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Bluetooth dongle not working (with a twist)

racer

racer

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 23, 2004
43
21
Thessaloniki,Greece
I have the cMP in the signature and got a BCM20702 bluetooth dongle to fix the dragging mouse problem.
Having installed it in one of the usb sockets I ran Bluetooth Explorer to switch over to the new controller.
I select and activate it but it justs defaults back to the internal controller.

I though I'd try the oliverwolfson tip and disconnect the internal controller from the mobo. Did that and on reboot no bluetooth controllers present.
Did pram and smc resets, nothing.

Not sure if this is relevant, but my system doesn't have an airport (wifi) card installed.
(think I read somewhere that this has to be present for alternative bt controllers to work).

Any ideas?
 
Last edited:
Did you plug the USB dongle into one of the native USB 2.0 port?

I use USB BT dongle few years back. I only need to select that once in BT Explorer, no need to disconnect the original card, and it will keep working even after cold reboot.

And I plugged that into the Apple Keyboard's USB port, which is connected to one of the native USB 2.0 port at the back of cMP.
 
h9826790 said:
Did you plug the USB dongle into one of the native USB 2.0 port?

I use USB BT dongle few years back. I only need to select that once in BT Explorer, no need to disconnect the original card, and it will keep working even after cold reboot.

And I plugged that into the Apple Keyboard's USB port, which is connected to one of the native USB 2.0 port at the back of cMP.
Click to expand...

Yes h9826790, I tried plugging it into the Apple Wired keyboard, the front usb and the rear usb. It shows up in BT Explorer but when I hit Activate it asks me for authorization but then the onboard BT is still selected.
 
racer said:
Yes h9826790, I tried plugging it into the Apple Wired keyboard, the front usb and the rear usb. It shows up in BT Explorer but when I hit Activate it asks me for authorization but then the onboard BT is still selected.
Click to expand...

2nd try... is sip disabled? if its installing or modifying a kext, disabling sip is usually required.
 
I did not have to use any tricks to get the USB BT 4.0 I use to be the default. all Ii did was...

1) Turn off bluetooth
2) Plug in USB BT device
3) Restart mac
4) Turn on bluetooth

I verified the addresses of both the internal and USB BT by holding ALT and clicking on the BT icon in the toolbar. warm boots and cold boots both kept the USB BT as default. however, the USB BT device does not get initialized as early as the internal BT so I was not able to access the recovery partition using a wireless keyboard and USB BT.

obviously the method of physically disconnecting the internal BT worked for me also, but I see that as an unnecessary step in my use case

one I am using
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FCK307I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
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skizzo said:
I did not have to use any tricks to get the USB BT 4.0 I use to be the default. all Ii did was...

1) Turn off bluetooth
2) Plug in USB BT device
3) Restart mac
4) Turn on bluetooth

I verified the addresses of both the internal and USB BT by holding ALT and clicking on the BT icon in the toolbar. warm boots and cold boots both kept the USB BT as default. however, the USB BT device does not get initialized as early as the internal BT so I was not able to access the recovery partition using a wireless keyboard and USB BT.

obviously the method of physically disconnecting the internal BT worked for me also, but I see that as an unnecessary step in my use case

one I am using
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FCK307I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Click to expand...

I tried your steps just in case, but no joy.

This is the one I'm using
https://www.amazon.co.uk/iAmotus-Bl...=1549223053&sr=8-2&keywords=iamotus+bluetooth

I did try it on a pc just to make sure it's wasn't doa, worked fine.
 
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As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
skizzo said:
unless I am missing something obvious here, that link says it's not macOS compatible. specifically says "not work with Mac OS", so that would be your issue. it will work fine in a PC or running Windows on the cMP
Click to expand...

Could be, I assumed because it had the Broadcom BCM20702 that it would work.
 
Chances are you could keep jumping through the hoops and get it to work (you were able to at least get BT explorer to recognize it) but that depends on the time and effort you're willing to spend. There are a lot of available options out there. You could find one that is plug and play OOTB for around $10 - $20 and though that is more than the ~$6 you have, In my opinion paying another $10-$20 for that plug and play compatibility is worth it. This looks like you kind of shot yourself in the foot due to the incompatibility with the device and macOS in general
 
skizzo said:
In my opinion paying another $10-$20 for that plug and play compatibility is worth it. T
Click to expand...

Yeah, no question about that. I just didn't research enough, no big deal, and as you point out not worth the effort to pursue this further with so many solutions at hand.

Thanks for the help.
 
I had a similar problem years ago, I solved it editing the firmware of the dongle on a windows machine, something to do with Bluetooth mode, don’t remember. After that all was good, dongle stays the default Bluetooth after reboot, and cold boot
 
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