Bluetooth unavailable post 10.11.4 upgrade

hi peter , you wrote "When my iMac arrived, I installed without any import of data from an old mac."

So I may conclude that you did not import your old prefs and apps from your older mac - and so , you are working with a new iMac with a entirely fresh / clean system - (that arrived as 10.11.3 and was updated to 10.11.4).

If so - there is no need for me (or you) to do a fresh , new, OSX install on a blank internal disk ....

I imported during installation of the new Mac all my data (as much as possible) from my old Mac (attached via firewire / thunderbolt adapter) - and that an previous Macs have never had a clean system I believe .. I have been upgrading/updating the same OS system forever ... always importing previous data/apps/prefs ...

But you are working with a fresh system - without such automatic import of prefs/apps from an older system/Mac - thus I would conclude the problem is either hardware or 10.11.4

Same here - no BT problem with Mac overnight in Stand-by / Sleep

(Yes I did the same immediate restart by cable mouse many times before to restore BT after power down/switch on)

I have used my previous Mac some 5 years - always in 'sleep-mode' overnight etc - hardly ever did power-down - only when needed or away for vacation.

A 'power outage' is of course a problem - and that happens now perhaps 2x a year here now - and then I check / repair the (internal) disk(s).

Repairing the disk info always worked and only occasionally needed

Because of the new SSD disk , new disk utilty and other Raid disks .. which is all new to me (with disk utility showing untitled/greyed-out disks) ... it took me a while untill I finally understood that at least the internal SSD I have is 1 piece (no Raid) and easy to inspect/repair with disk-utility

So I will have no problem to have my mac stand-by ....

Will check again of course whether the next OSX update solved the BT problem

Indeed Chaël, I transferred nothing from my MacMini.

Today Apple called me, apologizing for the crashing Finder, that I reported by eMail.

Now they asked me - again: at separate partition + naming it "test" + skipping my apple-ID - to do a different Re-Install:

Not booting with Command + R pressed (uses the 0,6 GB recovery partion followed by downloaded Combo update),

but booting with Command + Alt + R (uses a recovery file downloaded by internet followed by Combo update)

I'm not shure if I understood it complete/correct:

- Once you dide upgrade to 10.11.4 recovery partion on yor Mac is freshed up too to 10.11.4 recovery

- Command + Alt + R uses the "old" 10.11.3 recovery, but, as this "pasted by" on my Mac by catching it from Internet. Then Combo-update.

I try Saturday and will report. If the BT-error occurs, the apple-OS-Data-logger (I received an image) will make their engeneers able to investigate.

Peter ,

I’ll try to explain the Reinstall procedure I did on Apple advice :

Before the Reinstall procedure from the internal HD-recovery partition my Mac had 10.11.4

Note that also before the reinstall procedure I had followed the advise of another user in this thread named “theratter” of downloading and installing OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 Combo Update to see if that fixes the problem. I downloaded the “OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 Combo Update” image to my drive , and opened the image and reinstalled the system … which only took something like 5 minutes .. and apparently nothing was touched/changed

Again my Mac still had 10.11.4 …

Next I did the Reinstall MacOSX from the Recovery-HD partition by pressing Command-R while switching power on and waited till the Apple logo appeared … next did choose “Reinstall OSX” and got the response during the procedure that had started that components were downloaded … And when the log-in window appeared , logged in (BT connection was OK) and I checked my system version which was 10.11.4 … surprise 😉

Worthfull to know, that that workaround "restart by cable mouse" runs on your Mac too.

I guess the BT-prob comes when the BT is given over, I mean:

1) during first seconds of coldstart-booting, the board during "EFI" start ( = BIOS on pc) accepts any BT-keyboard/mouse (probably by generic pairing). By this, one can do booting with pressed command + r etc

((( probably, when your collegue next table does cold-start after weekend, you can surprise him 😮, if you press imidiately command + R on your BT-keyboard, when you here his macs start-fanfare )))

2) EFI finished, MAC-OS runs up and BT switches to a specific BT-pairing - now, you cannot type with your BT-keyboard on Mac of your collegue next table, as your BT-devices are bundled to your Mac.

Ok, I know: don't try to understand any Giga-Bytes-heavy OS 😉

In 1 sentence: I guess the BT-prob since 10.11.4 arises when the BT is given over from generic connecting (EFI-state) to pairing (OS-state).

Reinstalling via booting with Command + Alt + R was fine: Finder didn't crash.

