Mac OS Catalina keeps disconnecting bluetooth devices

I'm a brand new MacBook Pro user and am disappointed to find each time the computer goes idle I have to reconnect my bluetooth to my speakers, mixer etc. Reading through the comments and not seeing Apple respond to customers frustrations is not what I wanted to find after purchasing a product for almost $3k. Thumbs Down!! Come on, this is cutting into my productivity to reconnect what is actually showing connected every time.

I'm a brand new MacBook Pro user and am disappointed to find each time the computer goes idle I have to reconnect my bluetooth to my speakers, mixer etc. Reading through the comments and not seeing Apple respond to customers frustrations is not what I wanted to find after purchasing a product for almost $3k. Thumbs Down!! Come on, this is cutting into my productivity to reconnect what is actually showing connected every time.

I started having this problem on a mid-2015 13" Macbook Pro i5, and figured it was just the machine showing its age, as I had been pretty rough and unceremonious with that machine over the years. I had some other issues due to water damage, and figured it was time to shelve the old unit and buy a new MBP.

I purchased my current machine, the 16" 2019 Macbook Pro i7 16GB Radeon 5300 build. I have the EXACT SAME ISSUES. I have done all the troubleshooting in the world. I have reinstalled macOS 10.15. I tried the 10.16 beta. The only option I appear to have left is to roll back to 10.14, where I don't believe I had this problem at all.

I have experienced the bluetooth problem in various manifestations. One is of course all bluetooth devices disconnecting at the same time, and taking about 30 seconds to reconnect everything. This is a MASSIVE disruption to my workflow. I have trouble staying focused, and need my OS and tools to get out of my way so I can just work. This happens 5 to 6 times a day, all on its own.

Another manifestation of this problem that I have is my bluetooth speakers (Logitech Z337) will skip like a CD player, clearly a bluetooth packet loss. The BT receiver module for the speaker is literally 24 inches away from the Macbook Pro. It has nothing to do with distance or interference.

Yet another manifestation of this problem is my bluetooth mouse. This is easily the most annoying and persistent problem I experience. The problem is that while I'm using the mouse, moving it across the screen or dragging/dropping something, the mouse gets "sticky" and starts to slow down considerably instead of moving at the normal rate across the screen. Changing mouse sensitivity does nothing. I am a web developer and programmer, and not being able to move my mouse consistently is incredibly irritating. While the bluetooth mouse is "sticky" and barely able to move, I can reach over and touch the built-in touchpad on the MBP, and it works perfectly.

I have come >< this close to slamming my mouse on the desk repeatedly out of frustration and I just simply CANNOT believe a problem this major has been left in EIGHT releases of macOS (10.15, 10.15.1, 10.15.2, 10.15.3, 10.15.4, 10.15.5, 10.15.6 (current version), and now 10.16 (beta version).

Help. For the love of god help me fix this. Update your OS, Apple. I'm pleading with you. I'm about to move my workflow back to Windows because I just can't tolerate a mouse that won't work. My desk is a battlezone where I fight my brand new $2700+ machine for the right to use my equipment with it, when there is no problem with any other machine (that isn't running 10.15+ of course).

Nope. I'm running 10.15.6 and it's literally happening as I write this reply. Nothing works. As a former Apple Genius... I'm stumped. It's going to have to come from a firmware update. That's the only logical solution I can think up. Hopefully in the next release it will be addressed. Seems there's a large audience with this issue.

You’re right, but sadly, Apple doesn’t response. Looks like they just don’t care about the quality of their products, nor the satisfaction of his customers. Let’s cross fingers and hope, someday they just want to fix it

Same problem here on My Mac Air 2017. My JBL Headphones disconnects between 15 mins but the Headphone works perfectly in my other devices like my Xiaomi Phone, the Bluetooth crash Youtube Videos and any Audio during this disconnection, so I have to reload every time. Apple is becoming worse than Windows. I got free from Apple Iphone 3 years ago and was one of the best decisions that I made. I hope that Xiaomi soon start to move their laptops to the Unix Based Systems than I can finally move away from this rubbish called Apple, the only thing that holds me here, is because I'm a developer and while Iphones are still relevant I have to develop to.

If you're not an IOS developer go straight forward to the Debian.

