Bluetooth problem with OSX Yosemite: Magic Mouse and Keyboard

I wish we all had a dollar everytime someone suggesting to PRAM / SMC reset 😝

Same thing here with a Logitech M570 (actually any Logitech M570 I've tried). Sometimes the lag is a few seconds to over a minute (the cursor just stops working). Also, the buttons also don't work during that time. It makes the system unusable (MB Retina from early 2014). For a 3k system, I expect better than this. This happens anytime, regardless if the laptop is charging or not, though I notice it when connected to two 1440p displays (one cinema, one not). Might be related to that. I've gotten to the point where switching to Linux on my MBP seems to be the only possible option.

This is pretty bad. I've reported this issue to Apple in every release since Beta 1. Why is this not fixed yet?

MacPro5,1 3.2 GHz. My last post on Dec 7 had a long list of issues and now, after finding a solution and 2 days of using the MacPro extensively, I can say with full confidence all issues are resolved.

Eureka!!!!

The culprit: RSSI. The RSSI tables were deceiving showing dBm :

0 to -60 --> good

-61 to -70 --> OK

-71 to -90 --> poor

less than -90 --> bad

There is a strong consensus that these ranges are generally true.

H o w e v e r, I found that my Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad require a higher RSSI (keep in mind these are negative numbers):

-70 shown in the 'OK' range is just not going to cut it. They will keep disconnecting and connecting endlessly.

Through more research I found the MacPro towers' metallic case severely decreases the signal strength, and on top of this there are some interference issues at play as well. Someone suggested running the Mac Pro without it's cover for stronger RSSI's, I tried it, and it worked. The RSSI went up considerably, but I'm not going to run my Mac Pro opened up all the time. Lots of forums going in depth with all of this. The most common solution is to attach an external WiFi antenna to a slot cover after drilling on it and then connecting the pigtail cable from the module to the antenna. Many success stories with this. My solution required much less effort and definitely a lot of less time and money, a 5 minute repair if you have small hands. The hardest is connecting the cable into the module. What if I told you I only spent $5.99 for this antenna http://www.osxwifi.com/review/product/list/id/20/category/3/ and I haven't had a single hickup ever since. I simply inserted the module connector of the antenna through the graphics card grill and kept it close to the motherboard all the way down to the Bluetooth module. The square antenna has a peel off adhesive to secure it... but I'm not securing it, I have it hanging as far away from the machine as possible. The changes in RSSI for the keyboard and trackpad are incredible. I'm now closer to -51 +/- 5, when it use to be in the -70's! The impact that this makes on the keyboard and trackpad's performance is just amazing. As I move the antenna closer to the tower, I can see how quickly the RSSI numbers start to come down. Handoff and all the Yosemite perks are running as expected. After many days and long hours I finally found my solution. Hope you all can find yours soon. I still believe there is a Yosemite issue since I had no problems with my wireless keyboard & trackpad with Maverick. I'm still angry at Apple for wasting my time trying to find a solution to a problem of their own creation. Good luck folks! Hope this helps.

Hello,

a lot of things i tried do not helped for me. But actually this solved my problem: I renamed my magic mouse to "MacMouse" without any blanks or other special characters. No more lags since more than 24 hours ...

Greetings MAK

Same here. I actually didn't physically rename the mouse, I just started calling it that way when talking to it.

John Figueroa wrote:

MacPro5,1 3.2 GHz. My last post on Dec 7 had a long list of issues and now, after finding a solution and 2 days of using the MacPro extensively, I can say with full confidence all issues are resolved.

Eureka!!!!

The culprit: RSSI. The RSSI tables were deceiving showing dBm :

0 to -60 --> good

-61 to -70 --> OK

-71 to -90 --> poor

less than -90 --> bad

There is a strong consensus that these ranges are generally true.

H o w e v e r, I found that my Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad require a higher RSSI (keep in mind these are negative numbers):

-70 shown in the 'OK' range is just not going to cut it. They will keep disconnecting and connecting endlessly.

