Q: MacBook Air 13" 2011 Bluetooth Issues

Dear BOB,

cut the story short. your method works PERFECTLY! thanks. My bluetooth is all good now.

Your problem sounds exactly like mine. I had the grayed-out "Discoverable".

Make sure you do this:

(1) Turn off Bluetooth and Bluetooth sharing

(2) move those 2 files out of the prefs folder to somewhere else (other than prefs)

(3) logout

(4) log back in, and restart Bluetooth (which will recreate those two files that you moved)

(5) Delete the two moved files if all is well.

Bob M.

Dear Bob,

The first time i tried your method it didnt work that was because somehow my MBA created a folder with "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist" name and inside of that folder there is a file name "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist". <<< now this is funny.

It didnt work with your method because yesterday i just found out that there is infact another file by the name of "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig" in the preferences folder. So I have been removing was the file "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist" inside folder name com.apple.Bluetooth.plist. When the "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig" still exist all along.

Yesterday I deleted all three files: "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig" + "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist" +"com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.lockfile", moved them to the trash bin, turned off all bluetooth connection and remove all added bluetooth devices (make it empty). Once all that is done I then RESTARTED my MBA.

And Walaaa! Everything was fixed as you have predicted. So I just empty my trash bin, and add my bluetooth device with no problem (it detected the name of my bluetooth device), and the "GREYED" Discoverable option can all now be ticked!. In short everything is now back to where it should be.

Thanks BOB!

Thanks for the solution! I used it with my 2011 Mac Mini with the same issue and it worked!

After removing the bluetooth preference file I had the problem that the iPhone pairing was lost after every reboot (or every blued restart).

I had to also remove /var/root/Library/Preferences/blued.plist manually, pair again, then the pairing survived reboots.

btw, called apple support.  They claimed forgetting the pairing after reboot was a new safety feature of Lion. ***?

I have not been as fortunate as others.  Initially I called Apple, and tried all the things that were suggested in earlier posts, including reinstalling Lion (actually fairly painless with their new system).  I then tried moving the plist files as suggested here.  The only change is that the mouse and keyboard that I am trying to pair now have names rather than ID numbers.  I still have serious Bluetooth problems:

-- Bluetooth turns on by itself on restart, even if I unclick Reopen Windows when logging back in;

-- Blutetooth seems to fade in and out.  Even when it is in, neither device I am trying to pair (mouse and keyboard, both Apple) work, even when listed under Bluetooth.

Help!

Atwolf:

As I have said, this is what I did.

Yesterday I deleted all three files: "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig" + "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist" +"com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.lockfile", moved them to the trash bin, turned off all bluetooth connection and remove all added bluetooth devices (make it empty). Once all that is done I then RESTARTED my MBA.

There are two or more file that you have to delete. if you can find any of the files that is mentioned there, delete both. OFF the bluetooth first before deleting those files. Then delete all devices that were previously listed on your bluetooth preferences. and restart your computer.

I hope it works this time around.

Bram79 -- Thanks for the encouragement.  I don't know what happened -- pixie dust or magic incantation -- but after the MBA went to sleep and woke up, everything was working perfectly.

Thanks to you and to Bob for all your help on this one.

Thank you for this fix, works like charm!

Bob - thank you for getting me this far. I was lost without your great step-by-step list. I see the light - but not there quite yet.

After following your instructions, my headset (LG HBS700) paired, but it only connected after I selected 'edit serial ports...'

However, it only seems to stay connected for about 30 seconds.

Any ideas?

Jenn

Bob (RMalay's) solution worked perfectly for me - thanks Bob. I had used migration assistant to transfer everything from a 2007 MacBook to a brand new 13" MacBook Air, and the problem I experienced was in connecting my iPhone 4 (for internet tethering).

Now the bluetooth connection is working fine EXCEPT for one thing:

- each time I restart the MBA after closing it down, then try and connect to the iPhone, I have to go through the pairing process again. Once that's done I can disconnect and reconnect to the iPhone without any problems until I next close down the MBA. It's as if it forgets the pairing info each time I close it down.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks, Jamie

See my earlier comment. I had the same problem (actually you probably need to re-pair every time blued is restarted, e.g. if you kill the process).

Removing the directory /var/root/Library/Preferences/blued.plist did the trick for me.

Thanks very much for that - sounds good. Only trouble is I can't find that directory! Can you tell me how? Thanks Jamie

The directory is only visible as root.  I did a "sudo root" and then mv /var/root/Library/Preferences/blued.plist /tmp/, then killall blued, then I re-raired all devices and then it worked.

This sounds as if it's beyond my technical competence! I'm just not familiar with the expressions you're using. Don't want to impose on you but can you walk me through this step-by-step? Quite undertsand if too much trouble! Many thanks. Jamie