Level 1

5 points

Bluetooth not available on Mac

Hi All,

After the upgrade to High Sierra a couple of weeks ago I started seeing an issue with Bluetooth availability. When the system is rebooted, Bluetooth comes up without any issues and everything is functional. After some time though, the bluetooth function on the Mac reports 'Not Available'. This happens at random (better said, I can't see a patern.. ), when actively working with the bluetooth trackpad. One second it works, the next it doesn't.

When that happens I need to connect a wired mouse to check details, but the only 'fix' is rebooting the system. Tried removing the plist for bluetooth and SMC reset as well, but so far the issue keeps coming back. Sometimes within hours after a reboot, other times a few day or even weeks before it re-appears.

I have not observed this issue when running on Sierra. This started after the upgrade to High Sierra.

This is happening on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015). I have other macs on the same release not showing this issue.

Any suggestions how to fix this, as this is annoying, esp. when working toward a deadline and having to reboot the machine to get the functionality of the trackpad back..

Tx, G.

[Re-Titled by Host]

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13)

Posted on Nov 7, 2017 3:41 AM

Top-ranking reply

fadedafofficial

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Feb 9, 2018 6:05 AM

Jan 6, 2018 11:40 AM Re: bluetooth not available - High Sierrain response to DJCHR

The following workaround is working for me:

System Preference -> General -> Deselect "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud services".

Then restart compute.

This worked for me! Thank you for your response!

View in context

83 replies

Sep 27, 2018 7:52 AM in response to Marksoffie

No, the problem sitll persists in Mojave.

jlzhou

Level 1

4 points

Oct 18, 2018 2:21 AM in response to tezhou

Same issue, I had changed the entire laptop mainboard, bluetooth module in local Apple Store, re-installed macOS by erasing disk, but this issue was not been fixed as expected.

jlzhou

Level 1

4 points

Oct 18, 2018 2:24 AM in response to tezhou

I will try this.

Oct 24, 2018 1:46 AM in response to BBQfromMARS

Hey BBQfromMARS,

just mention the bug report (39795253), it's our case of this bluetooth malfunctioning saga. Probably they can look through the bug details on their end.

Oct 24, 2018 2:07 AM in response to hail to the thief

... or ignore us completely like they have done so far 😠

Adrian M

Level 1

81 points

Jan 30, 2018 10:58 PM in response to mmbmha

Yes, this the annoying thing for me.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015, macOS 10.13.3

Started happening in the last couple of days, but not for months before that.

Reboot is usually quicker than all the quack remedies described here that don't really solve the problem.

Nov 27, 2018 12:20 PM in response to grimmrper

After trying everything that was suggested in this forum (delete plist, reset SMC/NVRAM, etc.) I finally found a solution for me that so far did not give me any Bluetooth malfunction.

I connected an external USB Bluetooth adapter and I disabled the built-in Bluetooth controller using the following terminal command:

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior="always"

(more info here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/94402/force-os-x-to-use-bluetooth-dong le-instead-of-built-in-controller)

After restarting the Mac, the external Bluetooth adapter took over (it blinks irregularly). The mouse and keyboard had to be paired again, which is described here:

Set up your Apple wireless mouse, keyboard, and trackpad - Apple Support

So far, everything works perfectly fine.

System Info:

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)

macOS Mojave 10.14.1 (18B75)

Previously, Bluetooth crashed multiple times per day. With the external adapter I am now on the third day without any crash.

cjuca

Level 1

12 points

Aug 13, 2018 4:03 AM in response to britineya

Hi britineya, finally I was able to solve the problem reinstalled the macOS Sierra.

- restart your mac pressing R+Comand and choose Reinstalling mac OS.

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Bluetooth not available on Mac