else : A MASTER BLUETOOTH MODULE .

"Bluetooth networks (commonly referred to as piconets) use a master/slave model to control when and where devices can send data. In this model, a single master device can be connected to up to seven different slave devices. Any slave device in the piconet can only be connected to a single master. " - https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/bluetooth-basics/how-bluetooth-works

What that means for the regular device is basically this : Every single time a master device needs to use the bandwidth , it pretty much screws any slave device and cuts in line.

To make things worse , bluetooth audio is extremely bandwidth hungry ( AAC is implemented in Apple products and there are a growing number of headphones that support this codec. It runs at 250kbps )

But wait ...theres more "great" news for the touchbar macbook : they switched the wireless module that was used in all previous versions ( the Broadcom one ) with : Murata/Apple 339S00056 Wi-Fi Module. Yes i know it shows up as Broadcom in the system report , but its NOT THE SAME CHIP. Comparing the 2011 mbp 17" bluetooth 4.0 chip with this new one gives the stark conclusion: its worse , way worse . On the 17" i could easily use a bluetooth speaker ( in master mode ) and my surface mouse ( in slave mode ) and the mouse would never disconnect / lag. Having the same setup on the touchbar made the mouse un-usable as it would stop - disconnect - reconnect after 2-3 sec.

And the cherry on top of this whole f**** thing is this ( taken directly from apple support website ) https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203729

Bluetooth: Unreliable wireless performance may occur when USB 3.0 external devices are close

Yes, you read that correctly - USB 3 devices **** up bluetooth! ...on a laptop that ONLY HAS USB 3.0.

In conclusion , if you ever wonderd why the macbook pro has a headphone jack ? ...now you know : bluetooth audio on a $2000+ machine is "unreliable" due to "courage in removing ports "

PS : if you can find a bluetooth mouse that is "MASTER" ( not the magic mouse ) that looks and works decent , please let me know . So far both Designer and Surface mouse use the slave chip .

Well the whole thing boils down to "Data throughput " and bandwidth prioritisation ( in my opinion at least )

Most of apples accessories use classic Bluetooth and NOT BLE (Low-energy), for the sake of conversation , we exclude any audio Bluetooth accessories as those are on a completely different level. As you can see here the difference in bandwitdh between classic and low power is quite large .

Now, pretty much all the issues everyone reported are like this : my bluetooth mouse / keyboard / etc were fine UNTIL i added a Bluetooth music Accessory. Which led me to believe there was some sort of issue with the audio part.

So i spent a whole day playing around with "Bluetooth explorer" tool , from xCode ( Enabling AAC and AptX over Bluetooth on MacOS – A Reilly Blog )

Ive tried reducing the bandwidth ( thus having a lower audio output ) in hopes of having a decent chunk for my Surface Mouse .. Suffice to say , that didnt have any major impact , as the mouse kept disconnecting when i was playing music over Bluetooth .

I pretty much gave up on this as i dont really see any sort of solution ( maybe they can do some software optimisation ? ) other than sell my MBP when a bluetooth 5 one is out ( i assume 2018 ) as that would fix this whole **** thing with doubling the rate .

Until then .. im stuck with this monstrosity on my desk ..... a Bluetooth speaker connected by headphone jack to the laptop ....

I have this issue as well. In my case I'm using a 15" TouchBar MBP, AirPods, and the Logitech MX Anywhere 2.

If I don't have the AirPods connected the mouse drops the connection and I have to manually reconnect it about every 20 minutes. If the AirPods are connected, this happens many times a minute, to the point where if I'm listening to music, I can't use the mouse... or I listen to music from my phone.

My AirPods are on the 3.5.1 firmware. Logitech drivers are up-to-date, Mac OS version is 10.12.3.

Didn't work for me either. There is definitely an issue affecting those who are using both standard Bluetooth devices and those using the W1 chip on Macs. I have this issue on every Mac I own, and it only started after purchasing W1 chipped Beats Bluetooth headphones (I have more than one pair, plus of course Apple Bluetooth keyboards and mice).

This is a software/firmware issue that needs resolution.

I have the same problem since I brought this macbook pro with my Logitech MX master mouse and airpods in November 2016, but unfortunately the problem isn't solved yet. I have been apple store and the specialist just reset my whole macbook pro but still having the same problem. And what I guess is that it is hardware problem because I have tried my mouse and airpods on my friend's macbook pro 2016 (older version) with newest MacOS version as same as I do and they work perfectly on that macbook.

I am also having the same issue.

I use bluetooth keyboard(Filco Majestouch 2) and mouse (Logitech MX Master) for years on my PC and Macbook pro 2015.

They work just fine, but when I use them on my Macbook Pro 13" Touchbar, they drop connections very often.

Same devices in the same room, so I am guessing this is the Macbook Pro 13" Touchbar's problem.

I have the same or a similar problem.

MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar.

