George Krompacky
Level 3 (858 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Apple Wireless Keyboard will not become discoverable--solution

I use an Apple Wireless Keyboard and mouse with my MBP. Today when I arrived at work and set up everything, the laptop would not recognize the keyboard. I went through some troubleshooting steps as recommended by Apple, but to no avail. So I figured I would remove the keyboard from my bluetooth devices and go through the setup process again.

Not so good, because I soon realized that the keyboard wouldn't go into discoverable mode. Pressing the power button caused the light to glow for a few seconds--indicating the batteries were still charged--but it wouldn't blink. I tried removing the batteries, inserting new ones, all to no avail. Just kept pressing the button, getting the glow without blinks, and the keyboard wouldn't show up in the bluetooth setup list.

So I guessed that the keyboard still thought it was paired with the computer, even though the computer knew it wasn't. And then I read somewhere that the range for the keyboard was around 30 feet or so. So I walked out of our cubicle area and into a stairwell 50 feet away. Sure enough, after the initial glow, the light blinked! It was discoverable.

I ran back to my desk, hit "continue" in the bluetooth setup panel, and paired the keyboard again.

So, if your keyboard isn't paired with your computer, but still won't go into discoverable mode, maybe this trick will work for you.

MacBook Pro (early 2011); iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.6.7), Wacom Intuos 3 tablet; HP Deskjet 6840; iPhone3GS

Posted on Mar 22, 2011 12:43 PM

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George Krompacky

Q: Apple Wireless Keyboard will not become discoverable--solution

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  • by LNAKTDE,

    LNAKTDE LNAKTDE Jun 30, 2016 8:14 AM in response to George Krompacky
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 30, 2016 8:14 AM in response to George Krompacky

    Thanks for your great insight! I had the same problem too and knew my keyboard somehow thought it was connected to my laptop because the caps lock key lit when I pressed it, I could not however manage to get the keyboard to "discoverable" mode simply by changing rooms (I live in a big home and went all the way to the end of the house). Other people have suggested that they had to leave the block in order to trick their keyboard, so I thought of a simplest solution: I turned my laptop off and pressed the power button on the keyboard. Voila! Everything worked as a charm, and didn't even need to leave the room! :-) Hope this helps others!

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