Apple Wireless (BT) Keyboard A1016 Can't Connect/Pair to MBP with Sonoma 14 or to Windows 10

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DaveLG526 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apple Wireless (BT) Keyboard A1016 Can't Connect/Pair to MBP with Sonoma 14 or to Windows 10

Apple A1016 Keyboard Setup

My diagnostic work was based on information in this thread of a few years back:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253315975?

I acquired the old Apple A1016 wireless keyboard that is in near perfect shape.

I tried connecting to my MBP A1 13 inch with Sonoma 14. I get similar results when I try using it on Windows 10 but there I don’t have blueutil.

I can see the name “keyboard” or sometimes its very specific personal name that was setup by the previous user. When I say I see the name of the keyboard I mean via the standard Apple Bluetooth panel. When I hit the “connect” option for the keyboard I get the circle swirl for 30 seconds or so and then it stops. I can try connect again with same result.

So this seems to tell me the bluetooth hardware in Keyboard is at least functioning but it never connects fully to be paired. Maybe this is just because it is so old and the MBP new. Still if I had the MAC address for it I could try the bluetil utility to connect to it. Maybe I am using blueutil incorrectly or need a different software utility?? (using blueutil --version 2.9.1 now)

There were some old posts on connecting the A1016 KB to Macs. I have gone through investigating those tips which helped my diagnose what was happening but ultimatley didn't allow me to get the KB connected or paired to a MAC or Windows.

I did run blueutil but since the keyboard isn’t connected I don’t see a MAC address.

The output from blueutil is:

blueutil --inquiry

2023-10-04 08:27:46.970 blueutil[1302:12682] -[IOBluetoothDeviceInquiry initWithDelegate:] - 0x600001f900e0

Note that I have a BT Mouse on this MBP which is working. When I do a blueutil --paired command I do see devices that have been paired but keyboard isn't one of them.

So I am at a standstill and thought I'd ask if anyone can comment on other paths/utilities to diagnose the connection and pairing of the Apple A1016 wireless keyboard to a modern M1 MBP.

Dave

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Oct 4, 2023 9:20 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 16, 2024 11:05 AM in response to DaveLG526

I am trying to re-connect this keyboard to my Windows 10 laptop, without success. It was working until a few months ago, so I assume it has something to do with Windows updates since that time.

I will say that even when it was working, it would disconnect after periods of inactivity, and it was always a problem trying to get it to reconnect.

When I tried again yesterday, I got as far as having the laptop recognize the keyboard (first it just said Keyboard, then it said specifically Apple Wireless Keyboard), but after initially saying Connected, I was prompted to connect to a specific app (I wasn't sure which one - I was using Notepad at the time, but had several others open). Nothing I did worked (Tried re-entering 0000, hitting option+eject,... no idea what I was supposed to do, no clear instructions.) When that failed, it changed from Connected in the Bluetooth settings panel to Paired. Apparently Paired is not sufficient to work.

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Answer 2

DaveLG526 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 16, 2024 10:37 PM in response to solargadgets

You got a lot farther than I ever did with Windows 10. I eventually gave up as I really didn’t need another keyboard.

i was always disturbed that during my attempts to debug the connection process responses I seemed to get different results: different keyboard names or just nothing. It was as if a different section of the code was executing for the connection.

So I finally gave up on the project. Perhaps someone with BT debugging tools an interest could solve the connection/pairing issue but wherever I looked I never saw discussion on the specific Apple keyboard.

Good luck. The keyboard is nice and many are for sales on eBay but there are few sales. I never got any bids.

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Apple Wireless (BT) Keyboard A1016 Can't Connect/Pair to MBP with Sonoma 14 or to Windows 10

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