Late 2009 iMac: Bluetooth no longer in System Preferences

[HawaiiMacAddict]

Aloha everyone,

I don't know if I'm in the very small majority, but I installed Mountain Lion on my late 2009 iMac this morning and experienced what I consider to be a huge issue. After the reboot, I could only use my magic trackpad as a simple one-button mouse. The Bluetooth icon in the menu bar reported that Bluetooth was not available, and the Bluetooth section in System Preferences is no longer there. Short of a "nuke and pave", what should I do?

I'm at work now and my iMac is at home, so I'll tackle this once I go home. I was thinking that a simple reboot may do the trick, but I can't figure out why the Bluetooth section would simply not be in System Preferences anymore. It's not as if I intentionally deleted it. What's more puzzling is that I know I have Bluetooth connectivity - after all, I use a Bluetooth keyboard and magic trackpad with my iMac. I would appreciate any ideas, suggestions, etc... from the community here at large. I really don't want to do a "nuke and pave".

 

[pamartel]

I got the same issue

Any idea????

 

[daneoni]

Probably a corrupt plist.

Go to /HDD/Library/Preference an delete (move to trash) any and all files called com.apple.Bluetooth.plist, com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.lockfile and com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig

Don't empty you trash though incase you still need them

Restart your Mac and see if it fixes it

Also try repairing permissions.

 

[ugp]

I did not encounter this problem. Mine is present.

 

[mmomega]

It seems to be working just fine on my wife's late '09 iMac.

 

[Exotic-Car Man]

ML vs. Lion System Prefs

It seems to be working just fine on my wife's late '09 iMac.

Thanks to your screenshot, I was able to create a Mountain Lion vs. Lion System Preferences. ML is on the left; Lion is on the right.

 

[HawaiiMacAddict]

Probably a corrupt plist.

Go to /HDD/Library/Preference an delete (move to trash) any and all files called com.apple.Bluetooth.plist, com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.lockfile and com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig

Don't empty you trash though incase you still need them

Restart your Mac and see if it fixes it

Also try repairing permissions.

Thanks much daneoni! That did the trick (the first thing - I haven't yet repaired permissions). I can now use gestures again! I actually forgot about CTL-click for the right-click context menu for a while. D'oh! Anyway, thanks again for the tip.

 

[KwaiChangCaine]

same problem

Probably a corrupt plist.

Go to /HDD/Library/Preference an delete (move to trash) any and all files called com.apple.Bluetooth.plist, com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.lockfile and com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig

Don't empty you trash though incase you still need them

Restart your Mac and see if it fixes it

Also try repairing permissions.

I dont have the com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig on my preference folder
thanks

 

[daneoni]

I dont have the com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig on my preference folder
thanks

You don't have to have all three...