First time BT was available, but after 2. cold-start not. I checked >Over this mac >System report > software >protocol-data and found:

"09.04.2016, 16:45:52 IOBluetoothUSBDFUTool[181]: Could not get IOBluetoothUSBDFU service"

At least the workaround with restart by cable-mouse works and then BT is fine. Then I found:

09.04.2016, 17:00:24 kernel[0]: IOBluetoothUSBDFU::probe

09.04.2016, 17:00:24 kernel[0]: IOBluetoothUSBDFU::probe skip Bluetooth automatic firmware update

09.04.2016, 17:00:24 kernel[0]: **** [BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport][RequireFirmwareUpdate] -- BLUETOOTH_MODULE_REQUIRES_FIRMWARE_UPDATE() returned true and SkipBluetoothAutomaticFirmwareUpdate is set -- pid = 0x8294, version = 0x0114 -- this = 0x8000 ****

09.04.2016, 17:00:24 kernel[0]: **** [IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport][start] -- completed -- result = TRUE -- 0x8000 ****

09.04.2016, 17:00:24 kernel[0]: **** [BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport][start] -- Completed (matched on Device) -- 0x8000 ****

09.04.2016, 17:00:24 kernel[0]: [IOBluetoothFamily][staticBluetoothTransportShowsUp] -- Received Bluetooth Controller register service notification -- 0x8000

09.04.2016, 17:00:24 kernel[0]: [IOBluetoothHostController][start] -- completed

09.04.2016, 17:00:24 kernel[0]: **** [BroadcomBluetoothHostController][SetupController] -- Delay HCI Reset by 300ms ****

I'm no expert, but maybe there is an BT-FW-update required, but skipped ?

Next days no time to deal with apple-OS-data-logger, but I hope, the mailed information to apple is enough to fix our problem.

Ahhh - in German Mac-User forum I found same prob. - and recommended solution, that seams to have helped on my iMac:

Reboot with pressed Cmd + Alt + P + R till second start-sound.

That is a PRAM reset - described by Apple as :

Resetting NVRAM

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R.
3. Turn on your Mac.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
5. Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
6. Release the keys.

After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.

If issues related to these features continue on a desktop Mac (like an iMac, Mac mini or Mac Pro), its logic board battery may need to be replaced. The logic board battery on desktop computers helps retain NVRAM settings when your Mac is unplugged. You can take your Mac to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider to replace the battery on the logic board.

link How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

??? What do you mean Peter saying "that seams to have helped on my iMac.."

After that NVRAM-reset BT seems to be fine, including after coldstart.

I'm wondering, cause tryed 2 weeks ago already, but I remember a missing 2. start sound, mayby I did that multi-keypressing wrong!

Promising - Works for me too. Thanks Peter

---- PM intermezzo : status before the NVRAM-reset

Over the past days had my Mac when not used in sleep-mode , with BT OK.

Now before I tried this NVRAM-reset I first did a restart and at login again had no Bluetooth connection. Also after shutdown en switch on - same old story : had to plug in trackpad to press 'restart' at the bottom of the login screen. Next unplugging trackpad is fine and bluetooth OK ... as long as the Mac is not restarted again

----

Next tonight did the NVRAM-reset. Then Bluetooth was present at all times at start-up after various tests: after a restart , after shutdown/switch on Mac , and again after shutdown Mac plus removing power for 20 minutes from Mac (switch-off power socket)

Will let you know when the Bluetooth issue recurs ...

For now all seems fine

Good news, Chael and good morning from Europe!

My question: Before that BT-prob, did you suffer von any power-broke? I had an interruption of power by maintance outside my home.

According to Internet, that sometimes cause NV-RAM-probs on Mac.

hi Peter ,

That power interruption you mentioned you had yourself : was that while your Mac was operational (that is : running or standby) ?

As to my experience : I had had no power interruption while the Mac was on.

However , my Mac had been disconnected from power for 2 weeks because of vacation , and when I returned home , and switched on the power socket , and next the Mac , I immediately checked for updates and found that 10.11.4 update waiting , which I started right away.

Latest info : I did another check 2 days ago : I disconnected my Mac from power all night .. with no bluetooth problems the next morning .. switching the Mac on again.

So , the BT problem appears to be solved ... not sure of course whether it was just the PRAM reset that solved it , because of all the other things we did ..

Yes Chael, everything is still fine.

By the way: When start-sound appers I tried to execute Command + R or ALT using a "wrong" BT-keyboard: The iMac doesn't accecpt unknown BT-Devices.

In German we have the saying: "It seems to be cristally clear, but it is utterly wrong" - so forget my theory about generic BT during booting

@NDalby: What's about your flickring iMac?

Loading bar flickering still present on mine, still liaising with support engineers in Texas and Ireland but most likely issue won't be resolved until the next OS X update. System performance is unaffected with the issue, so it's not hardware related.

Bluetooth still rock solid stable since clean install after hard drive format, so at least I don't have the daily plist / NVRAM reset to complete.