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Accidentally turned off Bluetooth now keyboard and mouse won’t work to turn computer back on

I think I turned off Bluetooth by accident. Now keyboard - mouse - won’t work to restart desktop

Current Pro Desktops

Posted on Sep 2, 2021 5:01 PM

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Posted on Sep 2, 2021 5:16 PM

Thanks everyone for your help! I'm a mac newbie and thought I was turning off the bluetooth file transfer and was in a panic. Simply rebooting didn't work, but when I unplugged my usb backup drive and usb printer, unpplugged the computer from the wall and then plugged it back in, it detected both the trackpad and keyboard.

I accidentally turned off the bluetooth o… - Apple Community


How to Enable Bluetooth Without a Keyboard or Mouse in Mac OS X

This is a trickier situation, which is usually encountered if there is no USB keyboard or USB mouse available, and both the mouse and keyboard are Bluetooth instead. It’s usually iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro users who encounter this experience, in which case the following steps are necessary:

  1. First thing first, be sure the Bluetooth keyboard and Bluetooth mouse have sufficient battery power and are turned on
  2. Disconnect all physical devices from the Mac, including any peripherals and anything except the power cable
  3. Reboot the Mac (or boot the Mac if it was shut down) using the physical hardware button located on the machine (it’s usually on the back on modern Macs)
  4. This will trigger the Bluetooth setup wizard and detect the Bluetooth devices and enable the service automatically, assuming they are within range and sufficiently charged

If for some reason the bluetooth setup wizard doesn’t trigger and the Mac boots up again with Bluetooth disabled, you’ll probably want to get your hands on either a USB mouse or USB keyboard and refer to the methods outlined above to enable Bluetooth with either just a mouse, or just a keyboard.

How to Enable Bluetooth Without a Keyboard or Mouse on Mac (osxdaily.com)

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 2, 2021 5:16 PM in response to SCMhelper

Thanks everyone for your help! I'm a mac newbie and thought I was turning off the bluetooth file transfer and was in a panic. Simply rebooting didn't work, but when I unplugged my usb backup drive and usb printer, unpplugged the computer from the wall and then plugged it back in, it detected both the trackpad and keyboard.

I accidentally turned off the bluetooth o… - Apple Community


How to Enable Bluetooth Without a Keyboard or Mouse in Mac OS X

This is a trickier situation, which is usually encountered if there is no USB keyboard or USB mouse available, and both the mouse and keyboard are Bluetooth instead. It’s usually iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro users who encounter this experience, in which case the following steps are necessary:

  1. First thing first, be sure the Bluetooth keyboard and Bluetooth mouse have sufficient battery power and are turned on
  2. Disconnect all physical devices from the Mac, including any peripherals and anything except the power cable
  3. Reboot the Mac (or boot the Mac if it was shut down) using the physical hardware button located on the machine (it’s usually on the back on modern Macs)
  4. This will trigger the Bluetooth setup wizard and detect the Bluetooth devices and enable the service automatically, assuming they are within range and sufficiently charged

If for some reason the bluetooth setup wizard doesn’t trigger and the Mac boots up again with Bluetooth disabled, you’ll probably want to get your hands on either a USB mouse or USB keyboard and refer to the methods outlined above to enable Bluetooth with either just a mouse, or just a keyboard.

How to Enable Bluetooth Without a Keyboard or Mouse on Mac (osxdaily.com)

Accidentally turned off Bluetooth now keyboard and mouse won’t work to turn computer back on

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