I have a brand new MacBook (approx 2 months old) that I have successfully paired with my cell phone using the built-in Bluetooth. This is really all that I use the Bluetooth for - sending pictures between my computer and my phone - and I haven't used it much lately. Recently I tried to send a picture from my MacBook to my cell phone and my computer tells me that the "selected communication device does not exist" - basically that I don't have Bluetooth in my computer! What has happened and how do I fix it? How do I get my computer to recognize it's Bluetooth and to connect to it again?
It seems to becoming to light that the reason lots of people are having problems with the bluetooth is because of a design flaw in the 2007 model. Someone put the wi-fi transmission line too near to the bluetooth, and they may be cross coupling and causing interference, which is giving rise to a number of problems.
Supposition and rumour is still a step closer to solving the problem that a lot of people seem to be having with bluetooth. In the absence of any solid explanation from Apple it's better than nothing, and as a microwave engineer myself it does seem plausible that it could be the cause.
By all means, try the PRAM reset. The problem might go away, but don't be surprised if it comes back again in a few hours/days.
If this does turn out to be the cause, least said i will not be very happy that I've been fobbed off with excuse after excuse for the past year. If there has been an oversight in the design Apple should own up to it.
Barry, this will sound stupid, but where do I find the preference file you refer to?
I've been going crazy trying to solve this Bluetooth issue. Took my MacBook into the Madison, WI Apple store, and they found a crack in the case. They replaced the case (very cool), and told me that the Bluetooth was working fine, and they examined it. They "reset" it, apparently, making sure it was seated properly. They had the option of simply charging me for a new Bluetooth antenna, but told me that it was fine, and working, after the did in-store testing...
So, three weeks after the visit, I'm getting the same problem. The Bluetooth konks out after a few minutes after I turn on. I'm using a wi-fi at home, and a cellular modem at work with this MacBook. It konks out at both locations.
I'm anxious to try the preference dump, and PRAM restart.... But where do I look?
Thanks for the tip. The challenge with this has been that it works for a while, then quits. I've done just the PRAM, I've shut the computer off, taken out the battery, then held the power button for 10 seconds, and I've dressed in woman's clothing, put on lipstick, walked backward through doorways, and changed "mea copa," 100 times.
Only when I trashed the preference file, then did the PRAM reset, did it work right away.
I'll check back in a week or so, just to let you know.
(I enjoyed your description of your "fixes." You missed one thing that I noticed right away, however. Step two is to throw dried bat wings over your left shoulder in the dark of the moon.)
The preference file is located as I indicated above. Occasionally (not often, but it happens), preference files become corrupted. When you trash one, OS X rebuilds it after a restart.
Trashing Macintosh HD>Library>Preferences>com.apple.bluetooth.plist followed by resetting PRAM (shut down computer; then power up computer with power button while holding down command
option+PR keys until another restart chime, ref. <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379>) worked.
When my wireless keyboard stopped working on my PowerBook G4, Bluetooth was missing from System Preferences and from System Profiler (Apple menu > About this Mac > More info... > Hardware, USB sections) until i found your solution. I don't know if trashing the preference file (com.apple.bluetooth.plist) would have worked by itself, but a PRAM reset alone did not work. In addition to resetting PRAM, i had already tried multiple shut-downs and restarts, clearing caches, even resetting the CMU to no avail. (I'm stuffing all this in here in hope someoneelse's search will land them here even if they don't have a Macbook 🙂
I did that but, after rebooting, my laptop now has no recognised Bluetooth device. There's no longer a Bluetooth option in Preferences and I get the pop-up message
"The Bluetooth Tab of Keyboard & Mouse preferences is hidden because you don't have a Bluetooth module installed or attached to your computer."