Mac OS Catalina keeps disconnecting bluetooth devices

There are reports from other posts that the 'Handoff' function affects the stability of bluetooth. I don't know the reason why but the problem does disappeared after disabling the 'Handoff' function. This solved my problem temporarily ... but Apple has to do something on it.

I can confirm that with my new MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020 with the latest Catalina) I did not experience _any_ drops during two weeks. It is probably the bad news for the community since the issue seems with the HW or a matter of a clean install. If I had my old workstation, I would indeed start with OS reinstall, but for me the problem disappeared (nock-nock!).

I have MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15.3 and I'm experiencing the same intermittent bluetooth devices connectivity drop out, roughly 2-3 times on a daily basis. All of my bluetooth devices will get disconnected at once and will re-connect after 10-20 seconds. The most annoying part is when I'm using a pair of TWS earbuds that I would need to remove then re-connect it once it got disconnected.

My partner is using MacBook Air 2011, High Sierra also with bluetooth devices connected to it and never had any issues of drop outs. We are both on the same WiFi connection so the interference between bluetooth and wifi can be ruled out in our situation.

I also have same problem. When I open Zoom program, the bluetooth tool is disconnected after several seconds automatically.

I am using iMac and Macbook, both versions are Catalina. How can I fix this problem?

I've been suffering with this problem for quite some time (couple of months). Using a 2 years old MacBook pro. Never had these issues before upgrading to Catalina.

I have a case open with Apple enterprise support and, so far, they couldn't pin point the problem. We got to a point where they asked me to install a fresh Catalina on another partition: like if I don't have anything else to do than debugging for them. Come on Apple, with all your expertise you are not able to find a problem on your own logs?!

One confusing thing for me is the fact that the issue doesn't always manifest. It all might work fine for 1 week and then, suddenly, it starts dropping connection every 10 minutes.

Now, something happened that might be of interest to everyone here.

I haven't had any drops for the last 2 weeks. During this period I had Wi-Fi disconnected/turned-off. Today I turned Wi-Fi on again on my home network just to print a document and sudenly I lost my BT mouse (Apple mouse by the way).

While this would require more validation, maybe you just want to give it a try and see if it makes any difference for you. Or maybe you already did and, in that case, you can just tell us your experience.

Good luck to you all!

Done all fixes suggested to date. Nothing has worked.

I can get bluetooth stable if I only use my magic mouse and keyboard. Adding ANY other device (such as my Sony Bluetooth headphones), and everything starts to have issues. All of the problems others have indicated happen when I have my keyboard, mouse, then any other bluetooth device connected.

On top of that, if I only have the headphones connected, the sound is terrible. It seems like only the left channel is working but quiet and tin sounding, while the right completely disappears. This does not happen on my other Macbook, nor my iphone or wifes' macbook air (brand new). I can also plug it in using the 3.5mm cable, and the sound is perfect again.

I don't remember this happening before Catalina upgrade. So disappointing.

I still have this problem in Catalina and still in Catalina 10.15.7 MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018). I have tried all the advice on deleting preference files and updating to latest versions. Nothing works.

I now have to use trackpad and keyboard constantly on cables. Sony Bluetooth headphones disconnect all the time. They work perfectly in my Surface pro.

This seems to be coupled with WiFi issues as the Mac has difficulty connecting to wireless networks from other rooms but other devices are fine.

Is there a fix for this?

I'm completely floored that this is still an issue. I just FINALLY got approval from our IT to "upgrade" to Catalina after using this computer for the last year on Mojave. This update has removed my ability to use the Dell hub I had used previously (no way to update firmware from Mac) and my MX Master 3 drops connection constantly. Looking around, this is not an uncommon issue... so why is it still broken? Has ANYONE made a change that resolved this for them?

I have been suffering from the same problem for many months. Of one thing I am sure: it might be somehow correlated with WiFi, but it is definitely not caused by it. My iMac 27" WiFi is always OFF, since my home network is on Ethernet.

Nope - no fixes.

Six-month old iMac Pro and it happens a couple of times a day on the latest release of Catalina. WiFi is off and the OS has been completely reinstalled since I got the machine.

I use a Microsoft Bluetooth mouse and Sony headphones, both of which disconnect randomly at the same time then eventually reconnect anything up to a minute later. The fact they both drop at the same time suggests the problem lies with the Mac *NOT* the individual devices. I haven't had any help from Apple, who after making me repeat all the steps I had originally tried, suggested the problems lay with both Microsoft and Sony!

Does anyone experience the same drop-out with Apple Bluetooth devices such as keyboards and mice?

Yes same problem on my Mac pro 2013 with Magic Trackpad, Apple keyboard and AirPods keep getting disconnected after the firmware update from mavericks to Catalina. I’m currently running the latest public beta of big sur hoping there’s a fix soon but still experiencing same problem. My only fix for now is using USB Bluetooth adapter never drops connection.

That's interesting - does anyone else have an external Bluetooth module they could try to see if it fixes the problem?

Given the large number of different machines affected this would suggest it is a software issue rather than anything being wrong with Apple's chips - so it can be fixed.

It is now October 2020 - and I updated to Catalina only a week ago - this bug is still going on! None of my bluetooth accessories are working without a glitch where as before they all worked fine.

I am going to Twitter to complain.

Tried it...worked for a little while and started again. This is frustrating. Interestingly enough, I have work laptop that doesn't have the same problem. That one is a 2017 15 inch. My personal is a 2020 16 inch. same exact operating system version. The difference? the 2017 was a factory install. No transferring of data. The 2020, I transferred the data from my old mac. I'm starting to think I need to wipe and re-install everything from scratch, and then hand move everything over and re-install all of the software. GRRRR

That makes sense to me. None of these other tricks have worked. My 2017 MacBook Pro 13" went in for a fix, I backed up

and deleted everything I could find and asked for a clean install. Not done. That's when things went bad.