After updating to Catalina 10.15.1, bluetooth is not available on my Mac Mini (2018). This prevents me from using a wireless keyboard or my AirPods with the Mac. The icon says "Bluetooth: Not available". I've done an SMC reset, deleted /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist and reset NVRAM/PRAM. Is anyone else having this problem? Any solutions?
Mac mini 2018 or later
Solved in 5 minutes with Apple Support over the phone. I have a Macbook Pro, Retina Mid 2012 on MacOS Catalina which did an automatic update to 10.15.2. After I was unable to connect a bluetooth headset, I noticed the bluetooth icon had a line through it and said Bluetooth: Not Available. I tried all of the delete this and reboot that with no success. I read the forums and some people mentioned taking it to the Apple store. I knew the issue was patch related and not hardware. So, I called Apple Support. Apple had me do the following.
This worked for me. I hope this helps someone.
Solved in 5 minutes with Apple Support over the phone. I have a Macbook Pro, Retina Mid 2012 on MacOS Catalina which did an automatic update to 10.15.2. After I was unable to connect a bluetooth headset, I noticed the bluetooth icon had a line through it and said Bluetooth: Not Available. I tried all of the delete this and reboot that with no success. I read the forums and some people mentioned taking it to the Apple store. I knew the issue was patch related and not hardware. So, I called Apple Support. Apple had me do the following.
This worked for me. I hope this helps someone.
So there are two issues being discussed in this thread. It seems like you’re running into the serious issue some others have been seeing and this the genesis of this discussion. Unfortunately, there’s not a good solution for that issue that anyone’s found, and Apple needs to get on the ball.
One issue being discussed here is general Bluetooth issues, I.e keyboards not working intermittently or dropouts / disconnects. That is not what this thread is about.
This thread is concerning a specific issue where the Bluetooth hardware disappears completely, and is shown as “not available” to OS X. No restores, software tricks, or diagnostics seem to help. In fact, running diagnostics shows Bluetooth not present.
This is not a software issue, and it’s a recent issue mostly associated with Catalina. It seems to affect the 2018 Mac Mini more than others.
I had this problem, and did extensive diagnostics myself and at the Genus Bar. Nothing could recover it.
The closest thing I can surmise, after 25 years working with both PC and Mac hardware, is that a firmware update to the Bluetooth portion of the combined Wireless chip fails during the Catalina upgrade and bricks that portion of the chip. If you look carefully at all OS X Updates, they contain one or more firmware updates - (DFUs, or Device Firmware Updates in Mac parlance) - which get applied at upgrade time.
Looking at the PCI ID after these upgrades on a failed machine, it appears something fails mid-upgrade in the firmware upload, and leaves the chip in an inoperable state.
Apple has released firmware patch utilities for these types of issues in the past, but as is per typical recent Apple, if it’s under a certain occurrence threshold they ignore it and deal with it case-by-case.
Luckily my 2018 Mac Mini was still within AppleCare, and the solution was to replace the logic board. Overkill, but seems to be Apple’s go-to fix at the GB these days.
If you’re having a true non-recoverable failure - indicated by “Bluetooth Not Available”, no Bluetooth device shown in system configuration or diagnostics, and no recovery even with a SMC reset or OS restore, this is likely your problem - I’d contact Apple support ASAP.
If you’re having generic Bluetooth issues like disconnects or dropouts, that’s really not the severe issue that’s being discussed in this thread - that can usually be solved by deleting Bluetooth prefs and .plists, and appears to be a software issue.
I keep mentioning this, but people apparently aren't paying attention, and keep hijacking this thread with generic "My mouse doesn't work but my headphones do" Bluetooth problems that are fixed by a SMC reset.
Again, there are TWO problems being discussed in this thread.
One is generic bluetooth issues that are resolved by removing .plists and resetting the SMC as Apple suggests, and is not the "serious problem" first identified in this thread.
