Mac sound output system defaults to my monitor, which has no speakers

Your monitor may not have speakers but have a an audio out connection. Mine does.

You can't remove it from the list of sound output options, but you can select other options.

The Mini itself has a tiny tinny speaker.

You can only select the Bluetooth speakers if they are connected to your mac.

Did you pair the speakers with your mac?

What happens when you try to connect them?

You have Symantec/Norton stuff that is utter **** and should be completely uninstalled.

Not only it is useless from a security perspective, it has been crashing left, right and center - presumably causing all the problems at hand. I have seen may Etrecheck reports but never had seen a piece of software that has crashed 1854 times in just a few days...

Diagnostics Information (past 60 days):
    2024-09-30 08:38:33 com.symantec.mes.systemextension - Crash (1854 times)
        First occurrence: 2024-09-21 10:48:13

Of course this should work and not break after a short while.

This looks more like some software glitch than a hardware bluetooth problem.

You may try running Etrecheck and posting its report here. Maybe we can find something.

This is how you can post the report:

1) When Etrecheck finishes running its tests, click Share Report->Copy Report

2) Start a reply here, and click the "Additional Text" button below your message (the one that looks like a written page)

3) Paste

4) Post

Hi Luis

It looks like Birck's M1 Mac mini is having an issues with a weak or intermittent Bluetooth signal and the Audio keeps defaulting from Bluetooth to other available Audio Outputs.

Perhaps you see something that I missed at > Unimpressed with bluetooth on a Mac mini … - Apple Community

Thank you for the link.

I think that you did a great diagnostic of the situation, and indeed some interference from one of the connected devices or cables seems to be very likely at play.

I don't have a Mac Mini, and have only used Bluetooth speakers with Mac laptops (of different vintages), without issue. The closest to a Mini is a Mac Studio in the office, but that only uses Bluetooth for the Apple keyboard, without issues (of course, the keyboard sits on the desktop, right next to the Mac).

> since it is now impossible to display more than one working application on the Mac screen at a time,

Not so.

Sounds like you've turned on Stage Manager, which is designed to help you focus on a single app, diminishing other apps.

It's not for everyone. Just use System Settings to turn it off (search for it, since the specific setting varies by OS version)

Birck Cox wrote:

You know, I've been using Macs since about 1990, but enough changes have been made when I wasn't looking so that now I can generate an Etrecheck report without any trouble, AND make it appear on the desktop without any trouble, but since it is now impossible

to display more than one working application on the Mac screen at a time, such as Apple Mail AND Etrecheck Pro, I have no idea how to drag the report into here, or of posting it any other way, like as "additional text". Nope. It doesn't have a URL, either. Any suggestions?

I would stop using a mac if I could only use one application at a time!

As Camelot said, this is just a setting that you can change.

System Settings->Desktop & Dock, turn OFF "Stage Manager".

Sorry, but you failed to post the actual report... you can see that all you posted as additional text is

the local path of a file.

Please try again, following my previous instructions. You can look at the contents of the additional text window to confirm.

To get rid of something that runs in the background, you may need to do it in Safe Mode. Safe Mode disables all third party extensions and daemons, and only runs essential system services.

It is intriguing how you can alleviate symptoms with this kind of "surgery". It suggests that indeed the reception of the built-in antenna is not that great. I don't have a Mini to compare.