mac mini 2011 cant find bluetooth device at startup

they are not going downhill; this has been a known issue for some time on the server OS. maybe they don't expect you to use a wireless keyboard with a server... who knows.

If that's true then the sales person should have known this before selling me the server with a new BT keyboard.

Exact same problem here with non-server Mac Mini. Pretty bogus for a modular machine designed specifically to accept any peripherals including third-party that it cannot recognize an Apple device as basic as the very keyboard needed to operate the thing itself.

Jeesh, Steve gone one day, everything goes to heck.

Just got a Mac Mini today and bought the apple Bluetooth Keyboard and BT Magic Mouse and it won't recognize them during setup! SO REDICUOUSLY ANNOYING... now I'll have to go buy a USB keyboard somewhere just to get thru setup and hope it works with the BT once I get into the OS.

Very unhappy with Apple on this one.

Just bought a new mini (non-server) and got it home, and first, it wouldn't get past the first screen showing that you need to turn on a bluetooth keyboard or trackpad or magic mouse. It flat out wouldn't recognize either my Apple bluetooth keyboard (but my iPad and iPhone do), nor my brand new Apple TrackPad. I restarted my mini twice and was getting pretty fed up, when on the third try, it miraculously went to the screen asking me to select my language. Guess what, it obviously has paired with my TrackPad because I can move the onscreen pointer, but the mini won't respond to any "clicks" on the TrackPad, and it won't respond at all to my Apple bluetooth keyboard. I restarted twice more, and can't get past the language screen. This is insanely stupid and annoying for a second generation product. Out of principle, I simply refuse to go get my USB mouse. The sales staff told me all I needed was my Apple bluetooth keyboard (and the TrackPad or Magic Mouse were optional) to set up and use my mini. Seriously, get this fixed. I might just take back the mini and buy another (shudder) Windows device. Very, very poor form, Apple. Very uncharacteristic and disappointing you would sell a known defective product.

I had much the same thing happen but after connecting a USB mouse clicked through and setup my unit just fine in about 2 minutes.

Setup and configured my bluetooth profiles and all was great, until I loaded EFI 1.3 and now have a brick.

Run back and get your money before they bank or spend it.

Alright, I decided to go grab the USB mouse from my old Windows machine so I could get my mini started up (the irony is it's a Microsoft USB mouse). I got my mini started, and set up everything thenway I wanted. In the process, I discoveredmthe reason The Track Pad appears to be paired but does not respond to single or double clicks is due to a really dumb default setting. The Track Pad is set for "Tap To Click" = "off" until you check the box in "Point and Click" in the Track Pad settings.

While configuring user accounts for my family members, my mini crashed twice saying "you have restarted your device due to a problem.". Hmm. So the second time, I did apple menu > restart, and when it displayed the icons for each login account, guess what? The Track Pad reset to default so I can't do single click again. So once again, I had to go get the Microsoft USB mouse and plug it in so I could select My admin account to log in and once again configure the trackmpad to allow single click. Why on earth is single click deactivated by default in the Track Pad settings, and why doesn't it stay configured the way I set it?

I also ran a software update and see therenis an update formthe 2009 aluminum Bluetooth keyboard (which I have), so maybe that fixes the issue with the keyboard not pairing with the mini on startup. There is also a Mac mini EFI firmware update, but I see some people seem to have problems after loading that. Not good. So far, I give my mini a "2" on a scale of 1-10. After all the other Apple gadgetry I have, I'm sorely disappointed in the mini thus far.

I finally abandoned my pc and bought a brand new Mac mini, wireless keyboard and trackpad. Initial setup would not recognize keyboard but it did find the trackpad. Next day I brought home a USB keyboard from work and resumed setup Now the setup screen is asking for a trackpad click to continue. The trackpad will scroll but it will not click. Now I'm really stuck. I tried to contact apple support though their painful online screening process and they ultimately said my 2day old system doesn't qualify for free support.

They can have it back. I'm packing it up.

You just described the most annoying last few hours of my life! I was a pc user,please don't judge, and just dumped $1400 on this whole system thinking glitches would be a thing of the past... silly me. I was able to get the keyboard to work after taking out the batteries, moving the mini around the room to satisfy its chi, turning off all of my smartphone bluetooth applications, and having a cocktail. The trackpad still just moves without any ability to select anything. I'll try your solution, thanks. But another few things worry me. Am I getting into a faulty machine? Should I just return it and try another mac product, does this stuff stop once it gets up and running? I I another thing, i hooked my mini up to 50 inch tv... and can't figure out how to turn the darn thing off? Am I missing some desktop icons because some weird aspect ratio? Someone told me not to turn the mac off and just let it sleep... have you ever heard of this? Thanks, embarrassingly and rambling mad

Unfortunately Apple should tell you that you need a USB Keyboard and Mouse to do the initial setup (reliably at minimum). Beyond that I've not had any issues pairing/using my BT Keyboard/Trackpad.

To "danfromca" - regarding not seeing the "menu bar" at the top of the screen on your TV? Do you have the display connected via the Thunderbolt/MiniDisplay port or the HDMI port on the Mini? I also have my Mini connected to my TV. I found no issues with the resolution/display when using the HDMI port on the Mini, however I had to adjust the scan (over/under) when using the Thunderbolt port. To do that open the Display settings (in System Preferences) -- you should see what needs to be set there. I am not on that system right now so I don't have the exact "names" to give you.

Murkul and anyone who can help a mac rookie,

thanks for the quick reply. I am connected to my tv using the hdmi cable. I cannot see the tool bar at the top of the screen but now that I know it is there, I can drag the trackpad (now operational thanks to you guys and checking the "tap" box) to the top of the screen and see the drop down menus. When I go to system preference, monitor icon, I see "panasonic tv and different aspect ratios, but no overscan box, or scan box. Any suggestions?

I feel liek a dummy but the underscan was a slide bar., not a box...! When I moved the indicator to the right, the entire computer frame came into view!

thanks to all.

I had the issue initially. I turned on the track pad and the keyboard, nothing happened. restarted the mac, nothing happened, the screen was still waiting and telling me to turn on the track pad. I left it as is and went to walk my dog, probably 45 minutes or so passed and i came back home. Once I returned the track pad had been recognized as well as the key board. For all that have had the issue, how long did you wait? It may be that it just takes an extremly long amount of time. Everything is running smoothly.

I just set up old Logitech BT keyboard to my new mac mini (during initial setup). Keyboard was not working at first try (just like you described). But, I disconnected power from mac mini and tried again. I installed batteries and started pairing from BT keyboard just some seconds before clicking ok to language selection. So keyboard was already waiting pairing when mac mini started searching it. And no problems after that. Please try that.

ps. Also WLAN and other BT devices were disconnected at the time of that second try, but I don't think that matters.

Everything been working fine once I got past the setup. It would been nice to know before hand that you need to press the lower left corner of trackpad to get a click. Then go to system preferences and complete the setup of Bluetooth devices. Apple needs to tell people when they buy a new system with wireless peripherals they should have an old wired mouse and keyboard to get through setup or face hours of frustration.