4th Gen 2020 M1 Mac mini bluetooth issues with Magic Mouse2

So it’s been a while since I last feedback into this forum, I have the M1 Mac Mini, like many others I experienced the series of Mouse Connect/ Disconnect issues.

Magic Mouse 2 (space grey)

Apple Wireless keyboard (space grey)

I am running latest available big sur update 11.2 (20D62)

I have only experience mouse disconnects (no other Bluetooth drops) and would experience these disconnects many times during my 7hr working day on the Mac M1 Mini, touch wood the last 2 days working long days I have NOT experienced any mouse disconnects, everything has been totally stable, I would like to add 1 point that maybe no one else has also mentioned (apologies if I missed) but I also have an iPhone and Apple Watch, at the same time is updated Big Sur I also installed the latest iOS 14.4 update for my iPhone and WatchOS 7.3, maybe that could be the vital step as I recall others who have reported to apple have been asked to turn off handoff and disable unlock using Apple Watch...

Maybe this is linked to iCloud and devices associated and maybes updating all devices has been the key to my success, hope this works for you folks..

I believe it was yesterday. I downloaded and installed macOS 11.2, and have fully updated i-devices. I've not only had no BT dropouts but they also fixed the problem with starting up from Bluetooth (used to need a USB attached keyboard).

Solved...I disconnected my old apple super drive (also had it sitting on top of my M1 Mac mini)....no more mouse and keyboard disconnects. It really is down to cables and electricity intereference.

also, read this site

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201542

unfortunately, my bluetooth problems persist - even after the update.

I was able to solve the constant, permanent interruptions in the past by moving the USB-C devices from the Mac to a separate USB hub with own power supply. Interference or insufficient power at the USB port of the Mac may have been the cause of the faults.

After that, I faced only occasional interruptions, maybe once a week. But the update has not been able to eliminate this.

Interesting: when trying to reconnect the keyboard, for example, the mac search for available devices, which can be tracked in the system settings. In such a situation, the Mac suddenly finds and display various BLE devices in my environment: Smarthome switch, lamps etc. all devices speaking Bluetooth Low Energy V 5.1.

If someone has just purchased a new M1 Mac, the resolution would be to update macOS to 11.2.1 or whatever later version is available. That has helped almost all of us tremendously. I have not had a BT disconnect once since updating to 11.2, and I've seen replies from many others that this has been helpful.

FYI I posted ten days ago that, along with many other users, I had terrible Bluetooth issues with the Mini out of the box. I did not know that I might need to update the OS (I guess that wd have been obvious to some users) - but nor did anything here or elsewhere online seem to suggest that that would solve the problem. (A lot of talk about "still waiting for a patch.") BUT when I did update to the latest build of Big Sur, the Bluetooth issues immediately and completely vanished. Also, Apple contacted me right after my post to ask whether I was still having the issue - which by then I was not. All fine now.

Hey All-

I was an "early alert" poster when all this started. Just to update- the latest Big Sur update fixed my Bluetooth. After 3 mos of no Bluetooth at all, everything now magically works. So glad it was software, not hardware. Good luck, everyone :)

So here we are many months and countless posts later and the Magic Mouse 2 / M1 Mini Bluetooth issue still exists. I just received my new M1 Mac Mini and guess what? Mouse lag (skips, stops, scroll jumps, missed clicks, etc.). I took the time to read this entire thread and tried every reasonable fix (plist delete, BT phone off, reset BT/devices, etc.), but none resolved the issue. The most functional setup appears to be disconnecting any non-powered USB hubs. Although turning off BT on nearby devices did reduce lag severity and recurrence somewhat, removing non-powered USB hubs solved the problem even with nearby BT devices on. I do not know how USB power draw affects BT (perhaps some of the more experienced techs can comment on this), but it does on the M1 Mini. I tested this with several USB C and A hubs and the results were the same: non-powered hubs caused BT lag issues. Unfortunately, I do not have a powered USB C hub to test, but with a powered USB A hub connected there is no lag. I was unable to find info for USB C hubs with power pass through regarding whether they can be safely plugged into the TB port on AC direct/non-charging machines (iMacs, Minis, etc.) and whether they use the power input to power the hub. Subsequently, I did not test a USB C hub with power pass through in case it caused problems with the TB port. Perhaps there are much fewer M1 MacBook issues reported because of power pass through on USB C hubs, whereas more Mini users have non-powered hubs.

I would hazard a guess that your Mac m1 came with 11.01 installed (11.01, 11.1 are know to have Bluetooth issues) and the updated installed 11.2 which is known to fix the issues with Bluetooth etc

If you have the hardware/cables available, please test this on your setup. Try a different monitor(s) and/or try different cabling options (both type and/or manufacturer)

Whereas I was getting dropouts consistently, they have stopped for 48 hrs after sending back a new Dell 27 inch monitor with a USB Type-C connection. I now have the Mac Mini M1 connected to my wife's setup with two display connections: 1) HDMI- A Dell 27 inch at 2560 x 1440, 2) USB-C port but using the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter to connect to HDMI through a 2nd Dell 27 inch at 2560 x 1440. Image of connections is included below.