Through more research I found the MacPro towers' metallic case severely decreases the signal strength, and on top of this there are some interference issues at play as well. Someone suggested running the Mac Pro without it's cover for stronger RSSI's, I tried it, and it worked. The RSSI went up considerably, but I'm not going to run my Mac Pro opened up all the time. Lots of forums going in depth with all of this. The most common solution is to attach an external WiFi antenna to a slot cover after drilling on it and then connecting the pigtail cable from the module to the antenna. Many success stories with this. My solution required much less effort and definitely a lot of less time and money, a 5 minute repair if you have small hands. The hardest is connecting the cable into the module. What if I told you I only spent $5.99 for this antenna http://www.osxwifi.com/review/product/list/id/20/category/3/ and I haven't had a single hickup ever since. I simply inserted the module connector of the antenna through the graphics card grill and kept it close to the motherboard all the way down to the Bluetooth module. The square antenna has a peel off adhesive to secure it... but I'm not securing it, I have it hanging as far away from the machine as possible. The changes in RSSI for the keyboard and trackpad are incredible. I'm now closer to -51 +/- 5, when it use to be in the -70's! The impact that this makes on the keyboard and trackpad's performance is just amazing. As I move the antenna closer to the tower, I can see how quickly the RSSI numbers start to come down. Handoff and all the Yosemite perks are running as expected. After many days and long hours I finally found my solution. Hope you all can find yours soon. I still believe there is a Yosemite issue since I had no problems with my wireless keyboard & trackpad with Maverick. I'm still angry at Apple for wasting my time trying to find a solution to a problem of their own creation. Good luck folks! Hope this helps.

This seems like something that Apple can fix, so we don't have to drill into our cases or buy anything "extra", we shouldn't have to do this.

My MacPro is not going to be drilled on, nor do I want to purchase anything, just get me a software update.

What are people doing who've had the issues with the keyboard? Typing kind of stinks now.

Extremely good solution! Thanks for sharing this. It has been plaguing me for a while now. Apparently Yosemite has changed the Bluetooth antenna strength dynamics or the way that connections are made since I did not see this issue previous to the Yosemite update. I also believe that hard drive activity may be having some bearing on this issue from my experiences so far. Perhaps additional EM radiation interference or something else, but high disk activity and / or USB 3 activity from an additional card I have installed has frequently coincided with bluetooth degradation and therefore lag.

Except that... a) plenty of people have the same problem with their Macbook Air's, b) those keyboard and mice, like in my case, are no further away than like 30 cm from the Macbook Air; c) some bluetooth speakers that I put into my shower for listening into music are like 10 m away and work without any problems.

Well, ok, those speakers hardly really have to talk back all the time. So I'd next go and find a waterproof bluetooth microphone and do some karaoke practice under the shower. Let's see how that works.

Right, I have a MacBook Air and my mice is pretty close to the antenna.

For sure isn't a distance/power problem

Hey Matthias - great post, although I suppose 'some' will not see the 'ironic' flag 😉

Are we still talking about approx. 2k€ piece of technology? If I wanted to drill holes in the case I'd buy a Raspberry Pi but I committed to the best, the no.1, the ultimate "everything is working well solution without having to think about"! But I find myself in a DIY hunt to solve issues like this and I am tired of it. I didn't have any issue with V10.9 and since today with yet another new issue I really take the downgrade to Mavericks into account.

I do not accept a failure like the Bluetooth issue or any of the other issue introduced with Yosemite any more. Apple Inc. - I request that you get the issues under control that you introduced with Yosemite and to provide a patch asap!

cheers,

cabiman

I'm glad you found my information helpful. Do you have a MacPro? I did notice a correlation between the hard drive activity and loss of connectivity back when I was having issues. Everything is still working fine for me. I was thinking about getting a USB 3.0 card, but now that you mentioned the EM issues I think I'm going to try something else, thanks for that bit of information. I share everyone's frustration, and indeed blame Apple for it. Seeking a solution was more for my sanity than anything else, I like taking care of things if possible, instead of waiting around for someone else to resolve them. It does me no good burning my Mac Pro, throwing it out the window, or ditching it in the middle of the lake -I don't think Apple would care either. Seems the Yosemite issue manifests itself in different ways/different products. Just to clarify, the 'drilling'/WiFi antenna option (that I didn't have to do) is not on the case, is on the PCIe card slot cover. You remove the slot cover, drill the slot cover on your work bench, and but it back into your computer, seems some may be missing this detail. Let me know if you need a link for it, there are quite a few even with pictorials. Hopefully Apple will come up with a patch soon. Good luck!

Bizarrely, the workaround for me is to just disable and re-enable wifi, and my mouse reconnects via bluetooth straight away.

This is when my mouse won't connect after my mac has woken up from sleep.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)

I bought a USB Bluetooth Dongle for $1 for my iMac and changed the default BT device using Bluetooth Explorer (free of charge support software for developers). Now, both the keyboard and the magic mouse are working again. I hope it sticks...