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Sharing bluetooth keyboard/mouse with two Macs

Hi, I'm considering getting a bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse for my home office. However, I would like to use the keyboard and mouse with both my MacBook and my iMac. Can you switch the the keyboard and mouse pairing from one computer to the other, without turning either computer off? How? If I pair the keyboard and mouse with the MacBook, will I be unable to go to the iMac to configure Bluetooth from the menu or from System Preferences?

Both systems are running Leopard 10.5.2. Thanks for the advice.

iMac, MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on May 12, 2008 11:18 AM

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Posted on Jun 6, 2008 3:47 PM

Well, I figured out the answer to my own question. Yes, you can share a bluetooth keyboard and mouse with two Macs. Here's how you do it.

First, you need to pair the bluetooth mouse and keyboard with both Macs. Unless both Macs are laptops, you'll need a wired mouse to do this. Once both Macs have been paired with the mouse and keyboard, you need a way to switch from one Mac to the other. The basic process is to turn off bluetooth on the Mac you're switching from, and activate the mouse and keyboard with the Mac you're switching to.

For instance, suppose the mouse and keyboard are currently paired with your MacBook, and you want to pair them with your iMac. Follow these steps:

1. On the MacBook, disable bluetooth
2. On the iMac, enable bluetooth
3. Click the mouse and type on the keyboard to connect them to the iMac

The catch is that you'll need to keep a wired mouse available to enable bluetooth on the iMac/Mac Pro/Mac Mini in step 2. So here's a clever variation: add a step 4 where you automatically re-enable bluetooth on the MacBook.

The way to do this is to download the blueutil utility from www.frederikseiffert.de. With this, you can create a very simple Automator action around the following shell script:

/usr/local/bin/blueutil off
sleep 60
/usr/local/bin/blueutil on

Run that utility on the computer you want to switch from, and you're ready to go! I would still keep a wired mouse available in case there is a glitch, but this should handle it. Enjoy!
1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Jun 6, 2008 3:47 PM in response to gglockner

Well, I figured out the answer to my own question. Yes, you can share a bluetooth keyboard and mouse with two Macs. Here's how you do it.

First, you need to pair the bluetooth mouse and keyboard with both Macs. Unless both Macs are laptops, you'll need a wired mouse to do this. Once both Macs have been paired with the mouse and keyboard, you need a way to switch from one Mac to the other. The basic process is to turn off bluetooth on the Mac you're switching from, and activate the mouse and keyboard with the Mac you're switching to.

For instance, suppose the mouse and keyboard are currently paired with your MacBook, and you want to pair them with your iMac. Follow these steps:

1. On the MacBook, disable bluetooth
2. On the iMac, enable bluetooth
3. Click the mouse and type on the keyboard to connect them to the iMac

The catch is that you'll need to keep a wired mouse available to enable bluetooth on the iMac/Mac Pro/Mac Mini in step 2. So here's a clever variation: add a step 4 where you automatically re-enable bluetooth on the MacBook.

The way to do this is to download the blueutil utility from www.frederikseiffert.de. With this, you can create a very simple Automator action around the following shell script:

/usr/local/bin/blueutil off
sleep 60
/usr/local/bin/blueutil on

Run that utility on the computer you want to switch from, and you're ready to go! I would still keep a wired mouse available in case there is a glitch, but this should handle it. Enjoy!

Sharing bluetooth keyboard/mouse with two Macs

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