Bluetooth audio in OSX Lion

I have bluetooth stereo headset, it was worked bad with Mac, with lags and need to reconnect. Now using it becomes near impossible, bluetooth starting reconnect repeatedly and sometimes completely freeze. Mac works, but mouse and keyboard not then I need to restart it with power button. Is there any solution to make stereo bluetooth work on Mac?

I just bought the Bose Mini Soundlink Bluetooth Speaker. While using the speaker with my MacBook Pro 15", Mavericks installed I continued to get connection issues. Almost a crackling sound, popping in and out and also noticed sound quality jumping around. I started to do some research and found this forum. Looked over it and seems like the MacBook Pro has some settings issues with Bluetooth. I turned off my wifi and this seemed to help but I want to be able to use my wifi while using the speaker.

I took the advise of Ressac and posted the below in my terminal and then rebooted. WOW!! Now the issues have dissapeared! Much, Much better sound quality, no more popping in and out and sound quality jumping around! Thanks Ressac for posting a great solution to the issue. I still have wifi turned on, all my settings the same, Much appreciated!

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Max (editable)" 80

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" 48

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Initial Bitpool (editable)" 40

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool" 58

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool Max" 58

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool Min" 48

Hello there,

As someone here said, I am here to say me too, too. I recently bought a Soundsticks III Wireless (a.k.a. iSub back in the day). It works perfectly with iPad, phones, and everything but my Macbook Pro. Also, I have a small Panasonic portable audio speaker that doesn't work either, so I am pretty sure its something about the laptop.

I tried the solution of typing in the Terminal this:

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Max (editable)" 80

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" 48

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Initial Bitpool (editable)" 40

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool" 58

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool Max" 58

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool Min" 48

But... Nothing, it is still completly unusable, wich annoys me in a unmeasurable way. I don't understand... Macbooks are suposed to be beasts that works with everything and hassle free, but they are not anymore.

Cheers

This discussion is going on since 2 years. You can connect any Bluetooth device to almost any phones or other computer except Apple's OS X Lion and up.

Why ,God knows. Please Apple explain us why. I refuse to upgrade to any new operating system in case there would be another trap called innovation.

Guy

Exactly, its ridiculous. I upgraded from ML to Mavericks, still the same.

I also have been frustrated by Bluetooth on OS X for several years. However, my experience with 10.9 has been more positive. Both my Plantronics and Kinivo Bluetooth headsets had multiple connection problems with my MacBook Pro but not my iPhone. Under 10.9, both are connecting to my MacBook Pro much more reliably than in the past. The Kinivo unit does have to be re-paired more frequently than it should, but at least it does connect now; and it stays connected. In the past, the Kinivo never reconnected to the laptop without re-pairing. That's no longer the case.

Bluetooth issues seem to be device-related, although it seems clear in my case that Apple has done something to make Bluetooth in 10.9 more reliable.

Came here looking for an answer but looks like I'm SOL. Bought a Harmon Kardon BT headset a couple weeks ago. Pairs fine with my iPhone, iPad, and my older MacBook running Snow Leapord, and sounds great with all three of these devices. But the sound is absolutely unbearable after pairing with my iMac running Lion (10.7.5). From what I've been reading, upgrading is a crap shoot at best for resolving this problem.

Apple, get your act together.

My KB headphones work great for me on Mavericks. Perhaps it is worth trying? I have found the Mavericks update to have much better BT audio support.

Upon reading some of the reviews on Mavericks in the app store, it sounds like I need to wait a bit longer for Apple to work out some of the bugs of the upgrade.

Hey, thank you all for offering solutions to this issue. I am experiencing them as well with my Bose Soundlink II and my 2012 Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion (while my iphone works with no issue). I am here looking for a permanent solution. After entering the various codes suggested into the terminal to change the bitpool defaults, and restarting, and then later trying simply turning off and on the bluetooth to apply the setting changes, trying pretty much everything... the sound is perfect for a while, but then will slowly revert back to the crackling and popping interference, either the next day or even just a few hours after applying the changes. So annoying!! Is anybody else experiencing this? I don't understand why an applied setting that is supposed to be permanent will slowly fade or revert or whatever it does. It is not necessarily correlated to my computer going to sleep or the Bose turning off, I think that it just slowly does it over time.

I got on the phone with Apple and they said it was probably a software interference issue, and that my only option at this point was a trial and error process of deinstalling my various programs (the big guys I have installed are the Adobe Photoshop Suite, Microsoft Office, Finalcut Pro...as well as some simple glitch softwares I use to make video artwork. The glitch programs I have already deinstalled for the most part) to see if anything will help. I really don't want to have to do this, because I don't know if I will be able to recognize if it is ever finally fixed permanently (the crackling kind of sneaks up on you). I'm also no computer wiz...if anything this has been a pretty good crash course learning process.

The most frustrating part about it all was that the guy I talked to at Apple support, while very nice, had never heard of anything like this happening before, and really didn't know how to help me that much.

And my friend who has the exact same macbook, operating system, and bose speaker as me, has never experienced any of this. Thanks for letting me rant, any help would be appreciated! I'm looking for someone with similar experiences who finally found a permanent solution to the problem.

Finally upgraded to Mavericks, already noticing an improvement as well.

Improvement in what, the skipping and popping sound of a bluetooth device when paired to your Macbook? I've heard mixed reviews when it comes to Mavericks and Bluetooth, so I am hesitant to upgrade.

I've found a good configuration that's been working for me to alleviate skipping and popping. Details on this page here. While it's certainly not perfect, it's far better than stock settings. YMMV

Connectivity has improved with Mavericks. I no longer have to keep clicking on 'Use this as audio device' from the drop down menu. My Logitch adapter is now connecting on it's own and / or much quicker than before with ML.

Cheers.

what I can tell you is that remaining on a 3 year old operating system and using unsupported configurations is most likely not going to fix your problem... I'd recommend trying Mavericks... it has worked for me and many others on this thread... if that doesn't work you should try getting a diagnostic report during the problem, as others have suggested before, and positing it here for analysis.

I had the same problem. Found that if I placed the Bose speakers physically below the laptop, the problem corrected itself. If I place it on a shelf, above the laptop, the cracking starts again.