Bluetooth devices connect and disconnect at random

I have made *some* progress on the issue. As I mentioned in my previous post, USB 3 devices are known to interfere with other wireless devices. So I added a long shielded extension to the the USB 3 port I was using to get the my 3.0 hub farther away from the mini. I switched to USB hub with an external power supply. I took advantage of the USB 3.0 hub in my monitor (connected via thunderbolt). Finally, I moved the mini away from other nearby devices. All this made a significant improvement in bluetooth performance. Not sure which was the critical change since I did this all at once as part of reorganizing all of my USB devices. While not perfect, my Magic Mouse tracks much better, the keyboard works reliably and the mini usually unlocks with my watch. All of these functions were significantly degraded prior to these changes. Of course YMMV.

I think the underlying problem is that there are limited locations within the mini to put the bluetooth antenna and there are a lot more high frequency connections (i.e. fast I/O ports) that might produce interference than previous mini's.

the issue is resolved now, I take back my comment about apple only cares about IOS.

I am not sure safe mode was the fix but it sent me down a different route to fix the issue

I checked the library for my login

library, application support

The Android File Transfer program and Samsung kies programs were loading from an Android phone I tried

the system library, frameworks had some frameworks from an One1 RAW converter I tried and removed from applications

cleaning out those items and seems to have resolved the bluetooth disconnects

My late 2015 Imac 5K was working fine for Bluetooth until the Mojave update. Or downgrade that is.

Now the Bluetooth devices drop regularly, especially coming out of sleep. But they just disconnect when using the system.

This could possibly be interference with the 2.4 Ghz WiFi. I disabled 2.4 Ghz on the router as all devices can use 5 Ghz.

waiting to see if this resolves issue.

JimHardy wrote:

Ranting? Hardly. I just noted that the advice I'd received from Apple Support had been 'less than useful.'

What do you call "Then I called Apple Support for some less than useful advice."?

Good luck on your quest.

Exact same issue here on iMac 5K. A lot of people have this problem which is unacceptable. Even worse there e is no solution. Spend over 100K on Apple stuff since 1987 but this is the craziest thing I ever encountered.

I have a 2018 Mac mini with similar problems. I have seen many reports of bluetooth problems with the new Mac minis probably because of the proximity of bluetooth with USB 3 devices (a known interference problem).

I tried the above command with an attached USB bluetooth dongle followed by a reboot and there is no change in behavior. I have the bluetooth dongle at the end of a long USB extension far away from any other peripherals but very close to my mouse and keyboard. Is there some way to tell witch bluetooth device is actually in use?

More info: When I plug in the USB dongle the system appears to switch to it and bluetooth works fine. However when I reboot it goes back to its disconnecting behavior and not tracking until I unplug and plug in the dongle. This is not an acceptable situation (to replug the dongle on every reboot). So I am looking for a suggestion to force the OS to use the dongle over the internal hardware. (BTW: I confirmed the nvram option was set properly via 'nvram -p')

I just saw your post, after putting up a new post with the exact same issue. This is really frustrating, as Apple are saying it must be software, despite the fact I have taken my Mac back to a fresh OS and replicated the issue. It just didn't misbehave for the small amount of time they must have watched the screen in their workshop. My wife is having the same issue on her machine, yet my old iMac is perfect. It is starting to turn me away from Apple products, as this is not the quality (or service) I expect from a premium product.

With all of the people saying they have this same issue, how many are officially reporting to Apple? The two different techs I talked to calmed I was the first to call in about it? He was shocked that I did all the steps he suggested already. Will this be a class action suite that causes Apple to have another "we will finally fix..." campaign?

The Bluetooth device disconnects appear to be a Mac OS 10.14 feature or bug.

disabling the 2.4 Ghz Wifi did not help

disconnect of Bluetooth mouse, keyboard, and trackpad keeps happening. this is especially true coming of of sleep.

we can only hope Apple will finally start paying some attention to Mac OS. It seems all they care about is IOS.

I have absolutely reported my issues and assume others have as well.