Macminis fighting over bluetooth keyboards and mice

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Macminis fighting over bluetooth keyboards and mice

Context: I have been using Apple computers since about 1980. Until now, I have not considered using anything else for my personal computing, even though I am constrained to use Windoze for some things. Currently, having bought a new Mac mini, I am using wired keyboard and mouse ONLY. As a consultant working at home I have several computers on my desk running multiple operating systems, two of which are Macs. They cannot coexist within bluetooth range of each other without greedily seeking and grabbing the input devices of the other Mac mini nearby. They both continually, randomly, arbitrarily and capriciously disappear, giving me necessary input devices that are unreliable. All the text I have read is useless; all that is addressed are symptoms, not the actual issue. The actual issue is that the computers reach out for "a keyboard" and "a mouse" and cannot be "tied" to a specific mouse and keyboard. If I boot one Mac with bluetooth mouse and keyboard, then boot the other, it is a crapshoot on whether the existing bluetooth connection will reign over the already connected devices or if the input devices will defect to the now booting machine, perhaps not immediately - they just switch to the other machine without warning.

I have purchased my last Mac ... and unfortunately it is not even big enough to be a boat anchor.

[Edited by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 9, 2024 10:12 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MartinR

Level 7

25,081 points

Mar 9, 2024 10:48 AM in response to Brian Richardson3

I am sorry to hear this has been a problem for you. I have long had multiple Macs in close proximity to each other and have never had this problem.

The wireless keyboards & mice "should" each be paired uniquely with their associated Mac. Are you using Apple keyboards & mice, or non-Apple gear?

May I suggest the following to try to cure the situation. For this procedure you will need a wired kbd & mouse:

On each Mac, plug in a wired keyboard & mouse. Using them, Forget all wireless kbds & mice on each Mac. Then turn off Bluetooth on each Mac. Then shut down each Mac.
Move all wireless keyboards & mice to a distant room so they are not within Bluetooth range of the Macs. Better still, remove the batteries.

Then, on one Mac at a time - with the wired kbd & mouse still attached:

In System Prefs, enable Bluetooth
Bring one kbd close to the Mac. Pair the Mac with that kbd. Give it a unique name.
Do the same with one mouse.
Exit System Prefs (System Settings)
Shut down the Mac, remove the wired kbd & mouse, then restart.
Hopefull the wireless kbd & mouse both connect to the Mac.
If that is successful, shut down the Mac and move that wireless kbd & mouse out of Blutooth range.

Then follow the same procedure with the 2nd Mac. But when you get to the point of pairing the kbd & mouse with this Mac, be absolutely sure you not connecting to the previous kbd & mouse.

This should uniquely pair each kbd & mouse with only one Mac.

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Answer 2

Mar 10, 2024 6:06 AM in response to Brian Richardson3

You can use Universal Control to solve your issue with using on one mouse and one keyboard to control a second Mac:

Universal Control: Use a single keyboard and mouse between Mac and iPad - Apple Support

While the title says Mac and iPad, it also works Mac to Mac. It also has a setting so that you simply, push the mouse offscreen on one Mac and have it appear on the second Mac.

Check the requirements section if your Macs are compatible. The most important is that they both must be signed in to the same Apple ID. Also, they must be running macOS Monterrey.

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Macminis fighting over bluetooth keyboards and mice

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