Bluetooth problem with OSX Yosemite: Magic Mouse and Keyboard

I am really unhappy with this - unable to use any bluetooth mouse since the upgrade - using the trackpad whilst connected to an external display and keyboard is very inconvenient - but perhaps since my 2013 retina MBP is out of warranty, Apple just don't care. Very disappointed. Come on Apple, sort this out!

Did you try an extra bluetooth dongle?

IIn the end I followed instructions for both SMC and PRAM reset, and for now the mouse is working fine again - hopefully a permanent fix.

I live in a community that is about 6 hours drive to the nearest city & mac store, so getting a new dongle will have to wait. I appreciate that this works, but this is not a solution to the problem that has only started after Yosemite.

I tried the paper in the mouse battery area, that did nothing at all. I also tried the pram reset stuff, once again no luck.

I read that if I do a full install from scratch, it may fix this up???? Anyone try this? And is there detailed instructions on how to do this? I have a time machine unit, so insturctins using that would be VERY much appreciated. Thanks

I noted the problem I have with the mouse and trackpad when I began using Mavericks and it persists with Yosemite.

I've installed from scratch to no avail (was done for me), and have pretty much tried everything else within my limited range of ability. The only option I haven't tried is smashing my MBA, mouse and pad with a large metal hammer in frustration.

Given how common this issue is, both with Mavericks and Yosemite, I am really surprised that a fix has not been developed.

I just find out the Handoff with my iPhone is made by Bluetooth (I tested with WiFi off and it works).

Maybe the Handoff is the cause of Bluetooth problems, causing some interference with other devices.

<rant>

Maybe it is an issue on your end, but I don't use Handoff. I've an IPhone 4s. Which, to Apple's unbreakable story of planned obsolescence, does not support Handoff because it does not speak Bluetooth "Low Energy." Who on earth found that it makes sense to restrict Handoff to a low energy scenario completely evades any understanding (besides "lets make'em buy more stuff") - when would you use handoff typically? Probably when you're sitting in front of your computer, right? So where do you probably have a power outlet to leave your phone on charger anyhow? Well, next to you, while you sit in front of your computer, right? So why would there be any need in that case to even worry about "low energy" for the bluetooth module?

And at least, would it not make sense to leave that choice to the user? Ah sorry, I forgot, that's called "meritocracy" - everyone can just be happy having the right to use what the supplier deems useful for them.

</rant>

Less off topic, anyone else tried a bluetooth dongle? There were other ideas about the problem being induced by some graphic intensive stuff. So I still don't have the problem regularly while using, as I reported, an additional bluetooth dongle, except for when I start "Fishdom 3" - which is kind of a fish tank app for kids - because my daughter sometimes wants to look at the fish. The moment I start that app, goodbye with any useable mouse cursor tracking.

Bluetooth Problems on Yosemite (Solution: 'Turn Wifi Off' then on again)

If you can not connect/reconnect your bluetooth devices, try "Turn Wifi Off". It seems to 'wake up' the bluetooth and then my devices reconnect.

In my case, after sleep/wake of my MacBook, my bluetooth keyboard & speaker would NOT reconnect. When I 'Turn Wifi Off" my bluetooth starts working again and my bluetooth keyboard & speaker immediately reconnect. I also read on some non-Apple.com forum that sometimes 'Turn Wifi Off' on yosemite makes bluetooth start working again. Other times, 'Turn Wifi Off' followed by 'Turn Wifi' On makes bluetooth start working again.

In my case, whenever I can not get my bluetooth devices to connect/reconnect to my MacBook, I simply "Turn Wifi Off" and it immediately connects.

Please REPLY to the following post if 'Turn Wifi Off' fixes your bluetooth connect/reconnect problems!

>>> Reply here >>> Bluetooth Problems on Yosemite (Solution: 'Turn Wifi Off' then on again)

Thank You.

Bluetooth Problems on Yosemite (Solution: 'Turn Wifi Off' then on again)

I was REALLY looking forward to Continuity and Handoff between my brand new iPhone 6 Plus and black Mac Pro.

But if the Mac Pro has WiFi turned on (which is also the only way to make Maps know where you're starting route), Bluetooth is nearly non-functional. Keyboard often won't activate on wake. Disconnects after 30 seconds or less. Loses keystrokes. Often types with a delay of over 5 seconds.

10.1.1 was no help. (Didn't fix my Dell 4k monitor failing to wake from sleep either, nor the volume keys failing to work in Yosemite with Line Out.)

I had to go get a physical keyboard just to get past my Mac login screen and turn off WiFi.

Weird that the public beta never caught this. A Mac with no keyboard or mouse is serious!

