Bluetooth connectivity issues

This might be Apple's new strategy to have people buy Magic Mouse 2 and new Apple Keyboards. It's amazing to see people falling into this trap. I also ditched my Magic Mouse for Magic Mouse 2. There was no magic! I tried a (cheap) external bluetooth dongle, too. It did not work for me (dropping connections, moments of no sound with airPods, same as the internal bt)

My status with Apple support is, they told me Apple is going to release a fix soon. Now I have macOS 10.14.3

But, my recommendation is return your macmini while you can (first two weeks after purchase) otherwise Apple will make you regret that you didn't act.

I am so disappointed with the BT issues-- I have had to remove most of my USB devices and finally got the mouse to work most of the time. Tonight I tried my EarPods and they work as long as i am less than 2 ft from my computer. If I lean back in my chair or go to the printer a few feet any the connection is lost. I also tried my new Beats Studio headphones and BT works but in a very short space. With my old iMac I could wall around the office with both of these. I have a fully loaded $4000 system that can't run wireless music devices---JUST GREAT.

I can't see how software can fix this. There needs to be a hardware fix.... No comment from Apple. They are better than this

I probably reported this on this thread or another one already, but I managed to fix this hugely frustrating issue. Perhaps my experience can help.

Having purchased a brand new top spec MBP 2018 this January, I ran into the same bluetooth problems as many users report from this current set of hardware. Constant dis- and reconnects, at times every couple of seconds. Basically completely unworkable. Tried all the flushing caches, reinstall OSX, debugs etc to no avail, for days. Department store refuses to take Apple Products back even within the first 2 weeks of purchase, only offering 'repairs'. Utter disaster.

Then, ultimately, I did what I had dreaded doing all along. I completely erased my hard drive, thereby losing 2 full days of work it had cost me to set up my system after transferring and installing my work space by hand (to keep it clean - rather than simply migrate via Time Machine). Then I reinstalled the OSX.

Before doing so I had also purchased and connected a new router capable of 5Ghz networks. Bluetooth uses the 2,4Ghz band, as do most common wireless connections and routers. Those can apparently get crowded therefore. The router wasn't cheap (€150) but I figured it'd be cheaper than a new Apple Keyboard plus Magic Mouse 2 (€250) with the added benefit of an improved wireless connection. Also I refuse to throw expensive peripherals away just coz Apple wants me to buy brand new ones.

Result: I've had no problems ever since, using my old MM and Keyboard happily. The problem drove me literally nuts for a couple of weeks.

(That aside, other problems have appeared I never faced: the Mac has shut itself down on occasion overnight 'because of a problem'. In all the years I've had my MBP Late-2013, this never happened once. It has now happened 4 times already with a brand new MBP 2018. So there you go, Apple.)

@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...)

Zapping the PRam seems to fix the problem for a while for me. I've had to do it a couple of times but my Apple trackpad was unusable otherwise. It kept un/re-connecting every few minutes. Seems to be okay after zapping PRam a couple of times.

I don't think zapping pram is what is fixing it. Clearing PRAM involves rebooting the Mac. That all by itself helps to mitigate the issue as far as I can tell. After a reboot I typically have a da without problems, then Magic Trackpad starts to disconnect every couple of hours and the next days, mouse and keyboard follow.

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.

I have the same bluetooth frustrations with my 2018 Mac Mini running macOS 10.14.3. With no USB 3 devices connected or running nearby, wifi disabled, and our office router only broadcasting a 5Ghz signal, I still periodically lose my bluetooth connections with my Magic Trackpad 2 and/or Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. The issue seems relatively consistent to a high CPU load or the fan spinning up. As of now, my only workaround is keeping the devices wired. I use the machine for work and what I do for a living is time critical to the second. Sudden loss of connectivity can be disastrous for me.

Thank you to all who have posted about this issue so far. I will keep watching this thread for information. I do hope that Apple is reading and working on a solution. It's an unacceptable issue.

What helped me:

Hold Shift+Options, then click on bluetooth menu icon, choose debug > reset and remove all devices, then restart mac. For 2 days i have no issues at all. Btw, i have wifi turned on, but not connected to any network.

A couple messages up thread, I posted about resetting the Bluetooth module. I needed to do that to clear things up mostly. I forgot to mention one other thing I found it necessary to do.

Occasionally the 5GHz signal on my router would disappear and the Mini would connect to the 2.4 GHz signal. Then the drop outs would start happening again. I went into System Preferences > Network and unchecked "Automatically join this network." The problem only happens now if I have to use my iPhone or Verizon mobile hot spot. Then I'm back to the wired world.

Sorry, I would say maybe it is just a matter of time. MacOS 10.14.4 did not help me at all. I kind of feel like it got even worse.

My main problem is with airPods. You never want to listen to anything on your macMini with your airPods. If disconnection of your Magic Mouse is disturbing, a continuously skipping sound in your ears is unbearable. I tried every single thing suggested here, discussed countless hours with 5 different Apple advisers and I am still right at the same point where I started with my in retrospect, ill advised purchase 5 months ago. Apple is satisfied keeping me frustrated and unsatisfied, they won't accept a return.

I have the same problems with my new Mac mini. Magic Mouse and Keyboard are disconnecting every few minutes and reconnect by themselves. AirPods (2nd Gen.) show up but won't connect/ play music at all. It might be related to an external HDD, connected to the USB A port, though. At least, the symptoms are less, when the HDD is physically disconnected. But what is the sense of having a Mac mini with lots of ports, if I can't use them. Really hope, this can be resolved by a software update. But the mini is out now for several month ;-(

I disconnected everything in my office and only had a Mac mini and a monitor and still had Bluetooth issues and a range of about a foot for my AirPods to work. Even when I didn’t move my head the signal to the AirPods would be broke. The keyboard usually works for me since it is close to the Macminin but the mouse disconnects all the time since I move that further away from the Macmini

I have a MM 2018, with 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD and the 3.2 i7 6-core. When I replaced my 2015 5K iMac I retained the keyboard and mouse (full size Apple BT Magic Keyboard and the original AA-battery Magic Mouse.

After a day or so I started getting the dreaded BT issues, the mouse would lose connection, become erratic or just relocate the cursor to random spots. The keyboard also would lose contact but not as often.

I swapped out the KB and mouse with the ones from my wife's iMac and they did the same thing.

I then read forums at MacRumors and elsewhere say that it appeared to be caused by using the outermost USB-A port (Apparently this is on the same bus as the BT module) or interference caused by nearby hard drives or other metal objects.

I had my main TimeMachine hard drive plugged into the outer USB port, my other drive was plugged into a powered hub in the inner USB-A port. I disconnected the drive from the outer port and plugged it into the hub. That seemed to do the trick and the mouse worked much better. I have had less dropouts with the mouse and none with the keyboard.

I then relocated the 2 TimeMachine hard drives to a nest under the desktop and hijacked my Logitech UltraThin mouse from my NUC to the Mac Mini. Since I did that I have had no issues at all. I have been using the outer port for a SuperDrive while I consolidated some old CD and DVD files and had no problems then. Now I use that port for the Lightning cable to charge/sync my iPhone and again no issues.

Has there been any official word from Apple on this issue? I am sure they must have had support calls on this problem.

I tried this and stopped using the outermost USB port. Does not make any difference at all.

I plugged then a USB hub in (passive) and I have the feeling this makes things worse. All of my bluetooth devices are disconnecting at the same time just to reconnect 10 seconds later.

It starts to annoy me more by the day and I'm thinking about getting rid of the MacMini. Problem is that I cannot think of an alternative device.