Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Bluetooth missing from system preferences?

Hello.


I've seached for ideas everywhere but am not having much luck.


I'm running a 27" iMac OSX, 10.8.3 (12D78) Mountain Lion

w/3.2 GHz i3

12 GB 1333 MHz DDR3


A few days ago, my magic mouse lost it's scoll, swipe, zoom, and right click abilities. The batteries were low, so I dismissed it. I have since replaced the batteries, and then noticed that the bluetooth icon is missing at the top of the screen/staus bar. I looked in system preferences, and the Bluetooth icon is also missing from there. Under the Mouse pane, there is no options for the magic mouse, only tracking speed and click speed.


I searched the archives and it appears it's a pretty common occurance. The difference is my BT mouse still works, only as a regular mouse. (Single click and pointer tracking).


I first tried a timemachine restore, with no luck.

Next, I tried a reboot. No luck.

I tried the SMC reset. No luck there either.


I know the BT is working somewhat, because after I reboot the system, the mouse pointer doesn't move, but if I click and hold the mouse buttom for a few seconds, I get control over the mouse, but like I said, with no options or extra abilities. But even with the mouse moving, there is no BT icon either on the staus bar or in system preferences.


Any ideas on what to try next?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Apr 12, 2013 11:57 AM

Reply
4 replies
Question marked as Helpful

Jan 6, 2014 3:37 PM in response to shblet343

I hope I can help, at least with anyone else who may completely lose the bluetooth for no reason. I had the same problem, trackpad and keyboard didnt work, checked systems report, and no information was found under Bluetooth.

I called an apple support number, the guy had never heard of this happening but we corrected everything on the first try.

Try this; Apple Icon upper left screen/shut down.

Disconnect everything from the computer but the power

Once the computer is off, hold down SHIFT/CONTROL/OPTION and then press the power button. Hold all 4 keys for 5-6 seconds and release.

The computer should still be off at this point.

Cross you fingers and press the power button.

Once the computer powers up and you sign in, check to see if the bluetooth icon is now back in Systems Preferences.

It worked for me and all my devices were listed.


I hope this simple trick will work for all of you.


Cheers,


Rod Fox

44 replies

Apr 12, 2013 1:45 PM in response to shblet343

As Eustace says, it's likely a hardware fault, although the following suggestion worked for me when I helped my neighbour who lost all BT connectivity on his iMac a while back.


Apart from the Magic Mouse what keyboard do you have - wired or BT?


To do this you might need to use a wired mouse/keyboard just in case you lose your limited BT connectivity and end up not being able to log in. In Macintosh HD>Library>Preferences, do you have this file:


com.apple.Bluetooth.plist


If so, move it to the desktop and restart. If BT does come back to life this is where you might need the wired mouse/keyboard to get your BT devices re-connected. If this works you can dump the file you moved to the desktop.

Apr 27, 2013 11:50 AM in response to Paul_31

Moved com.apple.Bluetooth.plist to the trash. Rebooted, and it still behaves exactly the same. I tried it again, this time turning off the mouse. Once it was rooted, the pointer was dead, I turned the mouse on, held down the Button (shell), and it turned the pointer back active. Still no Bluetooth icon, still no multifunctioning mouse, and no information available within the harware listing under System Report for Bluetooth. ???

Bluetooth missing from system preferences?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.