Bluetooth plist entries

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Bluetooth plist entries

I have off and on problems with Bluetooth Magic Mouse, a keyboard and a touchpad that appear to "get lost" connecting to a Lion based Mac mini. Various resets eventually solve the problem. Right now it's working fine. I was looking for a Safari plist file and stumbled acrosss the fact that I have 100's of Bluetooth .plist files. The first entry is just a plain Bluetooth.plist. The remainder have numbers and letters embedded in the file names. My wife has a mac mini that also has Lion with a bluetooth wireless keyboard and Mighty Mouse that never has a problem. We both have iPhones and iPads obviously with Bluetooth.

Are 100's of Bluetooth entries normal? Could it be the cause of my apparent "lost" phenomena?

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Second Mac Mini at same level

Posted on Apr 24, 2012 3:20 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 25, 2012 3:47 AM in response to mojonorm

Hello:

The "main" Bluetooth preference file (com.apple.bluetooth.plist) is located in MacintoshHD>library preferences.

Based on your problem description, I would do the following:

Reset the PRAM and SMC

Make the mouse a favorite.

Barry

P.S. I doubt (seriously) if the "extra" BT preference files have anything to do with yoru issue.

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Answer 2

mojonorm Author

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Apr 25, 2012 3:29 PM in response to Barry Hemphill

PRAM and SMC reset more times than I can count.

Mouse favorite reset many times. Interestingly the Bluetooth preferences panel seems to lose these settings when the problem occurs.

Never permitting the units to sleep seems to fix it. Still working today.

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Answer 3

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

Apr 26, 2012 1:16 AM in response to mojonorm

Are 100's of Bluetooth entries normal? Could it be the cause of my apparent "lost" phenomena?

No. Can you post one of the filenames.

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Answer 4

mojonorm Author

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Apr 26, 2012 3:00 PM in response to X423424X

Here's a sample. There are 100's. I assume the first on is the "normal" entry?

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0A0J5Ue

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0a1x93n

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0A2ubbH

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0a4Z1lm

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0a5YAul

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0a7PbUe

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0A9ztL2

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0a57YR3

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0A88tre

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0AAJiRj

file://localhost/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0aAZY4C

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Answer 5

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

Apr 26, 2012 7:13 PM in response to mojonorm

Oh those. I wanted to make sure because your original description about numbers and letters embedded in the name wasn't clear to me.

I will bet if you look through your Preferences directory you may find other .plist.xxxxx (xxxx consisting of numbers and letters). I get them with pbs.plist. For me it is so bad I added a line to the periodic daily maintenance scripts to remove them.

What you are seeing is a bug. When a plist is updated, for safety a copy of the original is made as a working copy and that is updated. The copy has the intermediate name with the garbage letters and numbers after it. Once the working copy is updated the original plist is removed and the working copy copied to the actual .plist file. The working copy is then supposed to be removed. The problem is that in some cases, apparently your com.apple.Bluetooth.plist case, the working intermediate is not removed. So they accumulate. And that is what you are seeing. They are useless.

You can remove the whole bunch in one terminal command. Open Terminal (in Utilities) and copy/paste the following line.

rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.*

Poof, they're gone. Well until you see another buildup of them again. And you will. It's a bug. I use Snow Leopard so it's not a new bug.

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Answer 6

mojonorm Author

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May 2, 2012 7:37 AM in response to X423424X

I haven't gotten to this yet, but will this also take out the bluetooth settings I'm currently using which have been very stable? So I'll get a new Bluetooth plist? How does a bug like this get on Apple's radar?

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Answer 7

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

May 2, 2012 11:35 AM in response to mojonorm

The above rm removes names like com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.0A0J5Ue but does not remove com.apple.Bluetooth.plist itself. The ones with the garbage on the end are, well, garbage. JUst make sure you copy/paste the rm line I showed so there is no chance of mistakes.

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Answer 8

-rAs!™

Level 1

14 points

Aug 20, 2012 8:33 AM in response to X423424X

Two days ago I did what he advised, via terminal and so far everything is Ok! I do not know if, and soon to tell, but it seems that solved the problem!

Mac Mini (2011) i7 - Mountain Lion

Thanks for the Help!

And for Apple, is my disappointment that amateurism is treating the issue. # FAIL

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Answer 9

Sep 22, 2012 10:51 PM in response to mojonorm

Hi mojo,

even i face a same problem with my mouse..but i tried all the ways bary suggested..no Result

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Answer 10

Sep 24, 2012 10:06 AM in response to X423424X

I think this is very dangerous since it will delete all of the .plist.lockfile files which I assume are important.

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Answer 11

mojonorm Author

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Sep 25, 2012 4:33 PM in response to Mark Saper

i upgraded to Mountain Lion, got some bluetooth issues back, reran the plist instruction in Terminal, no more problems so far.

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Answer 12

Sep 27, 2012 7:45 PM in response to mojonorm

Hey every 1..i had a problem with the hardware of the mouse..the istore guy replaced my mouse with a new one..🙂

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Answer 13

zzsql

Level 1

4 points

Feb 15, 2014 2:53 PM in response to mojonorm

Here's what worked for me.

1. Turn off BT keyboard.

2. Turn off BT on the Mac you're using.

3. Turn on BT keyboard, it will not 'see' the Mac computer and make itself discoverable.

4. Re-pair with the Mac.

I used this Aluminum BT keyboard before with this mac so it may have thought it was paired and didn't make itself discoverable.

Works now!

Love it!

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