Bluetooth connectivity issues

I had Bluetooth issues with my new MacMini 2018 from the beginning. The new KB was mostly OK (occasional disconnect, but rarely) and the new Magic Trackpad 2 was mostly OK (occasional disconnect; more frequent than the KB, but not by much). However, my older Magic Mouse was unusable. It was constantly disconnecting and reconnecting, and was really jittery when it was connected. It was worse when an external drive (USB-3) was hooked up and in operation.

I tried all the usual things - securing the batteries, deleting the mouse preferences, etc. Some of those things would work for a few minutes but then the problem would come back. Finally I started thinking about my WiFi router. It's a pretty old Airport Extreme, single band, on 2.4GHz. I've been wanting to upgrade it anyway, so I got a new (non-Apple) dual band router and hooked it up.

End of Bluetooth problems. As long as I'm signed in to the 5GHz network, all devices work flawlessly. If I switch to the new router's 2.4 GHz band, it works OK for a while but soon starts to degrade again.

This is not intuitive. What does the Wifi band have to do with Bluetooth devices? Well, it's above my pay grade, but I do know that USB-3 works on 2.4 GHz, so somehow the Wifi using that band messes up some BT connections. Regardless of why, this solution worked for me. AFAIK most routers are dual band these days so you probably don't even need to buy a new one. Just make sure you have a network on 5GHz and use that.

At first, switching to 5GHz on my router did not solve my problem. I had to reset the Bluetooth module.

If you don't already have the Bluetooth icon in your menu bar, go into System Preferences > Bluetooth and turn that option on.

Next, option-shift-click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar.

Highlight Debug.

Click on Reset the Bluetooth module.

As long as I am on 5G I don't have the problem any longer. Apple should include this information in documentation that comes with the Mini2018.

Update: I just plugged in a Broadcom USB Bluetooth dongle, and used the bluetooth explorer app for xtools to force MacOS to use the USB dongle over the internal bluetooth. All issues solved. I can now use my magic trackpad on the other side of the office (if I wanted to) and the Bose speaker connects without hassle now.

I just got off the phone with Apple Support and the rep told me that they are aware of this issue and to expect a fix for it in the next macOS release. I am currently running 10.14.2

One interesting note: I was also told that this bluetooth issue does not occur when the wifi is turned off. Is everyone else who is seeing this issue, also using the wifi connection?

Since I am currently using wifi to connect to the internet, I plan to run a hardwired ethernet cable to my mini as a work-around. Keeping my fingers crossed that it is not a waste of time.

Aha! Found the problem, using other groups and what I'm doing. Yes, there is a hardware problem. The USB ports on the mini are underpowered, and when too much power is pulled it also drags down the Bluetooth module. The fix appears to avoid USB ports farther away from the HDMI port, and for best effect get a powered USB hub or run USB adappters off the Lightning ports.

In my case, I have a hard drive running off the USB port, which is where my movies are coming from. This drains power from the Bluetooth.

It's not the Bluetooth, exactly, it's the power supply which is shared between the USB and the Bluetooth. There's not enough oomph to keep everything running, since USB and Bluetooth seems to share. Suck out enough power to run the USB, and the Bluetooth module goes wonky, resetting when the power drops too low. I put in a powered USB hub (to one of the USB ports) and everything works great now. Is it a flaw? Yeah. Fatal? No, just annoying. Powered USB hubs are pretty common in all personal computers.

Again, please make sure you have NOTHING plugged into the USB. Apparently there isn't enough power to run both the USB and the Bluetooth at the same time. I fixed my problem with a powered USB hub, and the Bluetooth works fine now.

Remember that some wireless keyboards and mice are NOT Bluetooth, but operate in the WiFi 2.4GHz band and will interfere. I have an ancient CenturyLink router with only 2.4GHz WiFi, but I don't want to switch after working for months to get them to fix it... :-)

Switching off wifi and using hardwired ethernet resolved the bluetooth issue for me, at least until Apple fixes problem in 10.14.3. Received tip from Apple Support. See related posts under title "Wireless trackpad and keyboard disconnect frequently from the new Mini"

Unplug all non-Apple USB cables, adapter, hub, speakers, keyborad ... what ever, and see if the problem goes away. If so, add each one back to identify the one that is causing the problem. The best way to problem-shoot the BT problem is to use unlock with Apple Watch feature because this allows you to test the BT very quickly and reproducibly.

