MBP keeps connecting to mysterious, nameless, not-paired Bluetooth device?

[Marty_Macfly]

Well, if the mouse does not disconnect under Windows installed through bootcamp, that would prove there is no hardware problem. So I installed Windows 10 through bootcamp, and I am actually writing this post in Microsoft Edge on my MacBook pro. ;-) So far the mouse did not disconnect, but of course it's too soon to draw any conclusion.

Hi g,

Thats the benefits of having an Intel Mac


That’s the idea!

hope this gives a definitive response one way or the other

Best wishes
Martin

 

[galmiklos]

Not really. Especially, that there has been no mouse disconnect under Windows still. So, the hardware is OK, right?

But then, what is broken?

BTW, my son is just back from college for the week end, and his MacBook Pro 13" (with same macOS as mine) with a Magic Mouse 2 is not disconnecting. Actually, we switched mice, and my mouse works perfectly with his MB, but his mouse keeps disconnecting with my MB (when macOS is running). When Windows is running on my MB, both mice are OK.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Not really. Especially, that there has been no mouse disconnect under Windows still. So, the hardware is OK, right?

But then, what is broken?

BTW, my son is just back from college for the week end, and his MacBook Pro 13" (with same macOS as mine) with a Magic Mouse 2 is not disconnecting. Actually, we switched mice, and my mouse works perfectly with his MB, but his mouse keeps disconnecting with my MB (when macOS is running). When Windows is running on my MB, both mice are OK.

hi G,

Sounds like you’re right cheesed off with all of this

Suggest keeping it on Windows for at least another day, to make sure that the mouse is definitely not disconnecting on Bluetooth.

If it doesn’t disconnect when using Windows, that is actually a good sign. It means that the expensive hardware you bought is not broken.

Its then a case of getting a working version of macOS on it.

A version of back to square one, but in a good way!

Best wishes
Martin

 

[galmiklos]

I tried something else. I installed a fresh copy of Big Sur 11.2.2 (11.2.1 and upgraded to 11.2.2 immediately), but did not log in to iCloud.

So far I had no mouse disconnect. Let's see how long it lasts.

 

[galmiklos]

I worked all day on my MBP, and there was no mouse disconnect. I then logged in to iCloud, and within an hour my mouse disconnected.

So, we can safely say the mysterious BT devices popping up and causing the BT mouse disconnect when logged in to iCloud indicates, that iCloud SUCKS!

I feel hopeless. :-(

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I worked all day on my MBP, and there was no mouse disconnect. I then logged in to iCloud, and within an hour my mouse disconnected.

So, we can safely say the mysterious BT devices popping up and causing the BT mouse disconnect when logged in to iCloud indicates, that iCloud SUCKS!

I feel hopeless. :-(

Morning G,

Not hopeless at all!

You systematically been troubleshooting. Some great brainwaves all-round been going on last few days. These include:

1. Establish that the Bluetooth hardware is not broken

2. Established Windows 10 does not disconnect

3. And this last brainwave of yours, to establish that it’s logging into iCloud that’s breaking the Bluetooth connection

How did you work out to disconnect the iCloud?

Okay, I think you’ve got enough to go back to the so-called genius bar for them to fix the macOS settings. That may be the next line of enquiries

Keep going buddy!

Best wishes
Martin

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I worked all day on my MBP, and there was no mouse disconnect. I then logged in to iCloud, and within an hour my mouse disconnected.

So, we can safely say the mysterious BT devices popping up and causing the BT mouse disconnect when logged in to iCloud indicates, that iCloud SUCKS!

I feel hopeless. :-(

Hi G,

Just had a brainwave.

How about Logging into the laptop using a different username, with a different Apple ID?

If that user logon does not have a Bluetooth disconnect on the mouse, perhaps it’s something odd going on specifically with your Apple ID.

Hope that helps!

Regards
Martin

 

[galmiklos]

Oh I've tried that immediately after I realized logging into iCloud is the culprit. I created a new Apple ID for myself with another e-mail address of mine, and while I was logged in with that Apple ID, I had no mouse disconnect.

It is still not clear if it's "something odd going on" with my Apple ID, or it is just different from the new Apple ID.