- Connected through WiFi 5Ghz network

- Using Bluetooth Apple Magic Keyboard

- Using Bluetooth Apple Magic Trackpad

- Using Bluetooth Beats Solo3 headphones

I can use my setup just fine, listening to Spotify, doing work. Nothing is wrong. Other than my WiFi internet connection seems a bit unresponsive or slow at times. But then again, a few minutes later it works fine.

But...

When using my MacBook Pro to do calls (Skype with/without screensharing, FaceTime or Handover calls using my iPhone) and my Bluetooth Headphones with mic to talk:

- keyboard starts disconnecting

- trackpad starts disconnecting

- sometimes even my headphones disconnect

- sound connection drops out for a few seconds

This is getting worse when I browse to a website during the call.

It seems like it's something between:

- wifi connection use, the more bandwidth I use, my bluetooth connection drops

- bluetooth two-way use. ACC codec (one way) less of a problem. SCO codec (two-way using mic during calls) more of a problem

My workaround right now, during calls:

- do not touch my bluetooth keyboard, or keyboard connection will drop

- do not touch my bluetooth trackpad, or trackpad connection will drop

- use internal macbook keyboard and trackpad instead

- do not use internet or browse websites, or skype/facetime/call connection will drop or go silent

When using my Bluetooth headset Beats Solo3, I noticed slower and unresponsive website browsing as well.

For me it looks like it definitely is something between WiFi+Bluetooth.

- When I disable bluetooth entirely in MacOS: internet is snappy and super fast.

- When I disable WiFi and use an Ethernet cable for internet connection, internet is super fast and bluetooth connections are sold, with no disconnection of my keyboard, trackpad or headphones

I haven't been able to easily reproduce with a few exact steps. However, it's happening every single day.

Trying to reproduce it on my older MacBook Pro Retina 2012 as well, but wasn't successful yet.

I'm having the same issue with a 2017 15" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.

Using the wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse works fine. However when I connect my Bose QC35, the mouse starts to "glitch" and its movement is not smooth. Sometimes keyboard and mouse disconnect.

At the same time, audio playing through the QC35 is scattered and really unpleasant.

I tried turning WiFi off to try with bluetooth-only, but no luck. Still the same issues: mouse jumps around, keyboard becomes unresponsive, and audio playback is awful.

I think this might be hardware-related, as I did not have any kind of issue with my previous 2012 Retina MacBook Pro 15" using the same setup.

Yes, I think you are right. I also did not have any problems with my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro 15".

Not sure if the new MacBook Pro 2017 with Touch Bar has a different Wifi/Bluetooth/GPS chip on Kaby Lake. If it's the same chip, we might have the same problems.

However, I can hardly imagine there are so few cases of 'Bluetooth Magic Mouse + Bluetooth Magic Keyboard + Bluetooth Headphones' reporting problems on a MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar.

That is not a very uncommon setup, wouldn't you say?

Yes, the setup is pretty common I guess. Nothing too fancy, just a typical desk setup with a dual monitor and remote keyboard/mice in an office environment.

However I'm getting things to work as I type this comment.

I unpaired my wireless headset from every device it previously connected to (iPad, 2 iPhones, MacBook Pro), removed the headset from known devices list on these products as well, and re-paired them all.

It seems that I do not have the issue anymore. But the randomness of the fix does not convince me there's no underlaying issue regarding hardware.

While this may work for me using my Bose QC35, I cannot tell about your Beats headset. But it's maybe worth a try if you didn't already.

Same issue here. 2016 15" fully loaded MacBook Pro. Using Bose QC35 headphones and Logitech MX Anywhere 2 mouse. Cursor stops responding when both headset and mouse are bluetooth-connected. Please Apple fix this!

Hello,

I have very similar problems. I am using Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad and QC35 headphones.

From time to time, I have a disconnect from the trackpad, the mouse or the keyboard.

Also on the QC35, sometimes I lost connection with the Mac, but it usually stays ok and stablished with my iPhone 6.

Regards!

ISO

Thanks for this great summary.

I learned something new about Master/Slave.

Not sure how this applies to using:

- Apple Magic Keyboard (master)

- Apple Magic Trackpad (master)

- Beats Studio3 headphones (master)

Also during audio calls, all stay registered as Master. But connection of all devices might suddenly drop.

You also confirmed my suspicion about the bluetooth chip in the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. As far as the iFixit reports show, both the 2016 MacBook Pro and the 2017 one use the same Murata/Apple 339S00056 Wi-Fi Module that causes the problems.

Not just Bluetooth, but Wifi has unreliable performance as well on a MacBook Pro Touch Bar. Would make sense if when they are in fact the same chip.

Using a Bluetooth mouse, keyboard, or trackpad with your Mac
Look under the section titled: Connect multiple Bluetooth devices to one computer
If you have not done so I already, I would unpair and pair them again.
Let us know if this works.
Have a great day!

I have the exact same problem but with an Razer Orochi and the 15" touch bar, did you ever figure out the issue to the problem? The recent 10.12.3 update did not fix the issue it seems.