How do I uninstall/reinstall bluetooth software that is corrupted?

Question

How do I uninstall/reinstall bluetooth software that is corrupted?

Long story short, the bluetooth software in my OS is messed up. Any idea how I can uninstall/reinstall it without doing a COMPLETE OS install? I'm tired of deleting the bluetooth prefs and restarting to fix the issue and having two keyboards (one BT, the other wired) on my desk every day to swap out when my BT fails. My beach ball of death is spinning right now as we speak after trying JUST to select the dropdown from my menu bar.

Any help to easily reinstall the software would be greatly appreciated.

8 core Nehalem Mac Pro. 12gb RAM., Mac OS X (10.6.2), 20 Cinema, 23 Cinema, Apple T.V., iPhone, iPod, Nano, MacBook

Posted on Mar 21, 2011 8:19 AM

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Answer 1

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Mar 21, 2011 11:40 PM in response to iPhotoStuff 2

Before you go through the ritual of reinstalling the entire system just try to do a "factory reset" of your bluetooth environment. To do this you need to run the Bluetooth Explorer which is a utility installed as part of XCode.

1. Launch Bluetooth Explorer.
2. Select the "Modify Software & Device Configuration" from the Utilities menu.
3. Keep the first 4 checkboxes checked (one will say "Full factory reset").
4. Click "Perform actions" button (lower right of window).
5. Reboot (possibly the Reboot NOW button will work, if not just do a normal reboot).

Hopefully that will clear your problem(s) so you can re-pair your bluetooth devices.

Good luck.

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Answer 2

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Dec 13, 2011 5:52 PM in response to norg_props

...and it seems that the trackpad itself doesn't have a reset feature.

It does have a on/off button which can double as a reset button turning it off the trackpad and then back on. Its on the right side and even has a icon on it indicating its purpose.

Source: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Magic_Trackpad_UG.pdf

Read manual on how to use this button.

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Answer 3

Aug 4, 2011 8:20 AM in response to X423424X

I'm having the same problem. Where is the Bluetooth Explorer found?

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Answer 4

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Dec 4, 2011 8:53 PM in response to dogsnack

Xcode are the developer tools. .

If you have an older mac pro, i.e., one that did not come with Lion, a version of it usually comes on the installer dvd (Optional Installs). I am not sure if it isn't a mac pro. For Lion you need to buy it (small charge) from the App Store. Prior to the App Store you used to be able to join the ADC (Apple Developer Connection, http://connect.apple.com) and download it for free. Not sure you can do that anymore.

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Answer 5

Oct 28, 2014 2:38 PM in response to X423424X

Thanks! I used this recipe (although it needs to be update to be correct in 2014) to restore a completely broken Bluetooth system after upgrading my 15" Macbook Pro Retina to Yosemite. After the OS upgrade I could turn the BT radio on and off, but it would not connected to, discover, or pair with any Bluetooth devices. Following several other proposed solutions (Verify Disk, Repair Disk Permissions, Reset PRAM, Reset SMC, etc...) did nothing. Using Bluetooth Explorer (from Apple, not the App Store) finally did the trick.

Anyway, updated for 2014:

Bluetooth Explore is no longer bundled with XCode. It must be downloaded separately from https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action. You will need a (free) developer account to access the download.

Download the "Hardware IO Tools for XCode" DMG file and double-click to mount it. Then run Bluetooth Explorer right from within the mounted volume.

I checked off almost all the boxes in order to do a complete reset of the BT system. Pressed the "Go" button, then rebooted. Everything worked perfectly after the reboot.

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Answer 6

Aug 4, 2011 12:25 PM in response to X423424X

I didn't know what xcode was. Didn't realize it was a separate application for developers; DLing it currently. Lion blows, stay away.

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Answer 7

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Aug 4, 2011 12:31 PM in response to exferraris

As far as I am concerned everything after 10.6.5 "blows" (to use your word).

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Answer 8

Mar 21, 2011 10:55 AM in response to iPhotoStuff 2

Hello i:

There is no "easy" way to reinstall components of OS X. I strongly suggest you reinstall OS X 10.6 (from your software install DVD) and then run software update. I that way, you will be relatively sure that whatever is causing your problem (if it is software-related) will be addressed. The reinstall will leave all of your own programs and data intact. Be sure to have a good backup before you do anything.

Barry

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Answer 9

May 24, 2011 10:16 AM in response to X423424X

I was looking for ages for an answer like this!

This one worked for me. I had a Belkin mini bluetooth adapter that did not work in my Mac Pro 2007.

After using the Bluetooth explorer, everything works now!

Thanks!

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Answer 10

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Aug 4, 2011 12:04 PM in response to exferraris

I said above it's installed with Xcode. Of course that was the latest Xoce at the time. Not sure if it's part of the latest xcode since I don't use lion. But why would they remove it? If things haven't changed it's in the directory,

/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth/

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Answer 11

Aug 29, 2011 4:34 PM in response to X423424X

X423424X: Your suggestion totally solved my problem. It was a lifesaver. Many thanks for taking the time to contribute your knowledge on this. I would never have known about Bluetooth Explorer or how to use it otherwise.

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Answer 12

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Aug 29, 2011 6:14 PM in response to Jim Ratliff

Your welcome.

For future reference to anyone reading this and this thread, if you are using Lion, it would be nice to know if my above instructions are equally applicable to the version of Xcode for Lion. Since I am not (and have no current intentions of) running Lion I don't know if Bluetooth Explorer even exists in the Lion version of Xcode or has the same interface if it does. Thanks in advance.

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Answer 13

cheeseb

Level 1

28 points

Sep 3, 2011 3:33 AM in response to Bill Cheeseman

Bluetooth Explorer is still there in Lion and Xcode 4.1. But it did NOT fix my magic trackpad's jumping cursor.

I'm happy to say that I need to correct this. Although the magic trackpad pointer was still jumping around initially after using Bluetooth Explorer, for a couple of days now it has been fine.

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Answer 14

rr224999

Level 1

4 points

Sep 29, 2011 4:29 PM in response to X423424X

this fixed my problem with bluetooth on Lion. i was *thisclose* to going to the apple store and having them check it out. thanks for your help, really appreciate it.

as an fyi: my problem was that my Jawbone Jambox would connect to my macbook pro and within 5 seconds disconnect via bluetooth. removed all devices and readded them, even called Jawbone and they were stumped. following your instructions is what finally fixed my issue 🙂

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Answer 15

jon127

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2011 10:42 AM in response to X423424X

After hours and weeks of bluetooth pain, and almost giving up on a dongle that would not work on my 2008 mac pro I finally have solved the problem using Bluetooth explorer with Xcode for lion.

I was ready to disconnect the BT board and drill holes to add an external antenna, but tthis is an elegant, cheap and very simple solution.

Huge thanks to X423424X. You are my hero!

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