Bluetooth died with update to MacOS Ventura and Bluetooth Controller will not power back on

I had this exact issue today on my 2019 Vantura Mac Pro - as a matter of fact I found this thread by searching on the output of system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType from the terminal:

 Bluetooth Controller:

 Address: NULL

 State: Off

 Chipset: BCM_4350C2

 Discoverable: Off

 Firmware Version: v0 c0

 Product ID: 0x0001

 Supported services: 0x382039 < HFP AVRCP A2DP HID Braille AACP GATT Serial >

 Transport: UART

 Vendor ID: 0x004C (Apple)

I would try to turn on bluetooth from the top menu - hit the oval switch and it would look like it was turned on but when looking at the blutooth settings the icon would just spin and there where no devices present. Of note when I used opt shift and then clicked on Bluetooth settings it would indicate the bluetooth was not discoverable which would make sense, since the service was not stated. I also tried sudo pkill bluetoothd with a restart and sudo pkill bluetooth with a restart. The only thinbg this achieved as setting the bluetooth switch back to off. Also of note this whole time the bluetooth icon in the top menu had a left to right slash through it incidating it was disfucntional. Nothing suggested online made any difference for correcting this situation. Bluetooth simply was not functional and could not be turned on. I even went as far as unplgging all (and I have many - above 20 -- as this is part of a music studio) USB devices (which is complete garbage in my opinion but I tried it along with multiple reboots). One thing that might have brought this on was I was listening to Airpod Pros outside and a couple times I walked beyond the listening range. I found all this out about 10 minutes before a video meeting and found that my Airpor Pros would not connect and my Bluetooth was non functional.

Here is what I had to do for the fix. Reboot the Mac Pro Ventura into recovery mode with cmd r held down during reboot. then chose the reinstallOS into the original target disk. This is very poorly explained online - it's called a step by step guide -> use it Apple, it is too easy to completely hork your system by making the wrong choice during the process. But doing this reinstalled Ventura into the target disk without changing any settings or uninstalling/overwriting any applications and all the machine settings were intact. It took aobut an hour give or take. Another important point when doing this procedure you need to have a keyboard and that is directly connected to the machine. When the Ventura OS reinstall was complete the bluetooth sedrvice fired right up and it could discover my Airpod Pros as well as my smart/magic keyboard and tracker. Thisis now the current output of system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType from the terminal:

    Bluetooth Controller:

     Address: F8:FF:C2:0C:48:45

     State: On

     Chipset: BCM_4364B3

     Discoverable: On

     Firmware Version: v91 c4210

     Supported services: 0x382039 < HFP AVRCP A2DP HID Braille AACP GATT SerialPort >

     Transport: UART

     Vendor ID: 0x004C (Apple)

   Not Connected:

     EXPC02G41Q3MD6V:

       Address: 88:66:5A:52:3C:AD

     Michael’s AirPods Pro:

       Address: A0:A3:09:23:DD:98

       Vendor ID: 0x004C

       Product ID: 0x200E

       Case Version: 1.4.0

       Firmware Version: 6A321

       Minor Type: Headphones

       Serial Number: GX8GNWUN1059

       Serial Number (Left): GX7GMGUU0C6K

       Serial Number (Right): GXDGN96G0C6J

This was the only way I could find to restore the Bluetooth service without a complete rebuild (this was close enough) but thankfully I didn't have to reinstall 156 apps and reconfigure the machine post a completely fresh install. the machine was exaclty the same configured with three huge screens and all logins and settings intact. The only thing I had to do was pair my Airpod Pros again. I would cross reference this outlined process with other references online for OS recovery it is tricky and nerve wracking requires patience. I have done rebuilds many, many times so I am familiar with the process. Start with an older cheese grater mac pro if you have to to get a feel for it. I would not reccomend this for a first timer unless you are willing to completely reinstall your OS from scratch and reinstall all your apps if you make a mistake. But I will tell you that it worked and restored the Bluetooth service to functionallity (running) when nothing else would work.

Hi Folks, I had not used my Mac mini 2018i7 since the upgrade to Monterey whereby the Bluetooth Chip BCM_4350C2 stopped working. Inspired by the experiences of "Sparkey" and "dgtlptry" I also contacted Apple and with help of the kindly people of Apple Support, Ireland my Mac mini 2018i7 is repaired free of charge. The AASP replaced the logic board of the Mac mini 2018i7 (with the Bluetooth Chip BCM_4364B0) and all is working great again!