I bet that the Apple's response will be "Reinstall your OS" or "Buy a new Macbook"

Same problem here - brand new iMac Pro - £5000 worth of computer with *terrible* Bluetooth performance. I only use Bluetooth for the mouse (Microsoft) and a pair of Sony WH-1000XM2 headphones; ever now and then they both stop responding at exactly the same time. The mouse pointer freezes and the sound goes to the iMac's speakers. 30 seconds or so later, the mouse always comes back, the headphones might need to be reconnected. A little later, it happens again. In between, the mouse is sometimes choppy or feels 'sticky' as it lags behind on the screen. When I try to use a pair of Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds with the Mac, the sound is choppy and thin and they regularly disconnect from the Mac.

I'm not using a wireless connection so it can't be interference between WiFi and Bluetooth (which would be a massive failure on Apple's part); the batteries in the mouse have been replaced and the headphones are fully charged. I've done all 8 of the steps suggested above - including resetting everything, re-pairing, reinstalling MacOS, updating drivers on the devices and the problem won't go away.

All of these devices work faultlessly under Windows and iOS, so either Apple is shipping machines with faulty Bluetooth modules, or there is a bug in Catalina. I've reported the issue to Apple but their advice is just the same as has been shared here. Hopefully enough people are reporting similar problems for them to be working on a fix.

The best solution I’ve found so far is to turn off Bluetooth and connect my trackpad and keyboard with USB, otherwise I’ll have very bad day... My 2013 Mac Pro will keep disconnecting Bluetooth, eject USB external drives and even get Kernel Panic error screen. When Bluetooth is off I don’t have any problem. I started having these issues after Apple released firmware update in Catalina. It’s been about a year and still no fix from Apple!

The issue just happened to me about a week ago. I’m have one **** of a command center lol

3 screens and a wireless Apple trackpad (but not the new one that can plug into a port/ hub). It’s driving me insane. I have to hover my arm around my built-in trackpad for every Zoom call. I have 26+ hours/week of calls where I present/ share screen. It’s exhausting. I worked for Apple for 8 years. It’s not that they don’t care, trust me. There are priorities. I’m 💯 sure that this is on their list but I’m also sure that it’s not happening to everyone. It’s easy to hate on them. Give them a break. I’ve worked in SaaS for many years and development is all about priorities.

that said... JFC let’s fix this thing already. I’m anxiously awaiting a fix.

Just stay positive kids. ❤️🐻

I am also experiencing frequent disconnects with bluetooth headsets on Catalina 10.15.6. But I found it does not happen with the applications that don't using mic. Listening for a long time is OK, but e.g. using Zoom even with muted mic brings disconnects. I did not try with other conferencing applications, but it is hard to assume that it might be a Zoom problem. Any ideas? It is quite critical for my work to have a stable connection over Zoom.

After three months of trying things - this fix worked. I opened up TERMINAL and ran:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod

I was then able to connect my bluetooth earbuds, which was then able to start the coreaudiod successfully

THIS WAS SOMEONE ELSE'S GREAT FIX - NOT MINE

Not sure why or how but the issue seems to have resolved itself. I haven’t done any updates but after a day with over 6 hours of zoom calls and various activities I didn’t have the Bluetooth connection drop once all day. I did, however, leave the computer off all weekend and had no peripherals plugged in. Maybe the firmware reset or something. No idea.

I also have the problem others have listed - I purchased my MacBook Pro at the start of the year - had trouble uploading files as did the Mac shop in town also - had to manually load them all and then have had trouble ever since with my mouse and in particular keyboard disconnecting - it has become worse lately and is a time waster and irritating.

I have been using macOS Catalina 10.15.6 so it shouldn't require an update.

Please let us know how we can definitively resolve this!

Thank you

Thanks for sharing this fix.

I tried it, and my Bluetooth mouse worked perfectly for 24 hours. However, just as I went to post this thanks, Bluetooth has stopped working again. Any comments from Apple???????? Of course not!

I tried all recent suggestions without any success. But I recently migrated to the new MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020) with Bluetooth 5.0 from Broadcom and 10.15.6 (clean install). Don't see the problem for 2-3 days. The headsets support 5.0 too. FWIW.