So what you are saying is actually interesting. Because, if that problem occurs with a Mac Pro and not only a flat breasted Macbook Air, then it is very likely not a CPU usage problem. That's the first point that is very interesting to know. But then, the next point is that you need to have your location. Which yes, I agree, is very weird that it uses only WLAN to detect it: My WLAN is for sure not known anywhere, but Apple wants to use that and not my LAN to find out where my IP address is located close to. But then this use case somehow appears not really to apply to a Mac Pro, unless you are in good physical shape and carry that guy as a portable computer a lot :-) If not, it is sufficient to activate WLAN briefly in order to have it content with knowing your approximate location.

Keyboard not activating etc. makes it worse than with my MBA which is directly behind my screen; perhaps the shielding, or interference, with the Mac Pro is even worse. Keyboard stuck is exactly the behavior that I also observed. Volume keys is another point that you mention; I also somehow am observing issues with that, but not yet quite sure what it is. Except that in activity monitor, core audio mostly always says, it is not responding.

For sound issues I just occasionally do a sudo killall -9 coreaudiod

This helps e.g. when suddenly on my 27'' Thunderbolt display Audio starts getting awfully distorted.

But I think that's what we've to live with if we constantly keep using 3rd party hardware, right?

M

To the point of continuity, and your brand new Mac Pro, perhaps we should next time look closer at what specific hardware is used to demo that, on the Apple conference. I think to remember it was an iMac, and not a Mac Pro. And I'm not quite sure it was really an IPhone 6 Plus or not just an IPhone. By the same token, it again makes sense to review the demonstration to make sure when people start ordering those IPhone WMD (Wrist Mounted Display), they are absolutely certain to order exactly the color of strap that was shown during the demo. As I think about it, this Apple Watch also features a heart rate monitor, so we should make sure to watch the demo, record the heart rate that the presenter had, and then train ourselves to calm down to exactly that heart rate whilst we are using the device.

After all, sold as seen....

BillHahn,

on a more serious note re my last post, to your point of switching off and on, that's actually reconfirming what I experienced that this may be an interference issue that the software does not more efficiently work out (as we recall, Windows via Bootcamp showed no such issues). So if that is the case, switching off and on your device forces the software to renegotiate and redetect them, at which point it will probably isolate them out of the noise for a while. We have USB 3.0, old WIFI as well as Bluetooth babbling on the same frequencies, so isolating them out may be an issue especially if Apple decided to mess with Bluetooth for the LE / Handoff topic. It would confirm that this sounds like a hardware, but is a software (filter algorithm) problem.

Can someone confirm that this problem started occurring during this summer, with Mavericks already? I feel I had experienced these problems earlier, but was somehow not attributing them to anything really - and they were not as bad as with Yosemite. So perhaps, as part of one of the updates, Apple had integrated a newer bluetooth stack already, like to run a field test.

As in all good banana software, let it ripe at the customers'....

I know why WIFi is needed for location--it's not using general IP blocks or something (although that sounds like it would make a useful fallback to at least identify your city). It's using a map of WiFi networks (even locked ones) that passing iPhones (unless they opt out) have built up. Same as the old Skyhook, and whatever Google calls their version. So when you turn on WiFi, Apple may may not know your WiFi network, but that doesn't matter: they know the "map" of ALL the WiFi networks that have been recently seen in your location, and then by comparing how strong and weak they are, it knows where you are in the coordinates of the WiFi "landscape."

That said, I wish I could just TELL my Mac Pro "I am here" (since it's not a portable) and have the Locate button always go there.

Anyway... between that and Continuity and AirDrop, I've got reasons I really wish I could enable WiFi on my Mac Pro! Even though it uses Ethernet. (Being on the same LAN as my devices isn't enough: they need to create an ad hoc wireless connection.)

FWIW (off topic) I think this helps the volume key problem: in Audio Midi Setup, choose Line Out and toggle the bitrate to something else and back again. People have said that fix is permanent, and for me it's worked so far. From:

My mac volume level won't change after sleep

Morgan,

freaking, but good point. Likewise freaking that when I recently enabled, because what the heck, some iCloud on two of our phones, suddenly my oh so well locked-in company email appeared on my wife's iphone. W. T. F. It was of course, then, routed through NS^H^HApple's hands. Most worrisome, they do that without then even asking, and I just found out as my wife asked me if I could perhaps ask my colleagues stop sending mails to her all the time.

WRT continuity, I really wonder why on earth does Apple need yet another protocol. Could they not just use the freakin network that's anyway there? I mean, even WLANs today are good enough for Sonos to have true synchronized sound across multiple speakers, so there shouldn't be a reason why you need to create yet another kind of stuff only for handing that document from device a to b.

Thanks for the hint about the bitrate! Oh yes, of course, Apple is quite new in the field of handling music, so I was not expecting sound to work just out of the box. They'll get to it, perhaps when they're valued a trillion dollars.

How Ironic.. the company that pioneered the mouse, released an OS upgrade that makes the mouse unreliable. Tip to Apple programmers, next time you do an OS update, first make sure all the basic work flawlessly such as:

Keyboard

Mouse

Wifi

Bluetooth

Speakers

Mic

Display

Then worry about the rest of the goodies.