My Apple ID	New Apple ID
Has credit cards configured	Has no payment added
Organizer of a family share	Not part of a family share
Has subscriptions associated with it	No subscriptions
Has purchases	No purchases
Sharing location with others	Not sharing location with anyone
Two way authentication is set up	Two way authentication is not set up

Just a few that pops into my mind.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi g,

cool! 😀

I take it you are now adding on each one of those items onto this new Apple ID, to see if you can isolate out the one/Ones, that is causing the disconnect?
bit of a time-consuming thing, if you need to give it a good half day for each, to see if a disconnect actually happens or not.

Hope the add-on with the issue, is at the very top of the list!

Regards
Martin

 

[mariusae]

Hi galmiklos!
I have exactly the same issue.
Some strange devices connect to my MBP fo a few minutes. At this time my airPods and mouse disconnect and don't work.

There is the list of all devices. It can't be deleted and I suppose this file refresh itself through iCloud.
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
Right now there are 666 items.

 

[galmiklos]

Hi mariusae,

That /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist file was one that Apple support made me delete at one time, and it was re-created automatically. I suppose you can try to do the same. It didn't help me.

I don't have quite that many devices listed in that section, but I may not have been using my MBP long enough, to reach your number. To me it seems it is just a list of all the BT devices ever encountered.

As I mentioned, I seem to have identified the root of the problem as my Apple ID, but I have no idea what is wrong with my Apple ID. Actually, I may need to say what was wrong. I am not sure if Apple support has perhaps found something and fixed it (I have not not receive any response for more than a week now), but I had no mouse disconnect for almost a week.

There was one thing I did to my Apple ID, namely I cleaned it up a bit. And by "cleanup" I mean I deleted all the old, unused logged in devices from it, and left only the ones I actually use.

Honestly, I don't think it was the "silver bullet", because after the cleanup I still had mouse disconnects. The disconnects stopped a few days later.

 

[mariusae]

Thanks galmiklos!
I will try contact to Apple Support.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi mariusae,

That /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist file was one that Apple support made me delete at one time, and it was re-created automatically. I suppose you can try to do the same. It didn't help me.

I don't have quite that many devices listed in that section, but I may not have been using my MBP long enough, to reach your number. To me it seems it is just a list of all the BT devices ever encountered.

View attachment 1742139

As I mentioned, I seem to have identified the root of the problem as my Apple ID, but I have no idea what is wrong with my Apple ID. Actually, I may need to say what was wrong. I am not sure if Apple support has perhaps found something and fixed it (I have not not receive any response for more than a week now), but I had no mouse disconnect for almost a week.

There was one thing I did to my Apple ID, namely I cleaned it up a bit. And by "cleanup" I mean I deleted all the old, unused logged in devices from it, and left only the ones I actually use.

View attachment 1742145

Honestly, I don't think it was the "silver bullet", because after the cleanup I still had mouse disconnects. The disconnects stopped a few days later.

Hi G,


Hey so glad you finally got it fixed!

How did you work out to disconnect the iCloud?



Regards
Martin

 

[galmiklos]

Oh no, I did not fix anything!

It's true I did not have one single mouse disconnect for a week, but I did absolutely nothing. I am hoping Apple support was the one that found something, and fixed it without informing me about it. Although, if I want to be real, I have to doubt it happened... Anyways, I asked them if they found something, after ignoring me for 9 days.

 

[galmiklos]

Well, I got a reply to my e-mail from Apple support, but rather than showing any sign of having done anything (in 9 days), the senior adviser just asked me more questions.

Believe it or not, this was one of the questions:

We also want to know if there is any other bluetooth devices in your home, and if so, please list the make and models.

Really? Is there "any other" BT device in the house? Come on! It took me almost an hour to make that list...

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi G,


Well I'm glad its fixed in the end, even if Apple didn't do anything


As I say, I was toying with the idea of going wireless with the keyboard and mouse, but your difficulties have totally put me off. Great for 99% of people, but real fix-it issues, with no clear resolutions, if you are one of the unlucky few.