The second one is a VERY SERIOUS issue where the Catalina update essentially *wipes out the device firmware on the chip due to a corrupt or interrupted DFU update*. THIS is how the update is causing a hardware problem. This is what happened to my Mac Mini, and the only resolution was to change out the logic board.
The symptom of this is a "Bluetooth Unavailable" no matter what you do - whether you roll back to another version, and NO bluetooth devices work. This IS a hardware problem CAUSED by the Catalina update that IS CURRENTLY NOT USER FIXABLE. Apple has released firmware patches in the past, but they have not acknowledged this issue. I have now seen it on three people's devices.
I wish people would stop mucking up this thread with "one device works but the other doesn't" general Bluetooth compatibility stuff.. That is NOT the issue that provoked this thread, you guys are having typical bluetooth problems.
If you are stuck with the consistent "Bluetooth Not Available" and the device is NOT Present in System Information, your bluetooth chip firmware may literally be gone, and right now the only resolution is a hardware repair. That's what I had to do, and the "Genius Bar" verified this was the issue.
SOLVED: Turn on the MBP, and immediately hold Shift, Control, Option. I let go after 10-15 seconds. This was probably the 6th method I tried. The Mac booted up, I signed in, and BlueTooth was there! According to the link below, this resets the SMC, "System Management Controller." Hope this helps someone.
Note, the blog said to hold all 3 buttons and turn on the MBP at the same time, but it wouldn't turn on for me while I had those 3 buttons held in. Instead, I pushed the power button and then immediately after held those 3 buttons down.
Again, there are two issues being discussed in this thread. One is a major one where the Bluetooth chip stops working entirely after the Catalina update. Another is with people having compatibility issues with specific devices, but the Bluetooth device itself on the Mac still exists and works.
The first issue isn’t major and is not fixable by the user. The second issue is more minor and is workable through things like device updates.
I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I wish people would stop conflating the second issue with the first major issue.
The issue that I had and the OP of the thread is that the Bluetooth chip on the Mac failed completely. After getting my logic board replaced the conclusion was that the firmware update -for the Bluetooth chip on the main logic board itself- failed during the Catalina upgrade, therefore bricking the chip on the motherboard.
This is not the same as “my headphones don’t work but my keyboard does.”
Apple needs to acknowledge the first issue, and if it keeps getting conflated with updates for 3rd party devices, they never will.
I have a Macbook Pro Mid 2012 experiencing the same issues. The mouse/keyboard disconnects from bluetooth then reconnects after 10-15 secs. Then is does it all over again. Eventually, Bluetooth turns off and I can't turn it on. I can reboot then the cycle begins again.
Very frustrating. I've contacted Apple support and gone through the known fixes all to no avail. In fact, I've had to retype this a couple of time because I lost the keyboard. I've sent Apple logs but they haven't gotten back to me.
This is definitely an OS issue.
I have the similar issue where the Bluetooth does not now work with my wireless headphones but the magic keyboard and mouse still operate.
I contacted my headphones manufacturer for a warranty claim and they and many other Bluetooth manufacturers now have a big issue with Bluetooth connectivity with their devices. Apple seems to have changed something with the Bluetooth functionality and also removed the functionality of apxT low latency support which is the issue worldwide with Catalina. I contacted Apple and they say the manufacturers have to update their firmware for all their devices. My question is why did Apple do this as it’s a major issue. Some guys are taking their devices for repair as they think it’s hardware. Personally I think it’s just faulty software and Catalina programming is the issue. Many are paying to get their iMac etc fixed for no reason. Apple should come clean as to what’s happened.
