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Big Sur: Bluetooth issues

S

seackone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 14, 2020
10
3
Hi,
i was updating my macbook pro late 13 to big sur yesterday and cant hold the bluetooth connection to any device anymore. I tested with three different headphones (2x bose, 1x sony) and one bluetooth speaker (bose).

If the device is in pairing mode, it shows up in my bluetooth preferences. I can connect to the device but the connection will be lost after 4-5 seconds. During the time, where the speaker/headphone is connected, i can not select the device in audio output settings. It doesnt shows up there.

I already removed every device from bluetooth properties and deleted com.apple.Bluetooth.plist from /Library/Preferences. Without success. Any other ideas?
 
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You can try resetting the Bluetooth Module. Up until Catalina, you had to Option-Click the Bluetooth icon in the menubar to get to the debug menu. In Big Sur its Shift-Option-Click on either the menu bar icon or the control center icon.
 
Try resetting Bluetooth by making the icon available on the menu bar and then clicking it with Command-Shift depressed and selecting Reset Bluetooth Module.
 
Thank you for your answers but unfortunately it doesnt work for me. Its the same behavior as before.
 
seackone said:
Hi,
i was updating my macbook pro late 13 to big sur yesterday and cant hold the bluetooth connection to any device anymore. I tested with three different headphones (2x bose, 1x sony) and one bluetooth speaker (bose).

If the device is in pairing mode, it shows up in my bluetooth preferences. I can connect to the device but the connection will be lost after 4-5 seconds. During the time, where the speaker/headphone is connected, i can not select the device in audio output settings. It doesnt shows up there.

I already removed every device from bluetooth properties and deleted com.apple.Bluetooth.plist from /Library/Preferences. Without success. Any other ideas?
Click to expand...
I am having exactly the same issues. Nothing I have tried has fix the problem.
 
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Disable Bluetooth and move Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/com.apple.bluetooth.plist to desktop.

Reset computer and re-enable bluetooth and try to pair again.
 
Hi,
it doesnt work. I was already trying something similar (see my first post) and did it again. After I was disabling bluetooth and moving com.apple.bluetooth.plist to the desktop, I did a reboot. Back on the screen, Bluetooth was already activated by itself. There were 5 devices without a name listed. 3x headphones, 1x speaker, 1x iphone..

Bildschirmfoto 2020-11-15 um 09.58.29.png



I set my QC35 to pairing mode, one of the IDs changed to the Name (and one ID is not listed anymore, it was my iPhone). I can connect to the QC35 but just for a few seconds..

Bildschirmfoto 2020-11-15 um 09.59.59.png


... And than: connection lost. Moving com.apple.bluetooth.plist to the desktop, deactivating/activating bluetooth, rebooting, and resetting bluetooth module did not work for me.
 
Try this - Remove all Bluetooth pairings, reboot then reset NVRAM 3 times in a row and pair again

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
Thank you w1z, I have tried to reset NVRAM but bluetooth still doesnt work.
 
Not sure if this is related to you but if a clean install doesn't resolve this under Big Sur you may need to contact Apple Support.
 
Hmm.. The update was running straight forward without any problems. But after I was reading your linked article and the associated webpages: Im happy that my mac is still running, it could be worse. It sounds like the update is killing the I/O Board (or parts of the periphery): "The MBP works with no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no HDMI, no sd-card reader etc". Maybe its more an hardware issue.. I tried to contact the apple support but they are not available at the moment. I will try it again later.
 
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I have the logitech MX 3 and Keys, both of which are not recognizable on a restart. Only when I connected an apple keyboard, could I log in, and once I logged onto the system bluetooth recognized the logitech products. This happen to anyone else?
 
I got here while searching for my own issue with my Bose QC 35 headphones.
In my case, I could connect but the sound would only come out of the right speaker.

I noticed that in the sound preferences, on the Output tab, the balance was set all the way to the right. Setting this back to the middle solved my problem. I certainly did not make that change and I noticed it after updating to Big Sur.

