Bluetooth brings great convenience to our life. It makes your Magic Mouse, wireless keyboard, AirPods, or other wireless devices work well on your Mac. But unexpectedly, your Mac fails to connect to a Bluetooth device this time. Or even more weirdly, the connected wireless device is not responding or working properly all of a sudden.
If you are caught in the Mac Bluetooth not working dilemma and have no way, you can follow this post. This post offers 10 efficient and simple ways to help you fix Bluetooth not working on Mac.
Why is Bluetooth on your Mac not working?
Bluetooth issues often appear after an operating system upgrade. It is one of the common macOS Monterey problems. Besides, the setting errors of Bluetooth, software incompatibility, wireless interference, Bluetooth damage, etc. are also common causes.
Therefore, in general, the system, Bluetooth, outside interference, or connected Bluetooth devices can all be the culprits.
How to fix Mac Bluetooth not working?
Since various reasons are causing Bluetooth failure, no clear signal to lock the real troublemaker. Thus, you need to troubleshoot the Bluetooth issues in detail. Here, we offer 10 methods to help you resolve your Bluetooth that’s not working on Mac.
Restart your Mac
Sometimes, the System occurs temporary bugs or minor errors. And rebooting your Mac is the usual way to fix the glitches and fresh your Mac to the best state.
So, when your Bluetooth doesn’t work, firstly you can restart your Mac (Click the Apple menu > Restart). For more information, please refer to “How to restart or force restart a Mac?”
Get rid of the wireless interferences
If your Bluetooth devices don’t perform stably or consistently, the possible reason is the wireless interferences. For example, your AirPods or other wireless headphones send out audio stutteringly or beep sound.
You can try the following tips to minimize or remove the wireless interferences:
- Put your Bluetooth devices closer to your Mac machine without any material barrier.
- Take the radio and digital equipment and useless wireless machines away from your Mac.
- Unplug the connected USB devices that are not in use from your Mac.
Or you can follow suport.apple.com for more suggestions.
Check the power of your Bluetooth device & restart it
Don’t ignore checking the power of your Bluetooth device. If the Bluetooth device doesn’t have sufficient power, it may work abnormally or won’t start.
According to your scenario, you can charge your Bluetooth equipment for about 15 minutes or change a battery. And then, switch off the power button on the device and back on.
Turn Bluetooth off and on
It is worth mentioning that the temporary glitches in Bluetooth can also lead to Bluetooth being unresponsive. You can disable your Bluetooth and then enable it again.
The operations vary depending on the macOS your Mac running. If your Mac runs macOS Big Sur or later, select the Control Center at the upper right corner of your screen. Next, click Bluetooth to disable it and then enable it again.
If your Mac runs macOS Catalina or earlier, you can reopen Bluetooth in System Preferences (Click the Apple menu > System Preferences > Bluetooth). Or, if you’ve added Bluetooth to the menu bar, you can turn Bluetooth off and then on from there.
Unpair your Bluetooth devices and back re-pair
Perhaps, tiny errors appear when macOS detects and connects your Bluetooth devices, preventing your Bluetooth equipment from being connected successfully. Or, the Bluetooth has already forgotten the Bluetooth devices that have paired a long time ago.
To arouse Bluetooth to reconnect these wireless devices, you can unpair the Bluetooth devices and then repair them.
- Open System Preferences > Bluetooth.
- Select the unresponsive Bluetooth device and click the X icon beside it.
- Click Remove on the pop-up confirmation window.
Then, repeat the above steps on each connected Bluetooth equipment.
Recreate the Bluetooth Property List files on Mac
Each program on a Mac has its properties and configuration settings. This setting information is Property List files (PLIST files) stored in the Preference folder.
It follows then that when these Property List files are corrupted, Bluetooth can’t behave properly. You can consider deleting the properties files and then recreating them to restore the Bluetooth to normal.
Here’s how:
- Launch Finder and navigate to the top Finder menu. Select Go > Go to Folder.
- Type /Library/Preferences/ in the Go to the folder box and click Go.
- Scroll all the files in the Preferences folder to find the Bluetooth. plist files. Usually, they are named as com. apple. Bluetooth. plist or similar.
- Copy the Bluetooth. plist files as a backup to your desktop (for security or possible restoration).
- Select the Bluetooth. plist files and move them to Trash.
After removing the Bluetooth .plis files, you need to restart your Mac. After a restart, your Mac machine will recreate new Bluetooth .plist files. You can check if your Bluetooth works well now.
Reset the Bluetooth module on your Mac
If the above solutions still fail to bring your Bluetooth back to normal, you can reset the Bluetooth module on your Mac. Resetting the Bluetooth module will disconnect all your Bluetooth accessories and then automatically reconnect them.
If your Mac computer runs macOS Monterey, you need to run the command below to reset the Bluetooth module.
- Open Terminal on your Mac (Finder > Applications > the Utilities folder > Terminal).
- Type sudo pkill bluetoothd in Terminal and press Return/Enter.
- Enter your administrator password.
- Close Terminal and restart your Mac.
For some of you who use macOS Big Sur and earlier versions, follow these steps to reset the Bluetooth module on Mac:
- Click the Apple icon > System Preferences > Bluetooth and check in the Show Bluetooth in the menu bar. (If your Bluetooth already shows up in the menu bar, skip this step)
- Press down the Shift + Option key while clicking the Bluetooth at the menu bar.
- Click Reset the Bluetooth module (For macOS Catalina and earlier, you need to click Debug > Reset the Bluetooth module.
Wait for a moment until your Bluetooth devices are reconnected. Then, you can check if the Bluetooth accessories are back on the right track.
Debug Bluetooth connections with other available options in Bluetooth
If resetting the Bluetooth module changes nothing, you can try the other two available options in the Bluetooth control center.
Likewise, press the Shift + Option keys and simultaneously click the Bluetooth icon at the top menu bar (Only available for macOS Big Sur 11 or earlier). You can see three options: Reset the Bluetooth module, Factory reset all connected Apple devices, and Remove all devices.
You can click Remove all devices to disconnect all the connected Bluetooth accessories. And then, reconnect them one by one to find out the culprit that causes all the other Bluetooth devices not to respond. Or, you can click the Factory reset all connected Apple devices option to fix the potential errors in Bluetooth preference settings that cause Bluetooth faulty performance.
Proceed software update
iBoysoft Special Tips:
Many Mac users have reported that their Bluetooth not working when they upgrade to macOS Big Sur or macOS Monterey. If there are any latest software updates available, you can update your Mac to fix the bugs that lead to your Bluetooth not working.
Here’s how:
- Select the Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Updates.
- Click Upgrade Now or Update Now to update your Mac computer and the installed first-party software.
Still not working?
If the above solutions still can’t enable your Bluetooth to connect your Bluetooth device, your Bluetooth equipment may have hardware issues. You can go to a local repair center to fix your damaged Bluetooth device.