16-inch MacBook Pro Bluetooth issue

I had exactly the same problem (down to every detail) and I think I just found a solution.

I'm also using a CalDigit dock and USB bluetooth stick and I'm on my second MBP 16. The first was replaced under AppleCare after the bluetooth module became apparently dead.

The built-in bluetooth came back to life by running system diagnostics (hold down D during boot). After the subsequent restart, without the USB bluetooth adapter attached, I noticed that bluetooth was seeing some devices in the area but still not connecting to anything. I deleted and re-paired my Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Keyboard 2 - now all is working again.

I fixed my broken Bluetooth by replacing the Airport Wifi/Bluetooth Card of my MacBook Pro

I just wanted to add another possible Solution for some. Don't know if I had the same Problem as other visitors, but i got my issue solved.

My Issue was, that my Bluetooth did not see other Devices anymore. I do not remember ever using an external Bluetooth Dongle that might have caused this - as others here mentioned.

I tried some of the recovery methods in this Thread (with external Dongles): They did not work.

Then i just went on ebay and bought a replacement for the Airport Card, which does handle Wifi/Bluetooth on the MBP - for like 24€ it was worth a try. Replacement is trivial if you have the Apple Screwdriver Bit and some guidance (ifixit.com, youtube). Now everything works flawlessly again.

As I said before, this may not solve everyones Problem here, but maybe someone with the same Problem will read this ;)

Keep in mind to research which particular Airport-Card-Model you need for your Mac Model, before you buy it. There are different versions out there and some of them look very similiar to each other.

Latest updated, and its good news !

Booked in to a Apple Authorised Repair centre, fully expecting my MBP 16 to need to spend a few days with them and parts to come from Australia to NZ.

The service guy was super helpful and ran two diagnostics on it - one called EFI and the other Mac Resource Inspector.

These are only accessible via the special WiFi network in store and not the same as we can access by holding D while booting.

They both upload results to Apples support tools for the repair centre to see online and he showed me the results.

It said the Bluetooth Module passed and the MAC address was sane.

Then after a clean boot and a delete of the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist file my MBP 16 would pair with the techs keyboard.

Then we tested with my mouse and keyboard in store and they worked, so far its been working for 4 hours perfectly !

Hope this helps someone else save time.

Meanwhile the USB Bluetooth dongle is being locked away and never used again on the MBP 16

Hi all,

Just got my 2019 MBP back from an authorized repair shop. Almost 1 month wait for the **** laptop! They ended up changing the logical board AND the touch ID (which seem to be the reason why it took so long - there is a shortage of Touch ID devices for my model it seem).

All in all, I'm pretty confident this is something that could be avoided by Apple. This is the kind of behaviour that puts a dent on the brand as it shows that wanting to move in that direction (every component soldered on the board) might be cost effective but brings a lot of issues when having hardware problems - we're talking about a bluetooth adapter here....

As for the other folks, don't want to sound negative here but I've tried all steps posted here, multiple times without any success. I had to buy 3 different adapters without the results we all know and it seem to be a hit or miss more than anything else. In the end, I had to send the laptop back to Apple for them to change the whole internals.

Best of luck!

Alright, so no matter what I tried with all the bluetooth dongles I purchased, I couldn't get the bluetooth to come back. I had a feeling it was actually shot on the board. So, I sent my MacBook in. They replaced the logic board and Touch ID. I sent it in on Friday through a box from apple repair and got it back today (Tuesday). It really was only in repair for one day.

I set up the machine, logged in and my bluetooth is extremely laggy. Audio will lag for chunks of a time. It's sitting in the same exact spot it was in before it went for repair. They also wiped the drive and downgraded me to 10.15.7.

This all has to be a joke. This isn't even funny anymore.

I've just managed to fix this issue in a strange way, and without requiring any BT 2.0 dongle.

Background (don't know if it's mandatory for the fix):

I was affected by this problem for a couple of months, after reading the answers in this thread I've tried buying this dongle and tried AntiHawk's fix:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Small-Portable-Bluetooth-2-0-USB-Dongle-Adapter-For-Laptop-PC-Win-XP-Win-7-Win-8/353265753062?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

But it did not help (and my mac couldn't even use it to find any devices).

I've tried plugging in and out several times, but still didn't work.

I've then ran this command:

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior="never"

And kept it this way while trying to find a new dongle to purchase.

Several days later, I've tried the steps I mention below in this post (without even using the BT 2.0 dongle), and it magically started working.

I have no idea if the fact I've managed to fix this issue is related to the fact I've previously did plug the BT 2.0 dongle or not, but I'm posting my method here so others will try it too, with or without having previously using BT 2.0 dongle.

Would love to hear if this method worked for anyone else.

My steps were as follows:

• Open terminal and run these commands: (Let bluetoothd continue to run in the terminal window)

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior="always"
sudo nvram -p
bluetoothd

• Open the bluetooth menu and try connecting to a device.
• Everything works 🤯
• Closing the terminal window (terminating the running bluetoothd command).
• Running this command to prevent future problems:

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior="always"

• Everything still works.

Hi

Just set the dongle switching behaviour to "never", then pluging in the adapter will not crash your internal bluetooth again. (default is 'always' - meaning, the OS will always try to use the plugged in dongle).

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=never

BR

Boris

Couple of us are having the same issue, used a USB device with bluetooth attached on a MBP 16 and then the internal bluetooth stops working.

Plug the USB device with bluetooth back in and the devices all work again.

Anyone found a way resolve this ?

Hi, I got an update from the Apple Store. Turned out it is indeed a hardware problem and they are going to replace the whole logic board now. That should definitely fix the problem. But I am kind of scared to use the Bluetooth dongle again. I saw a terminal command you could execute to prevent the Bluetooth controller from switching automatically, but not sure if that works. I have to wait now until they have replace the logic board. Hope they are fast

Thanks, Apple Support has said its a hardware issue to me too. Booked in at an Apple Repair Center for them to look at it on Friday. I suspect it will be the same approach of replacing the logic board.

I found a project that will reflash the Broadcom Bluetooth module. Its a bit complex and so getting some help, will let people know if it helps - https://github.com/the-darkvoid/BrcmPatchRAM

I tried everything I read here, nothing worked. I also upgraded so Big Sur, but no changes.

In the end I shut down my MacBook, unplugged everything and started the Hardware diagnostics with Power on and Press D. After 3 minutes it said everything is fine, I didn't expect anything, but I restarted and suddenly Bluetooth worked again.

Maybe it was a coincidence, but give it a try ;)

Hi, so I finally got my MacBook back and it works great. The command I found was quite helpful, I can pass it through to my virtual machine without macOS picking the usb Bluetooth dongle up and use it.

The command is this just paste it into terminal AT YOUR OWN RISK:

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=never

to restore to default run this AT YOUR OWN RISK:

sudo nvram -d bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior

Reboot after you set this variables

I had the same issue, final solution that worked was for the Apple Service centre (No Genius Bars in New Zealand) was to run the special diagnostics that only works in store on a special wireless network.

They ran two different types, see my post above and then it worked.

Still working to this day !

For others in Germany, I just unbricked mine with this 2,50€ adapter from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07F82HQFF - Xiton Tiny USB 2.0 Wireless Bluetooth Adapter Dongle

It took two weeks to arrive from China but worth the wait.

I got my computer back from Apple. They replaced the logic board. I don't know whether it is safe to plugin the bluetooth adapter, but I'm guessing that it would break my computer again. I wish I knew if the root cause of the problem was fixed.