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Bluetooth not seen in Windows

I installed Windows 8.1 through BootCamp and Bluetooth device is not recognized by Windows. I am talking about the new 2015 12' macbook.

It is not seen in the device manager list.

Any Help?

MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015), Windows 8

Posted on Apr 16, 2015 9:17 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 18, 2018 1:04 PM

I haven't seen an option to install Windows on the Early 2015 MacBook 12" in emulated BIOS mode - only in EFI/UEFI.


Try it - when you boot from the Windows setup USB hold the option key and I only see EFI boot. On my other Macs I see 2 options (normal and EFI) for the same disk.


This would explain why Apple only supports Windows 8 or higher on the MacBook 12" - I believe what they have really done is remove support for emulated BIOS, which also removes support for the older operating systems which don't reliably support EFI on Apple hardware.


If that's true then the reason there are no Bluetooth devices in Device Manager is because Bluetooth hasn't been exposed through EFI to Windows yet. What Apple will hopefully be working on is enabling the Bluetooth hardware when booting to Windows, which will probably be available from Apple as a Firmware update and may not even need new drivers.


Or some clever hacker will need to work out the registers to enable the Bluetooth hardware and write a rEFInd/rEFIt script to enable Bluetooth when booting to Windows. Though using this method probably has the disadvantage that Bluetooth wouldn't survive sleep mode.


Hopefully this gives some clarity on where to look next if you want to try and enable Bluetooth. It's hardcore hacking, though. For everyone else, Parallels or similar is the way to do it for now.

48 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Oct 18, 2018 1:04 PM in response to WinMacUsr

I haven't seen an option to install Windows on the Early 2015 MacBook 12" in emulated BIOS mode - only in EFI/UEFI.


Try it - when you boot from the Windows setup USB hold the option key and I only see EFI boot. On my other Macs I see 2 options (normal and EFI) for the same disk.


This would explain why Apple only supports Windows 8 or higher on the MacBook 12" - I believe what they have really done is remove support for emulated BIOS, which also removes support for the older operating systems which don't reliably support EFI on Apple hardware.


If that's true then the reason there are no Bluetooth devices in Device Manager is because Bluetooth hasn't been exposed through EFI to Windows yet. What Apple will hopefully be working on is enabling the Bluetooth hardware when booting to Windows, which will probably be available from Apple as a Firmware update and may not even need new drivers.


Or some clever hacker will need to work out the registers to enable the Bluetooth hardware and write a rEFInd/rEFIt script to enable Bluetooth when booting to Windows. Though using this method probably has the disadvantage that Bluetooth wouldn't survive sleep mode.


Hopefully this gives some clarity on where to look next if you want to try and enable Bluetooth. It's hardcore hacking, though. For everyone else, Parallels or similar is the way to do it for now.

Apr 17, 2015 11:02 AM in response to MacBook911

Can you check the version of BC drivers in bootcamp.xml on your USB?


It should look similar to


<?xml version="1.0"?>

<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xml' href='test.xsl'?>

<!--Information on Boot Camp build-->

<BuildInfo BuildNumber="5621"ProductName="Boot Camp">


<MsiInfo>


<ProductManufacturer>Apple Inc.</ProductManufacturer>


<ProductVersion>5.1.5621</ProductVersion>

<ProductCode>{FA2B2C2A-EA41-495A-9308-60726125D562}</ProductCode>

Apr 17, 2015 11:43 AM in response to Loner T

My bootcamp.xml looks like this..


<?xml version="1.0"?>

<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xml' href='test.xsl'?>

<!--Information on Boot Camp build-->

<BuildInfo BuildNumber="5886" ProductName="Boot Camp">

<MsiInfo>

<ProductManufacturer>Apple Inc.</ProductManufacturer>

<ProductVersion>5.1.5886</ProductVersion>

<ProductCode>{FA2B2C2A-EA41-495A-9308-60726125D562}</ProductCode>


By the way how to get latest bootcamp from Apple?

Apr 19, 2015 11:07 AM in response to Nguybao

You can chalk up another one with same problem !! I just got my new MacBook on the 15th and have installed win 8.1 through bootcamp but no bluetooth! In Device manager when I turn on show hidden devices I do see "unknown device" and in device status it says : " The USB device returned an invalid USB BOS descriptor " ...


Also I found the SSD disk read write speed to be very variable in the win 8.1 partition . going from below 100 mbps all the way up to 565 Mbps when tested repeatedly.

On the MAC OS side when using black magic speed test I get around 460 Mbps for write and 770 Mbps for read..


Thanks Loner T for replying to my post about the BT problem and pointing me here 🙂

I spent some time with Apple Care yesterday about this problem. No solution yet.

Bluetooth not seen in Windows

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