MP 7,1 Mac Pro 7,1 Bluetooth issues

[Somian]

Hi,

Every few days, my Bluetooth drops out and my apple keyboard and Magic Mouse and trackpad stop working. In the menubar, it still shows as active.

Sometimes, the trackpad also gets very unresponsive. Or the keyboard repeats keystrokes (like when I press ⌘ + T in safari and then it opens 500 tabs until I turn bluetooth off)

In either case, I need to restart bluetooth. I also tried deleting the bluetooth plists but I feel like that's only a temporary remedy, if not only a placebo, and I'm quickly back to having those issues again.

I have my Logitech MX master connected via a dongle instead of Bluetooth so I can turn that off when I need to (it's also more responsive).

But what are users supposed to do that just use the keyboard/mouse that came with the computer when Bluetooth breaks?

It's also super annoying and I'm wondering if there's a fix for this. The stuff mentioned above happens an average of once every day.

 

[dominicperry]

The 7.1 Mac Pro isn't known for BT issues the way the MacMini or some M1 Macs are. But the Logitech MX comes up a lot in BT discussions when there are problems.
One thing that is worth checking is how many devices you have on 2.4GHz WiFi - because that is the same frequency as BT. If you can move some devices (the MP) to wired Ethernet and move some others to 5GHz, that may remove some of the contention.

 

[astrorider]

The position or cables of USB 3 devices is another common source of interference that causes flaky bluetooth connections: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201542

 

[chadcole26]

I've had this problem with my Mac Pro from the day I got it a couple months ago. Magic Keyboard and Mouse would disconnect multiple times each day. I gave up trying to fix it after non-stop trouble shooting during the first week and just connected my keyboard and trackpad via USB and gave up on the Magic Mouse. Desk/office setup is identical to the way I've had it set up for 2 years and didn't have issues like this with the Mac Mini and/or iMac Pro that I've also used on the same desk in the same office with all the same peripherals in all the same places. I've read posts where other people experiencing this had to have their BT module replaced. So, it doesn't sound like an "uncommon" issue with the 7.1 Mac Pro.

 

[chadcole26]

I may have stumbled upon an issue/solution.

I realized late yesterday I had been using my mouse for several days and it had not lost connection. Because of my previous issues with this, I've been using a trackpad for quite a while now. I had inadvertently grabbed the mouse earlier this week and never thought twice about it since it was working like it's supposed to. I figured maybe Apple had finally "fixed" this issue in some recent update.

Here's the thing, because of the issues I'd been having, the trackpad is connected to my MacPro 24/7 with USB/Lightning cable. When my mouse would disconnect, I could quickly jump to the trackpad, which never disconnected because it was physically connected to the Mac Pro. My keyboard has also been connected 24/7 for quite some time. I had plugged it in to charge at some point and just never unplugged it.

So, after work last night I unplugged the keyboard and charged the mouse.

This morning. I unplugged the mouse and started using it, but I DID NOT plug the keyboard back in. Lo and behold, within an hour the keyboard and mouse both disconnected and I was forced to use the track pad (plugged in) to continue working until the bluetooth connection to the other devices restored, which took about a minute.

This got me thinking...and I think there's a communication issue when the keyboard and mouse are BOTH connected using just bluetooth.

I've plugged the keyboard back in and haven't had any further issues with the mouse disconnecting.

 

[chadcole26]

Nope. Did stumble upon a solution. The Magic Mouse bluetooth disconnect still occurs an unexpected time when the keyboard and trackpad are plugged in, but it does happen less often than when everything is using bluetooth.