Terrible Bluetooth Lag/Interference Since Monterey 12.4 upgrade

My MacPro (purchased September 2021) crashed earlier this week and I rebooted, as well as installed the latest Monterey 12.4 system update. I have a Mac bluetooth mouse and a Keychron K8 bluetooth keyboard that have worked pretty much flawlessly since purchase.


Upon rebooting the computer after the latest 12.4 update, immediately none of my Bluetooth devices worked. I tried turning them on and off, I tried removing them (and then could not add them back), I tried turning off Bluetooth (the switch moved back and forth but Bluetooth refused to turn back on). I deleted my bluetooth prefs, i sudo pkilled bluetoothd, I turned off and rebooted several times. After many failed attempts over the space of 2 hours, I was finally able to re-pair my mouse and keyboard to the Mac.


Since then, the quality of my bluetooth connection has ranged from poor to completely useless. My mouse badly lags, the keyboard will disconnect and lag badly, and if I try to use my Jabra bluetooth headset, I get lagged audio, plus the lag on my mouse gets noticeably worse. Given that this setup worked flawlessly for 8 months, it seems pretty clear to me that this is not an issue with the keyboard, mouse, or headset, nor is it a physical space problem... It's a settings and/or driver issue on my Mac, probably relating to the software update.


Ideas? Suggestions? Bueller? Anyone? :(((((

Mac Pro

Posted on Jun 17, 2022 8:23 AM

Reply

Similar questions

3 replies

Jun 18, 2022 11:24 AM in response to sn0wleopard

Hi sn0wleopard,


Thanks for laying out the steps you've taken so far.


The next thing we'd recommend is to reset the SMC and NVRAM of your Mac Pro. Given this is a desktop, first disconnect all peripherals and then follow the steps below:


  1. Shut down your Mac, then unplug the power cord.
  2. Wait 15 seconds, then plug the power cord back in.
  3. Wait 5 seconds, then press the power button to turn on your Mac.


Once reset, reset the NVRAM as well. Given you use a Bluetooth keyboard, if its able to be plugged in physically or using a hardwired keyboard will work best to ensure the NVRAM reset completes.


If the problem persists after conducting those two resets, contact Apple Suport directly for additional assistance.


Take care.


Jul 18, 2022 6:18 PM in response to sn0wleopard

Yeah I never followed up here because of the useless reply I got from @DerekM87, but I've discovered that there are indeed a lot of people with Monterey 12.3/12.4 Bluetooth lag/disconnection issues, particularly those with external monitors or Thunderbolt hubs (which in the case of MacPro, MacStudio, and MacMini users is basically unavoidable). The problem does not appear to have anything to do with the Bluetooth hardware at all, nor signal interference, and it appears to get noticeably worse during higher CPU load times. While the mouse lag itself is obviously bitterly annoying, what goes way beyond that are the keyboard lag and connection disruptions. At times, it is impossible to type full sentences. I would be happy to disconnect any external devices that are problematic while Apple comes up with a software fix so that I can at least type properly, but the only external devices I have left plugged into my $7000 MacPro are my monitors and my webcam. I would be happy to buy an external Bluetooth transmitter, but the issue is software based. I am this close to trying to jury rig some kind of hybrid wifi-bluetooth device bridge using a second computer.


Such a bizarre Catch-22: either leave your computer running outdated operating system software and make yourself vulnerable to hacks and vulnerabilities, or else update your OS regularly and never know when your monitors, keyboard, mouse (made by Apple!), or other pretty standardized I/O devices will just stop working entirely. Every system update has become a headache.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Terrible Bluetooth Lag/Interference Since Monterey 12.4 upgrade

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.