Bluetooth mouse not recognized El Capitan

I had that problem with a MS mouse 3600 and my 13" non-retina 2012 MBP. I tried all the software fixes I could find and some of them worked but only for a while. Finally I gave up on the MS mouse and bought a refurb Logitech M557 on eBay for $18. It paired immediately and is working perfectly. Interestingly, my 2015 12" MBA works fine with a MS mouse 3600.

I have the same issue. My Apple mouse keeps disconnecting, it will reconnect but after some delay. This has only started happening since I upgraded to El Capitan. Anyone have any ideas.

I have a brand new MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015). Upgraded to El Capitan. I was able to get the Magic Mouse connected once, but now nothing. Restarted, removed batteries and reset PRAM.

Same issue here - since the upgrade to El Capitan a few days ago, I have to re-pair it every morning when I wake my MB Air up from sleep. It disappears from the list of available devices in the Bluetooth Preferences list. I'm presuming it has something to do with the computer going to sleep, but not sure. It doesn't drop any connection while I'm using it, but it seems like it's losing the pairing info at some point.

Other devices (including 2 other Logitech products, incidentally) still show up in the list. I haven't tried to re-connect those devices yet, so I'm not sure if it's more than the mouse that has a problem. I'll test those over the next few days.

Hi,

I was having the same issue and I found this procedure on https://goo.gl/emTpv5 which worked for me.

1. Delete com.apple.Bluetooth.plist. This file is found at HD/Library/Preferences.
2. Turn off Bluetooth on your Mac. This is done by clicking the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar and selecting ‘Turn Bluetooth Off’.
3. Unplug input-based USB devices (e.g. any USB mice, keyboards, Wacom tablets, etc).
4. Shut down computer. Do *not* restart, but do a full shut down.
5. Turn off your Bluetooth devices.
6. Boot computer.
7. Turn Bluetooth on.
8. Begin pairing devices. This involves clicking: Bluetooth icon in menu bar >> Set up Bluetooth Device >> Select Bluetooth device >> Follow on-screen instructions. In the case of your keyboard, I would suggest pressing the ‘Enter/Return’ button several times after entering the passphrase shown on your screen.

Good luck everyone

Thanks for these instructions.

Did not work for me 😟

Awesome! Finally someone with the answer! Thank you!

This ALMOST worked for me. I have a 2013 27" iMac and I just "upgraded" to El Capitan and now my 2009 wireless keyboard CAN NOT be paired! I tried this method here and nothing. It finds the keyboard and then tell me the pairing was not successful. It was working fine before the upgrade.

It works for me too. But got the same issue again this morning. After booting the bluetooth was not available. I have had some major Craches after installing El Capitan. Machine just reboots. I can see in the error dump, that bluetooth is mentioned.

I have two Mac Book pro's. The newest is one week old and one from last year. The issues are on both of them. No bluetooth available and major crashes.

This procedure eventually worked for me. However, when I removed the .plist file, it re-appeared again shortly thereafter. So, I removed it again and shutdown. Also, even though I disabled Bluetooth altogether, it was enabled after reboot. The thing that seemed to make this finally work for me is the additional step of removing my mouse from bluetooth settings (clicking the "X"). I then followed the procedure again start->finish and was able to get my mouse back. Thanks to jpreginag for the tip and I hope this helps someone else.

I also upgraded my 2009 mac mini to El Capitan. As the update was completed, El Capitan could not find my Apple wireless keyboard and mouse. I saw the fixes above, but that only works when you have a working keyboard - which I did not. (The mac mini doesn't come with a keyboard, so there's not way to start the computer while holding down certain keys.)

BUT here's the info (and below that the link) for accomplishing the same thing for the mac mini --- this can be done even though the mac mini does not yet recognize the bluetooth keyboard.

How to Reset SMC in iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Mini:

Step #1. Turn off your Mac.

Step #2. Disconnect/remove the power cord.

Step #3. Hold down the Mac power button for 5-10 seconds and then release.

Step #4. Attach the power cables and boot normally.

http://www.igeeksblog.com/fix-bluetooth-not-available-error-mac/

I have a Rock Soul Bluetooth Mouse MS-102WSBT and it says that it is only compatible up to Mac OS Yosemite. I have OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

I have been trying to pair for several weeks. The instructions that comes with this mouse are poorly written... I have found a work around and I hope it helps someone.

Here it goes!

HOW TO PAIR:

• Turn off your WIFI on your Mac
• Pair by holding the middle scroll button and right click button simultaneously. The mouse will blink red and blue then it will blink blue.
• It will discover it and pair it
• You should now see the confirmation on the Mouse screen.
• It will also bring up mouse settings for you to customize tracking speed, scrolling speed, etc.
• DONE! 🙂

I have rebooted to make sure the mouse still works and it does!!!

Didn't work for me...on iMac 27 late 2012

I had that problem with a MS mouse 3600 and my 13" non-retina 2012 MBP. I tried all the software fixes I could find and some of them worked but only for a while. Finally I gave up on the MS mouse and bought a refurb Logitech M557 on eBay for $18. It paired immediately and is working perfectly. Interestingly, my 2015 12" MBA works fine with a MS mouse 3600.