I do not know why it is working. The monitor I sent back is the same as the two monitors that I am currently using, but was the Dell with a direct USB-C connection. I was using the USB-C cable that came with the monitor and sent that back as well.

Since I made the change to two HDMI displays, I have had no dropouts while using (in multiple configurations):

1. Magic Mouse 2
2. Magic Keyboard without Numeric Keypad
3. Logitech MX Anywhere 2S Mouse
4. HP Wireless Keyboard
5. AirPods (first edition)
6. Powerbeats Pro (original black)
7. JBL Charge (wireless bluetooth speaker)
8. HP USB-C dock (both connected to Mini and without for connecting directly to Ethernet)
9. Apple TV 4K

I have also placed an 11 inch iPad Pro 2018 without cellular, an iPhone 8, and an iPhone 12 Mini next to the Mac Mini and next to the bluetooth accessories. No matter what I throw at it, I cannot disrupt the Bluetooth connections. This is in comparison to 5-10 disconnections/reconnections every 10 minutes.

I also tested placing the USB-C dongle HDMI monitor connection in the other USB-C port. No dropouts.

Things that I tried that did NOT work prior to sending back monitor

Resetting the PRAM and the bluetooth module, multiple restarts and changing the position/location of my setup. I also tried turning off the WiFi and using a direct Ethernet connection using an HP USB-C dock

Well, I've only had one mouse connect/disconnect and no keyboard issues the last 24 hours (OK, I did sleep 7 hours or so last night). The last 12-15 hours the M1 Mac Mini is back in a "normal" (read bottom down) position. I'm using both wireless and bluetooth, so it looks like in my case, a clean install of Big Sur 11.1 seemed to have helped (but it has to be a clean install - I originally had upgraded to 11.1, and still had the issues).

In a previous post, they had said that they have had no issues with the Magic Trackpad, so I've linked mine as well via bluetooth - so I have a Mac Mini Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad all connected via bluetooth, and no issues.

The clean install was done by:

1) Erasing Mac Mini via Find My App

2) Removing from Find My App

3) From Mac Activation screen, installing Big Sur 11.1

Hope that helps someone; seems like the Mac Mini M1 is at least usable now. The one disconnect was followed by a reconnect, and it has stayed on ever since.

i recommend being careful when buying usb-c hubs. I bought a usb-c hub and thought, he is at good quality.

I faced all these bluetooth error, described here. When i removed this separately usb-c hub all problems are gone. Now i use the usb-c ports from my LG monitor and connect the remaining device on the usb-a port at the mac mini.

well my problem hasn't gone away. I've tried to eliminate the potential source by removing BT devices one by one . Nothing works. The only thing that has dramatically improved the issue for me the I accidentally noticed, I previously had my Magic Mouse connected to my windows laptop (work)...I never use the mouse on it. So I removed it from the device list. Since then I have been able to run the Mac mini with WiFI on and I ONLY get disconnects on the Magic Mouse on average once every 2-3 hours. Thats an improvement on every 3-5 minutes...which obviously drove me crazy.

And I had tried every other solution thats folks here suggested or tried and somewhat worked for them....but for me (apart from turning off WIFI and removing the device from windows m/c) they didn't make a difference.

I had a call with a support engineer at APPLE HQ...he just took details and has scheduled a call for again next week.

Seems Apple have no clue yet what's at the source of this issue. Certainly don't have a fix yet...whatever that may be.

We live in hope for 2021...for a lot of things I guess.

i have four devices that need to be connected to UBC - for power and/or synchronization. At first I just had a USB-C hub on the mac mini and bluetooth connection failures all the time.

Then I used the external USB-C ports on the monitor (the monitor has its own power supply). The failures became less, only occasionally.

Due to lack of connections, I hooked my iPad to the USB-A port and wondered why the battery was often dead, even though I regularly charge the iPad on the port.

Today I plugged the iPad back in and it did not charge. As I suspected, the mac mini has a power problem. If too many loads are connected to the mini and draw power at the same time, it seems to affect the bluetooth module as well, because after all it is powered by the same system, probably it is also connected to the USB/Thunderbolt controller.

Follow-up to my original post using an Asus dongle iso built-in Bluetooth (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252078550?answerId=254319439022#254319439022)

Using Apple's own utility Bluetooth Explorer, I extracted the following graphs which give an indication how Bluetooth performs.

Notable differences between the built-in and Asus bluetooth hardware:

• Apple's bluetooth power is significantly higher than Asus dongle (which is consistently transmitting at 3%)
• Retransmission % of Apple's bluetooth module is consistently higher than Asus which doesn't re-transmit any packages it looks

I have an Apple keyboard, mouse and trackpad connected plus a B&W PX5 headset. Apple bluetooth module also tries to connect to my iPhone (red line -- the Asus doesn't show the iPhone as I have never paired it).

Please note the colors may not denote the same device is both graphs.

First picture is Apple bluetooth, the 2nd Asus dongle:

Asus USB-BT400 dongle