Can't turn on Bluetooth after upgrade to Monterey 12.3

Question

Can't turn on Bluetooth after upgrade to Monterey 12.3

I upgraded my iMac to Monterey 12.3 this afternoon from Monterey 12.2

Prior to upgrading I had no issues with bluetooth.

After the upgrade the bluetooth icon in the menu bar is grayed out with a slash through it. I clicked the icon, turned the toggle to 'on' in the dropdown. The toggle switched and stayed in the 'on' position, but the icon in the menu bar stayed grayed out, and no bluetooth devices worked.

I opened system preferences>bluetooth and clicked the Turn Bluetooth On button. Nothing happened.

I restarted, exact same behavior.

I opened Terminal, ran the command "sudo pkill bluetoothd", and restarted. Exact same behavior.

I went to Finder/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist, backed up that file and then dragged it out of Preferences to the Trash and restarted. Exact same behavior BUT a new com.apple.Bluetooth.plist was NOT created.

I dragged my backed up copy of com.apple.Bluetooth.plist back into Preferences.

I opened Activity Monitor and searched 'blue' to show any bluetooth processes. The only thing that shows up is "com.apple.preferences.Bluetooth.remoteservice". On my husbands MacBook (still running on Monterey 12.2) there are at least 4 bluetooth processes that show up. No matter what I click on related to bluetooth, no bluetooth processes show any activity. The only thing that changes is the toggle on the menu bar icon drop down, and it will just switch and stay in whichever position I put it in.

I created a new admin user on my iMac and replicated the exact same behavior.

Screenshot - Menu icon drop down is toggled on, but menu icon is still grayed out, and system preferences still show not turned on, no activity, plist file is in preferences

Screenshot - menu icon drop down is toggled off, no change to anything else

Screenshot - expanded info menu icon drop down is open and toggled off.... still nothing changing anywhere

Screenshot - expanded info menu icon drop down is open and toggled on... still absolutely no other changes

Anyone have any info on this happening with Monterey 12.3 or a fix for it?

iMac Pro

Posted on Mar 15, 2022 5:30 PM

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Answer 1

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leroydouglas

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188,424 points

Mar 16, 2022 6:16 AM in response to MadisonTheWonderDog

MadisonTheWonderDog wrote:

I upgraded my iMac to Monterey 12.3 this afternoon from Monterey 12.2

Prior to upgrading I had no issues with bluetooth.

After the upgrade the bluetooth icon in the menu bar is grayed out with a slash through it.

Anyone have any info on this happening with Monterey 12.3 or a fix for it?

on the M1 SoC—

The best you can do if you have an issue— equivalent Shut down, close the lid 30 secs+ , reboot as normal.

If no resolve try SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support to sort anomalies.

On the Intel Mac—

Try resetting the SMC How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Try resetting NVRAM/PRAM Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

(get at least two-three rounds of the chimes when holding the NRAM Reset)

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Answer 2

Mar 16, 2022 9:04 AM in response to leroydouglas

Appreciate the suggestions, but still no luck :(

I have a 27" Intel Mac. Exact same behavior in safe mode, and after SMC reset.

When resetting the NVRAM/PRAM I could only get the chimes to sound twice before the login screen loads. I tried twice turning on the power myself and then holding down opt+command+p+r, and then a third time holding them down before restarting and having my husband turn it on while the buttons are already being pressed. No change in behavior each time.

Any other ideas? Thanks.

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Answer 3

Mar 18, 2022 10:26 AM in response to MadisonTheWonderDog

MadisonTheWonderDog wrote:

Somehow this fixed itself overnight without any kind of update or additional restart. I have no idea what happened, but as of this morning all bluetooth functionality seems fully restored and normal.

You may never know, but I will add—

Apple uses its Software Update service— as a mechanism for installing “background and critical” updates that are installed silently in the background with no notifications to the user.

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Answer 4

Mar 18, 2022 10:49 AM in response to leroydouglas

It seems to me it must have been something like that. Someone from Apple Support actually contacted me from this thread and I had a support call scheduled to answer more detailed q's about what was happening. I'll ask if they know if something like that got pushed out ╮(´ー｀)╭

Thanks for the info!

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Answer 5

Mar 18, 2022 9:46 AM in response to MadisonTheWonderDog

Somehow this fixed itself overnight without any kind of update or additional restart. I have no idea what happened, but as of this morning all bluetooth functionality seems fully restored and normal.

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Answer 6

Mar 16, 2022 6:24 AM in response to MadisonTheWonderDog

https://setapp.com/how-to/quickly-fix-mac-bluetooth-not-working#:~:text=Hold%20Shift%20%2B%20Option%20and%20click,re%2Dpair%20your%20Bluetooth%20devices

This is maybe the solution

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Answer 7

Mar 16, 2022 9:06 AM in response to Ferdy Bossy

Thanks, the steps here are the same ones @leroydouglas suggested right before you posted. Tried them with no luck :(

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Can't turn on Bluetooth after upgrade to Monterey 12.3

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