gjs45

Q: I accidentally turned off the bluetooth on my mid2011 imac-now neither my trackpad nor my keyboard will work..and I don't own a usb mouse..what next?

I accidentally turned off the bluetooth on my iMac (mid-2011; Lion)...now neither my wireless trackpad nor my wireless keyboard will work and I cannot turn it back on (and I do not own a usb mouse as was suggested on the apple support page.  It also mentioned that the bluetooth could not be turned off except by a usb mouse. 

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Mar 11, 2012 9:10 PM

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Q: I accidentally turned off the bluetooth on my mid2011 imac-now neither my trackpad nor my keyboard will work..and I don't own a us ... more

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  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Mar 11, 2012 9:23 PM in response to gjs45
    Level 10 (122,225 points)
    Apple Music
    Mar 11, 2012 9:23 PM in response to gjs45

    Hi..

     

    You're going to need a wired (USB) mouse to turn Bluetooth back on.

     

    Either from the status menu bar (top right in your screen) or from System Preferences > Bluetooth.

  • by Silly rabbit,

    Silly rabbit Silly rabbit Mar 11, 2012 9:50 PM in response to gjs45
    Level 4 (2,980 points)
    Mar 11, 2012 9:50 PM in response to gjs45

    Surely you can borrow a mouse from somebody. You can also buy one for around five dollars.

  • by X423424X,

    X423424X X423424X Mar 11, 2012 10:12 PM in response to gjs45
    Level 6 (14,237 points)
    Mar 11, 2012 10:12 PM in response to gjs45

    What happens if you flip the on/off switch on the keyboard?

     

    Bluetooth: How to set up your Apple Wireless Keyboard

  • by Tafftech,Solvedanswer

    Tafftech Tafftech Mar 12, 2012 6:41 AM in response to gjs45
    Level 2 (270 points)
    Mar 12, 2012 6:41 AM in response to gjs45

    If you boot the iMac with nothing connected it should go into a setup wizrd. ive just tried it with an iMac ive got on the bench and was able to connect to both a Mouse and keyboard. Try Resetting the P Ram and see if that cures it.

  • by gjs45,

    gjs45 gjs45 Mar 12, 2012 7:20 PM in response to Tafftech
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 12, 2012 7:20 PM in response to Tafftech

    Thanks everyone for your help!  I'm a mac newbie and thought I was turning off the bluetooth file transfer and was in a panic.  Simply rebooting didn't work, but when I unplugged my usb backup drive and usb printer, unpplugged the computer from the wall and then plugged it back in, it detected both the trackpad and keyboard.

  • by Klahane,

    Klahane Klahane Jul 24, 2012 9:41 PM in response to gjs45
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 24, 2012 9:41 PM in response to gjs45

    This might not be the same issue, but:

     

    I have a mid 2010 27" iMac that occasionally loses all BlueTooth connections. I just had a chance to test this.

     

    I found my iMac just starting to run the screensaver. It was looking for pictures, then found them and began displaying them. None of my three Apple BlueTooth devices (keyboard, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad) worked. So far, this is just like all the other times this has happened.

     

    I recently got a wired Apple trackball mouse, and plugged that in. It woke the iMac, and gave me a cursor. I could use the menu bar BlueTooth icon to see that BlueTooth was off. I could not turn it on with the menubar icon.

    I tried to turn BlueTooth on with BlueTooth preferences and that didn't work either.

     

    I could log out, but couldn't log back in because logging out did not bring the BlueTooth keyboard back on.

     

    A soft restart worked, bring BlueTooth back up as usual.

     

    Console reports

     

    07 24 12 9:03:04.000 PM kernel: E:[AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController][StartBulkPipeRead] ClearPipeStall failed with error 0xe000404f

     

    This is an error that I've seen in other instances where BlueTooth has failed. I've also seen this reported on the web.

     

    As this seems like a software problem, I'm holding out hope for a fix in Mountain Lion.

  • by tweitz1977,

    tweitz1977 tweitz1977 Jan 17, 2015 11:01 AM in response to gjs45
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 17, 2015 11:01 AM in response to gjs45

    I had the same problem and wanted to add one more solution to the list. I had a laptop on the same network which I'd used to screen share with my iMac. When the Bluetooth was turned off, I was able to use the laptop to restart the computer. So, on the off chance you have another computer on your network, you may be able to control the mouse remotely.

  • by ImpossibleGirl,

    ImpossibleGirl ImpossibleGirl Jul 31, 2015 4:06 AM in response to gjs45
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 31, 2015 4:06 AM in response to gjs45

    I Stupidly did the same thing without thinking that all my controls are Bluetooth & I don't own a wired mouse.  I just turned the computer off with the power button , then turned in back on. Let it boot up and it automatically reset the Bluetooth back on.  Everything worked.  I have a late 2012 iMac.  I was much relieved.

  • by bernsriquez,

    bernsriquez bernsriquez Sep 6, 2015 4:30 PM in response to gjs45
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 6, 2015 4:30 PM in response to gjs45

    I used the Screen Share application from a MacBook, you can activate it from Finder just need to be on the same Wireless Network.

  • by philbert66,

    philbert66 philbert66 Apr 25, 2016 9:59 PM in response to gjs45
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 25, 2016 9:59 PM in response to gjs45

    Easier solution:  command-spacebar, search for Bluetooth File Exchange, arrow down to select it, and it will prompt you turn on Bluetooth. Click Enter.

  • by danno80439,

    danno80439 danno80439 Sep 21, 2016 4:43 PM in response to gjs45
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 4:43 PM in response to gjs45

    power cycle does the trick on a late 2013 model iMac.