Hope this helps anyone with a similar issue.
 
The support was not a big help. They dont know what else I can do, except of a new and fresh installation of big sur. Even than.. they dont know if it will solve the issues.
 
Similar issue here, Bluetooth apple keyboard is fine, whereas the Sony wh-ch700n shows up but disconnects after few seconds. The same headset on my iphone11 is absolutely fine.
 
Just got my beautiful Silicon Air last night. V happy. Until this morning I try connecting my Sony headphones. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Bluetooth preferences showing no devices whatsoever. 🥲 No idea what to do next.
EDIT: Got my iPad out, turned on bluetooth. Air can 'see' iPad, iPad connects to Sony headphones, still no connection between Sony and Air. Found my cheapo bluetooth bud headphones, connected successfully to Air. Guess next step is Sony help.
 
Last edited:
I'm not as tech savvy as some of you, I guess. I don't know how to find HD/Library/Preferences/com.apple.bluetooth.plist to move to my desktop, but it seems no one has had success anyway.

I figured out how to pair my Bose soundsport with my iPhone, but I've never been able to connect any Bluetooth device to my MacBook Air (recently updated to Big Sur).
I bought these headphones because they were suggested for being able to connect with MacBooks. I installed soundflower a long time ago, but it didn't help. I switched from internal to soundflower, but my MacBook still doesn't see the headphones, and the headphones don't see the MacBook.
Thanks in advance for your help with this!
Debbie
 
Did all of you do an upgrade to Big Sur or did some of you do clean installs?

If you all did upgrades, I would recommend doing a clean install and see if that fixes the problem. Even if some of you did a clean install, I would try one more because sometimes even clean installs mess up.

I am definitely thinking this is a software issue for most because there is just too many incidents of the same kind, so I would expect this to be resolved in an upcoming macOS update.

Have any of you reported this bug to Apple using Feedback Assistant:

Feedback Assistant

feedbackassistant.apple.com feedbackassistant.apple.com

or Feedback for macOS Big Sur directly:

www.apple.com

Feedback - macOS

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about macOS.
www.apple.com

I would use both personally, but the better of the two would be Feedback Assistant.

Edit: Also, have any of you ran "Diagnostics" on your Macs by holding down the "D" key right after you restart your Mac? If there is sometimes wrong hardware wise, that should tell you.

:apple:
 
Hi SRLMJ23,
I did an update and to be honest, I dont want to do a clean install of big sur due to all the reports about the crashed late 13 mac books. I am happy that my mac is still running and just hope that an update will appear in the near future, which fixes the problem.. I was reporting this bug to the feedback assistant as well as a directly feedback as you recommended. I will run the diagnostics later and will see if there is something wrong.
 
I've had this issue off and on since Catalina. Sometimes Bluetooth devices just refuse to maintain a stable connection, they connect for a few seconds and then disconnect, repeatedly. It's frustrating, but I just keep trying over and over and eventually it "just works".
 
galmeida said:
I got here while searching for my own issue with my Bose QC 35 headphones.
In my case, I could connect but the sound would only come out of the right speaker.

I noticed that in the sound preferences, on the Output tab, the balance was set all the way to the right. Setting this back to the middle solved my problem. I certainly did not make that change and I noticed it after updating to Big Sur.

Hope this helps anyone with a similar issue.
Click to expand...
That was it for me! Thank you very much.
 
Nothing worked on my 2017 MacBook Pro MacOS Sur. Major issue with Bluetooth on 2017 MacBook Pro MacOS Sur. AirPods Pro keep loosing sound intermittently. Bose Q35II having same issue yet working better than aipods pro. Logitech mouse – MX Anywhere 2 and keyboard – K780 wireless Bluetooth connectivity is failing – disconnects and reconnects intermittently. Now using both with unifier. Ran diagnostics with “D” . No issues found. Deleted com.apple.Bluetooth.plist. Did not work. Connected only the Aipods Pro. Sound is intermittent. Apple, fix it! before releasing a winter product.
 
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