16-inch MacBook Pro Bluetooth issue

Hi,

"HCI Selector in Bluetooth Explorer.app still shows None" this is normal according to my findings. I first diagnosed by friends Mac and he asked me to take a look at this. I had never plugged in CSR 4.0 dongle at this point on my own Mac and I checked it and it read "None" on the selector. Later on I broke my own Mac's bluetooth with my friend's CSR 4.0 dongle when he lend it to me to check on exact fix procedure.

And to the "weird quirks" I had these from the unboxing of my machine, bluetooth seemed unstable at time to time especially on bluetooth headphones. Link crashes or no audio or connection resets. Normally these autorecover after 5 seconds. I accepted this as a bug feature as we are talking about first revision of 16" MacBook Pro in my case. Apple is fixing these kinds of bugs regulary and overall experience has been good.

At the moment I have bug where my machine is crashing with complete power failure after 5-10 seconds when it is running low on battery <5%, system is on full load and I plug in charger that comes with the Mac.

These kind of things happen...

I have same issue with my 16inch MacBook Pro, I've done all the resets but bluetooth won't work, I have to use an external bluetooth dongle before I can use my AirPods or even connect to other Bluetooths devices. its so frustrating as paying nearly 3grand for a laptop that has issues with bluetooth

derick212, There has been some breakthroughs that have allowed us to be able to resurrect the Bluetooth. If you read all the posts. It involves using a Bluetooth 2.0 Adapter.

It worked for both my 16" and 13" MacBooks.

Its worth giving it a try!

This post helped me. I'd tried AntiHawk's method which almost got there. The key thing for me was once I'd connected / disconnected / connected again once able to connect to a mobile phone, I needed a reboot - presumably for the OS to catch up with activating the internal bluetooth module fully.

Until I did the reboot, I couldn't add any other Bluetooth device types (e.g. the keyboard I'm using to type this message). Once I'd rebooted, I've been able to add multiple peripherals with the evidently now working internal bluetooth module.

Just thought I'd highlight this in case it helps anyone else!

Apple should definitely compensate the major contributors to this thread given it's saving them multiple very expensive logic board replacements.

Chris

P.S. BT2.0 Device used was as cited earlier in the thread, £4 from Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0013BFQUE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can confirm that AntiHawk's solution worked for me. I had to order 3 different usb dongles. The cheap small half circle one didn't work at all. Second one was an expensive Vodafone acessorie type dongle, that one worked and fixed the issue. I am also waiting for a 3 dongle which is sitecom one, but looking at characteristics, it's exactly like the one from Vodafone. Point here, you definitely need to use a more expensive higher quality dongle.

I was trying to fix this issue for 2 weeks. Apple services were of no use as due to limited service at the moment they still didn't come back to me regarding what would be the best way to proceed. I went to Apple store and after all diagnostics the only solution was to swap motherboard, but there is at least two week delay on these jobs in the UK.

If anyone in the UK struggling to fix this issue and can't find the right dongle, let me know, I would be able to send it over.

Massive thanks to AntiHawk, legend!

Just recently came across this thread. This issue is a joke on a $24K+ laptop and should have been fixed way back. Yet I still encountered this a few days back when I accidentally plugged a TP-Link Bluetooth 4.0 dongle into my 16-inch Macbook Pro. I'm from Hong Kong and we don't have Amazon, shops aren't really selling old Bluetooth anymore. And going straight to Apple Store for help is the only choice.

I sent it back to Apple they couldn’t fix it. They asked me if I needed a replacement, because that was the only solution that could resolve the Bluetooth issue. I advice if your internal Bluetooth module functions as expected, do not plug any external Bluetooth dongle or adapter into your 16inch MacBook Pro. It can be very frustrating if you come across issues with resolving the Bluetooth issue.

Nope, the internal module never works since I plugged the dongle into it. I went extreme to installing Big Sur Beta and wiping the internal storage then reinstalling Catalina, no luck at all. I went to a local Apple Store for help today but was turned down since Apple now only accepts repair request by making appointment online due to the pandemic. Guess I'll just have to wait for my appointment tomorrow.

Yeah very true I did same resets as you did to yours but it never worked. They're going to replace your logic board. I don’t buy my apple products directly from Apple because they’re customer service are sometimes very unhelpful. I got mine from curry’s pc UK and I sent the computer back to them after seven days it’s was brought back with a note. They said , my computer had a faulty logic board so it was replaced.

Same problem here. I've tried all the solutions talked about in this thread, with 4 different BT2.0 modules and was never able to get it working again. Apple really needs to have a better solution than to replace the logic board every time someone plugs in a BT Dongle.

A bit of update here: Went to a local Apple store here, probably took an hour and half for the Genius to diagnose the issue, they told me that this is the first time they see a problem like this. Ran bunch of checks still couldn't figure the problem. They offer me a motherboard a replacement and report to Apple regardless of my choice. I decided to hold off and immediately ordered the BT 2.0 dongle from Amazon US that you guys mentioned above and see if it can fix the issue. Can anyone confirm the 'solution' still work in Catalina 10.15.6? I see Apple released another supplemental Update again today but this issue STILL isn't addressed in the update log.

I'm afraid that Apple might have ignored this issue since this thread is marked as 'solved'. Apple you need to fix this asap!

Also tried everything here over hours of resets/reboots/plug-unplug cycles. Bought a no-brand mushroom-headed Bluetooth 2.0 USB dongle that resembled those from which others reported success - no luck. (Anyone who has an external dongle that seemed to wake the onboard - you should rent it out!)

Had hopes new MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 update, available today (August 13), might include a software fix – given some comments upthread that recent hardware replacements had been deferred. After installation, no luck - internal Bluetooth still dead.

I can confirm, that this workaround successfully works also on 10.15.6.

I'm from Switzerland and I have about 30 BLE 2.0 (BCM 2045A Chipset) dongles available. With these I have been able to solve the problem multiple times. If someone needs one -> just write me a PN.

Thanks,Boris

Hi, Boris - Interested but don't see any direct-messaging options here. Could you email me (gojomo@ on the big G's domain), and/or share exact brand/model (or how chipset is reliably identified) in case there are other local providers with similar units?