Had the same issue with my early 2011 MacBook Pro running Ventura via Open Core.

System information showed BT module firmware v0 c0 and status as 'off'.

SMC and PRAM reset did not solve it; neither did a reinstall of Ventura.

Eventually appear to have solved my problem by accident. I booted in recovery mode using a flash drive with the Catalina Patcher setup. I had been intended to try a full OS rollback but when I attempted it, the Catalina Patcher would not run now that the Open Core EFI partition is in place. I then quit the process and restarted the machine (not wanting to do anything drastic just yet).

However, after the restart the BT was working again and the firmware now reported as v16938 c847. In my case the v0 c0 indicated missing (possibly USB-1.1 related) firmware, not a hardware issue. Might be that whatever legacy bit of firmware was missing was added back by the Catalina recovery boot.

Hope this helps.

Hey, yes - you can find the address easiely by searching the internet. In my case I wrote two longer mails. First I complained that nobody at apple can help me with this problem. Stated the issue in detail and asked for help. After a few days, I got a call from U.S.-Technical Support which made me do one more software report of the problem. I was told i would get a call by technical support after checking, but after five more days without any reaction i wrote a further mail to Tim Cook. In that last mail I told that the hour call of technical support didn't help again and told directly what i need. I stated that there are other users with this problem who were told that their device would be picked up for further inspection. I kindly asked for transferring this case to the highest support level in Europe for arranging a pickup. After two more days I got a call from EU-Headquarter in Ireland, who told me the next steps: We arranged that my MacMini 2018 with broken BT-Module due to Ventura Update will be picked up within next days. After receiving and checking the most likely step will be, that apple sends a new device in return. Support also told, that if this will happen, I receive a new M2 Mac Mini as the M1 devices are no longer available at apple. I'll let you know if all works like stated.

This is what Apple told me as well.

I spent countless hours both on my own and with a "high level" specialist sending system reports only to find out the bluetooth card died (wifi was fine), due to "likely existing problem" that manifested with Ventura upgrade.

The worst part of this whole process, which took months, is that they are now owning up to a larger problem: that countless others are having this same odd behavior.

I am sorry to all of you who have wasted hours like I myself did. It is utterly frustrating.

When this happened to my Mac Mini (2018), it was explained to me that the device was likely "failing". The system update process identified the "faulty state" and just disabled the hardware. That is what the tech I was working with explained when we discovered that recovering to an older OS would not restore functionality.

I spent way too many hours troubleshooting it with no success. As others have mentioned, very frustrating and disappointing.

It's back for me!!!!

13.3.1 (a).

I'm scared to reboot!!!

Hi MikeontheMike,

You've done some great troubleshooting so far for this issue. At this point we'd recommend that you connect with Apple for further assistance here: Apple Support

Have a great day and thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Io ho risolto in “ Generali - AirDrop e Handoff - AirDrop = Tutti. Ricevitore AirPlay = selezionato

I solved in “General - AirDrop and Handoff - AirDrop = All. AirPlay Receiver = selected

Messaged apple support.

They asked me to do Nvram reset. (I couldn't do it straight away because I didn't yet know command and option corresponding keys one my wired 90's keyboard). I told them I've done reboot, trying switching bluetooth through top menu bar control centre as well as through settings and that I've tried terminal commands, removing bluetooth plist files, etc.

They booked a call for next day. The moment they called it was all in Japanese (I mean...seriously? after chatting in English for 1h?) . Luckily I speak Japanese on communicative level.

Then, after getting connected to English speaking support, I was asked to type new command "sudo killall -9 BlueTool bluetoothd" and restart computer and after that did not help, to restart in recovery mode and open terminal and try again. No help. Then we hanged up and after 4h I received another call (which we previously agreed upon) and I was asked to install some profile in settings, install CaptureData app (they provided download links for both files) and give it full disk access, to record screen while I was trying to switch the bluetooth on and finally to run mentioned above app and to send them DMG file with captured system logs. Now I was instructed to wait for about a week for the problem to be (hopefully) solved.

That's the update for the moment . Perhaps the above terminal command line would help some of you . Dunno :/