Bluetooth was crashing with increasing regularity and would no longer connect to devices, so I decided to upgrade to Catalina before I found this thread (hindsight: whoops). Bluetooth flatlined post upgrade from 10.14 Mojave to 10.15.4 Catalina. Upgraded to 10.15.5 hoping to resolve, but no dice. Tried a handful of other things over the past few days until I discovered this thread:
Poking around a bit more, it looks like as I had a system admin user set up for me on a work provided machine, I have two ~/Library directories - one at a global system level, and one under ~/{User}/Library. I had been deleting the plist files at the global level assuming they would be system wide, but I had to navigate to both Library/Preferences folders and remove the bluetooth plist files - and the User/Library/Preferences/ByHost plist file. No change.
Running etrecheck - it looks like on upgrading to macOS Catalina 10.15.4 two things were installed:
XProtectPlistConfigData (2121) & Voice Update - Nora (1.3.13), but neither looks related, especially since their release dates don't seem to coincide with the reporting here.
While bluetooth can be power toggled (manually via terminal), it continues to crash system preferences and will not allow any devices to be connected. Booting in Safe seems to fix that, but still doesn't address the actual bluetooth issue. No error pops up in about system, etrecheck, or cleanmymac. Still can’t seem to toggle bluetooth IO via console bar - only manually via terminal with blueutil -p 0/1 or sudo launchctl stop/start com.apple.bluetoothhd.
Guessing this must be the described hardware issue. Looks like this could be the battery on the logic board, but if Apple Care is saying it might be something else and requires machine replacement.. who knows. ****, this is my work computer, and I was hoping to avoid IT/sending it in. Looks like I've hopped in the boat with the rest of you.
Worth noting, and I recommend anyone in the future who posts to this (or folks who captured it at the time of their log):
Some references:
I am having the same issue with my mac mini and bluetooth. i upgraded, and none of my bluetooth connections would work. at the same time, it didn't want to allow my USB mouse to work either. so i was really stuck, since i couldn't do anything. somehow i rebooted and returned to OS 14.6, and then tried to use my Time Machine backup i have on an external drive to things up the way they were before. now i find i can't do that, since something won't allow backup to work from that drive. i spent all day yesterday trying to return to the state it was in and can't. i got my USB connections going again, but still can't use Time Machine on the external.
I also upgraded my MacBook Pro, which for some reason seems to be more receptive. i have connected a Bluetooth keyboard that works
Having exact same problem. MBA 2012, has run without a glitch for 8 years until I updated to Catalina which rendered bluetooth "Not Available", with a squiggly line through the menu bar icon, and the Bluetooth preferences icon disappearing from the System Preferences window - a spotlight search indicates Bluetooth within System Preferences, however when accessed an error message appears: "You can’t open the “Bluetooth” preferences pane because it is not available to you at this time." I have applied all reset options detailed in this thread (thanks all for your hard work & sharing), alas none have worked for me. Just waiting on Apple now - please Apple, don't take too long, I was hoping my MBA would make it to its 10th birthday...
I've also tested diagonostic verification through 'press D' during boot, but there was no hardware error on its result. But still bluetooth is not working and even can't see the icon from system setting menu.
I think you’re correct. I have a 2012 MacBook Pro so I guess I’ve been abandoned by Apple. I was considering the Mini but I won’t be buying Apple due to error. I’ve gone old school going to usb keyboard/mouse.
Very disappointed!
Don’t bother going in for service. Had same issue with MCP. The issue is software related within Mojave . Apple doesn’t seem interested in fix. I updated to Catalina, and problem gone. MCP works just fine. On Mojave’s I reset everything, SMC, NVRAM, Bluetooth module , yet problem persisted. I’d open my lid and Bluetooth not available , unless reboot. Once updated to Catalina, problem gone, my Bluetooth has not ONCE been unavailable...
2 problems:
Do you have any update on this?
I have a Macbook Pro from late 2015 and I updated to Catalina 10.15.1 back in November and have had the same issue since. I've done all sorts of resets, deleted the Bluetooth.plist file multiple times, and I chatted to Apple Support who just recommended doing the same thing. Like PrestonG, they suggested it might be hardware, but I also find it weird that the update had this effect on the hardware.
10.15.1 Update - Bluetooth not available
