Dead Apple A1016 Bluetooth Keyboard. Is there a way to revive it?

[TechAndOSWorld]

The title might be a bit misleading, but let me explain.

Two months ago, a friend of mine gave me an Apple A1016 keyboard, that he got for 5€. I couldn't pair it with anything at first, but I soon found out that I have to type in a "secret" PIN (0000 in my case), before I enter the pairing code. After that, it worked for a while, but it later started disconnecting randomly. Only few times a day at first, then every few seconds, and now it doesn't connect to anything at all. The keyboard still powers on, and shows up as visible, but that's it. Paired devices fail to connect, and new devices can't pair with it either.

When I click "Connect" in System Preferences, I get a 6-digit code. But when I type it on the keyboard, nothing happens, and macOS just times out. Same with blueutil. It doesn't register any input, and then it fails with "LMP Response Timeout". All the required keys work, so the problem probably lies somewhere else. I tried pairing it with multiple Macs running different versions of macOS (from Yosemite to Catalina), and I also tried pairing it with my phone running Android 12. None of them were able to pair.

Is there a way to find out what's actually wrong with the keyboard? or is it only gonna stay useful as a decoration...

This is as far as I can get.

 

[Slartibart]

the obvious: you tried using fresh batteries? Or actually checked the voltage delivered by the current ones?

 

[TechAndOSWorld]

the obvious: you tried using fresh batteries? Or actually checked the voltage delivered by the current ones?

I use rechargeable NiMH batteries with all my peripherals. But yeah, I also tried fresh alkaline batteries as well

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Open port surgery?

 

[TechAndOSWorld]

Open port surgery?

I'm not sure what you mean by that

 

[Fishrrman]

Might be time to start looking for a nice 3rd-party replacement...

 

[TechAndOSWorld]

Might be time to start looking for a nice 3rd-party replacement...

sorry, that's not gonna happen. I want to fix what I already have, even if I don't need it. (I use an Apple A1243 keyboard with my main setup, and I'm not looking for a replacement)

 

[jwdev]

I upgraded to a MacMini M1 (macOS 12.5) and had this same issue. I was able to get it working and am typing this on my A1016... here's what I did:

run terminal:
<install homebrew if you don't already have it>
$ brew install blueutil
$ sudo BLUEUTIL_ALLOW_ROOT=1 blueutil --inquiry
2022-08-09 16:30:44.922 blueutil[4045:212574] -[IOBluetoothDeviceInquiry initWithDelegate:] - ...
address: 00-01-02-03-04-05, not connected, not favourite, not paired, name: "Apple Wireless Keyboard", recent access date: 2022-08-09 21:31:32 +0000
2022-08-09 16:31:32.798 blueutil[4045:212574] -[IOBluetoothDeviceInquiry dealloc] - ...

it was a little tricky getting the mac address of the keyboard, while running inquiry I tried connecting the keyboard via the bluetooth settings but it wouldn't log the mac address to the terminal, then I tried with sudo and finally it printed the address!

$ blueutil --pair 00-01-02-03-04-05 0000
Input pin 0000 on "Apple Wireless Keyboard" (00-01-02-03-04-05)
2022-08-09 16:32:13.914 blueutil[4058:213085] IOBluetoothDevicePair BluetoothHCIPINCodeRequestReply - ...
2022-08-09 16:32:14.563 blueutil[4058:213086] -[IOBluetoothDevicePair peerPairingCompleted:withError:]: Calling connectionComplete on IOBluetoothDevicePair. Status: 0

once I had the mac address of the keyboard, I ran pair, typed 0000 + enter (on the A1016) and it worked.

It would be nice if someone at Apple would fix the bug... I noticed that if I clicked "connect" on the bluetooth settings page and then some random number and hit enter on the keyboard it flashes a dialog box that shows the pin and then says "passkey mismatch". Anyway, hope this helps!

 

[TechAndOSWorld]

I upgraded to a MacMini M1 (macOS 12.5) and had this same issue. I was able to get it working and am typing this on my A1016... here's what I did:

run terminal:
<install homebrew if you don't already have it>
$ brew install blueutil
$ sudo BLUEUTIL_ALLOW_ROOT=1 blueutil --inquiry
2022-08-09 16:30:44.922 blueutil[4045:212574] -[IOBluetoothDeviceInquiry initWithDelegate:] - ...
address: 00-01-02-03-04-05, not connected, not favourite, not paired, name: "Apple Wireless Keyboard", recent access date: 2022-08-09 21:31:32 +0000
2022-08-09 16:31:32.798 blueutil[4045:212574] -[IOBluetoothDeviceInquiry dealloc] - ...

it was a little tricky getting the mac address of the keyboard, while running inquiry I tried connecting the keyboard via the bluetooth settings but it wouldn't log the mac address to the terminal, then I tried with sudo and finally it printed the address!

$ blueutil --pair 00-01-02-03-04-05 0000
Input pin 0000 on "Apple Wireless Keyboard" (00-01-02-03-04-05)
2022-08-09 16:32:13.914 blueutil[4058:213085] IOBluetoothDevicePair BluetoothHCIPINCodeRequestReply - ...
2022-08-09 16:32:14.563 blueutil[4058:213086] -[IOBluetoothDevicePair peerPairingCompleted:withError:]: Calling connectionComplete on IOBluetoothDevicePair. Status: 0

once I had the mac address of the keyboard, I ran pair, typed 0000 + enter (on the A1016) and it worked.

It would be nice if someone at Apple would fix the bug... I noticed that if I clicked "connect" on the bluetooth settings page and then some random number and hit enter on the keyboard it flashes a dialog box that shows the pin and then says "passkey mismatch". Anyway, hope this helps!

does the BLUEUTIL_ALLOW_ROOT=1 command do something special? cause I already tried blueutil on multiple Macs (see attachments in original post), and it didn't work.
I read something about Monterey not wanting to pair with A1016s, but the computer I want to pair it with runs Catalina, and as I said, it used to work there.