Is this Blue tooth issue just a Apple thing? Or have you had the same issues with Windows for other BT peripherals?

I'm amazed by your perseverance with getting a fix



Best wishes
Martin

 

[frozenrubber]

I THINK I HAVE A WINNER!

I was going nuts with a similar issue. I disabled Handoff (System Preferences / General). My best guess is macOS is trying to connect to other iOS devices (even though it should only be devices on your iCloud).

Since I disabled Handoff, the mouse/keyboard freezing disappeared. The mystery bluetooth device (which has an Apple MAC address remains, despite me trying to remove MANY times).

 

[frozenrubber]

Well, I got a reply to my e-mail from Apple support, but rather than showing any sign of having done anything (in 9 days), the senior adviser just asked me more questions.

Believe it or not, this was one of the questions:



Really? Is there "any other" BT device in the house? Come on! It took me almost an hour to make that list...

Pls try disabling Handoff and let me know!

 

[galmiklos]

I have Handoff enabled and did not have one single mouse disconnect for weeks. My guess is that Apple may have corrected it in their cloud software (server side), without anyone's knowledge. My case with Apple is still open, and not going anywhere, and they pretty much stopped responding. I did not tell them my mouse is OK now. The last thing they got from me was the logs they asked for, from the exact time when an incident occurred. I even attached a video I have taken of the BT settings window as it shows the mysterious device appear, connect, mouse disconnect, mysterious device disconnect, mouse re-connect. The video also shows the exact time of the incident to the second (clock was part of the screen I was grabbing the video off of). If they found something in the log, and maybe fixed something too, I want to know what. I won't accept that after months of wasting countless hours of my time the case would be closed with "it's OK now".

 

[Alex_007]

Same problem. After I updated my MBP16 to Big Sur, my Bluetooth earbuds started disconnecting all the time, since MBP constantly tries connecting to random non-paired Bluetooth devices. Since I live in an apartment complex and commute by train (which mean tons of Bluetooth devices around), sometimes I get disconnects several times per minute, which makes it completely unusable.

Nothing can fix the issue. There were no problems before the Big Sur update.

p.s. just tried disabling Hаndoff - let's see if it helps.

 

[galmiklos]

I know it's a very long discussion, so you probably missed it, but I installed Catalina to test if the problem is Big Sur related, and I had the same mouse disconnects under Catalina, too. In my opinion it is not macOS related, but something with Apple's cloud server software.

In my case it was clear, there was something "wrong" with my Apple ID. If I logged in with a different Apple ID, there were no BT disconnects. If you have no purchases on your current Apple ID, you could start using a new one.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Is this just an apple thing?

Or does it happen no matter what platform you use, but have Bluetooth peripherals?

A Bluetooth keyboard disconnecting all the time would be a nightmare, work wise.

I love the idea of wireless mouse and keyboards, but the potential issues really puts me off.

 

[galmiklos]

Marty, your question is rhetorical, or just provocative, right? ;-)

But seriously, as I described in an earlier post in this thread, the same mouse (Apple Magic Mouse 2) was never disconnected from either a Windows or a Linux computer of mine. I tested it.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Marty, your question is rhetorical, or just provocative, right? ;-)

But seriously, as I described in an earlier post in this thread, the same mouse (Apple Magic Mouse 2) was never disconnected from either a Windows or a Linux computer of mine. I tested it.

Hi G,

No. My question is a genuine question for all comers.


We have got past the point of getting your MBP fixed, really happy for you that its fixed now.
There have been shed load of posts along the way.


I'm now asking a wider question in the aftermath - is it worth a newbie going for an expensive BT keyboard?


For example, people who wouldn't have the techie knowhow or the patience to get it fixed if there is an issue, and may be out of pocket if outside the return period.


Best wishes
Martin

 

[galmiklos]

I wouldn't even buy a Mac, if you ask me. This was my first experience, and I am so disappointed in Apple, that I will probably not buy another iPhone either. :-(

Just to explain my frustration, it is not just the unbelievable fact that something allegedly so high quality (at least that's what they explain the high price with) can have such a banal problem, but the level of support, or I should say unsupport. For details, you can read my earlier posts describing how unhelpful they were.