Hi, ukwoodgnome !

Given this entire thread is testament to this article :

Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference

I would like to know : why do you believe this is an Apple problem? Given that Apple is aware of the problem to the point of cranking out a help article to deal with problems Apple did not create, why do you believe Apple is being silent?

It has been well documented in this thread alone the vast majority of Mac bluetooth and WiFi issues are being caused by unshielded cables not manufactured by Apple. By your own words, switching out your Mac Mini didn't really improve your situation. Logic dictates if the problem was not in your Mac Mini, it needs be the problem lies in your environment. If the problem lies in your environment, why does Apple have to provide the fix? Why is it so hard to believe the problem is not in your Mac, but in the unshielded cables of your peripherals?

The first step to solving your particular problem would be unplugging every non-power cable from your Mini, then every Mac and adapter within 30 feet of your Mac Mini, then plugging the cables back in, one at a time, until your interference problem re-appears. Until you perform this step, you cannot say one way or another what is causing your particular problem let alone claim it is a design flaw inherent in Mac Minis.

Good luck !

"I had it repaired, nothing has improved. Apple replaced the logic board (they say they could not reproduce the problem, but as a possible solution replaced the logic board.)"

Indeed if you follow the discussion here, you would see that the problems may be outside your Mac. Have you systematically examined your wifi router and all USB-3 devices? Hardwares incompatibility is not uncommon. Just because your old Macs works with those 3rd party peripherals does not mean a brand new computer came out a few months ago will be backward compatible with older (sometimes cheap) third party devices.

Apple also offered to "repaire" my Mac but I decided to wait it out in case the problem is not inside the computer as Macs generally are very reliable. It turned out that all my BT problems were caused by a single USB-3 hub that costed $10.

I bought my Mac mini in December 2018 and have been struggling with connecting my Apple Keyboard and Magic Trackpad ever since.

This week I was struggling with another annoying problem in Final Cut Pro so I erased my hard disk and installed a clean version of OSX 10.14.3 and that seems to have solved the bluetooth problem.

Important to mention that I tried a re-install of OSX earlier, but then I didn't erase the disk and just installed a fresh version with keeping my data intact. It's a pretty ****** solution, because now I'll need a day to reinstall everything and hope for a Final Cut Pro fix, because that problem isn't solved yet. But anyhow, bluetooth seems to work flawlessly now.

@MKberlin, that's all it took for me to resolve the problem with my 2018 Mac Mini; I just installed a new router and connected to a 5GHz network. ALL Bluetooth and Wifi connectivity problems vanished immediately. (I reported that here a couple of months ago.)

Happily for me, I did that before going through all the trouble of reinstalling the OS. I've had no problems at all ever since. I don't get the random shutdowns you get. (Unrelated: I do experience the "wake from sleep" problem on my 2017 MBP, but that's for another thread...)

I’ve been working on this issue all day. Turns out after doing all the resetting and removing of devices etc, the thing that has worked for more than an hour was changing WiFi router to use 5Ghz only frequency. Might be too soon the open the champagne, but it’s the best it’s been.

As I reported last time I was having intermittent connection/disconnection issues with my Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad. I had another issue that may be related to the BT that is the auto-unlock feature by Apple Watch. This worked for me only once but most of the time it did not work until today I found that this is caused by an USB-3 hub that is plugged into one of the two USB-3 ports. This hub is powered by a power adapter however so this is not a peer drainage issue.  If I unplug the hub and plug in each device individually into the Mac, no problem. This hub is made by: Sabrent as seen here on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TPMEOYM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The second USB port on my Mac is connected to an external HD that is not itself powered, but whether this is plugged in does not interfere with Apple Watch functions.

Thus if you are having any BT related problems, check any non-Apple devices that are plugged into your USB ports. So far my keyboard and trackpad are working fine. Will see if the USB was the issue that also affected these two other BT devices.