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Bluetooth Audio Issues
- Thread starter jsawy3r
- Start date
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Oh yeah. I can go back as far as 10.8 as I (and many others) have been working with Apple Engineers on open bugs involving bluetooth and wifi/ethernet.
Quick summary:
Apple switched from separate WiFi and Bluetooth Broadcom chips to a single Broadcom WiFi ac + BTLE 4.x PCIe chip ~2012-13. Around this time many Mac owners experienced well documented internet connectivity issues. BT A2DP Audio kicks in and out when using Bluetooth HID's and/or copying files between networked systems (AFP, SMB, etc). My 2013 Mac Pro6,1 8-Core 32GB dual D700 GPU's still experiences it running the current 10.12 beta (Beta 6). It was slightly better in previous beta's but since beta 5 it worsened. Don't try using iOS and macOS copy and paste cause it will f*** up your system.
I've run Windows 10 on all current gen Mac's with this Broadcom card and OS X 10.8+ with no issues, smooth as silk. Finally, Apple engineers have admitted it's kext/driver related as they never fully implemented and ironed out issues between iOS and OS X Handoff and Continuity, wireless and bluetooth cross-interference, and current/proper A2DP BT audio. It's amazing that my $6k+ current gen Mac Pro experiences these issues running OS X but not in Windows.
Absolutely file this bug with Apple. It needs more attention as they're dragging their feet with annual OS updates across their product line, seemingly more concerned about marketing features than remedying open and acknowledged core OS matters. Also make sure to keep wireless devices/routers away from any bluetooth speakers your Mac is using and use Ethernet Cat 6 cables if you are able to attach your Mac directly to your router and turn off WiFi. If all else fails, try restarting your Mac and reset NVRAM and SMC (doing so will reengage SIP, so if you have it disabled boot into your recovery partition - option R keys held during boot - and open Terminal and enter csrutil disable to remove it again), then reconnecting/repairing bluetooth audio devices.
Aside from that, it's a crapshoot. I hope OS 10.12 finally fixes this issue, especially with iOS 10 and 10.12 "Copy and Paste" as it only worsens matters.
Quick summary:
Apple switched from separate WiFi and Bluetooth Broadcom chips to a single Broadcom WiFi ac + BTLE 4.x PCIe chip ~2012-13. Around this time many Mac owners experienced well documented internet connectivity issues. BT A2DP Audio kicks in and out when using Bluetooth HID's and/or copying files between networked systems (AFP, SMB, etc). My 2013 Mac Pro6,1 8-Core 32GB dual D700 GPU's still experiences it running the current 10.12 beta (Beta 6). It was slightly better in previous beta's but since beta 5 it worsened. Don't try using iOS and macOS copy and paste cause it will f*** up your system.
I've run Windows 10 on all current gen Mac's with this Broadcom card and OS X 10.8+ with no issues, smooth as silk. Finally, Apple engineers have admitted it's kext/driver related as they never fully implemented and ironed out issues between iOS and OS X Handoff and Continuity, wireless and bluetooth cross-interference, and current/proper A2DP BT audio. It's amazing that my $6k+ current gen Mac Pro experiences these issues running OS X but not in Windows.
Absolutely file this bug with Apple. It needs more attention as they're dragging their feet with annual OS updates across their product line, seemingly more concerned about marketing features than remedying open and acknowledged core OS matters. Also make sure to keep wireless devices/routers away from any bluetooth speakers your Mac is using and use Ethernet Cat 6 cables if you are able to attach your Mac directly to your router and turn off WiFi. If all else fails, try restarting your Mac and reset NVRAM and SMC (doing so will reengage SIP, so if you have it disabled boot into your recovery partition - option R keys held during boot - and open Terminal and enter csrutil disable to remove it again), then reconnecting/repairing bluetooth audio devices.
Aside from that, it's a crapshoot. I hope OS 10.12 finally fixes this issue, especially with iOS 10 and 10.12 "Copy and Paste" as it only worsens matters.
Last edited:
StarkerMann,
This is perhaps the finest forum reply I have ever seen, so first off, thank you for that.
I have a mid 2012 rMBP that I recently swapped an AC AirPort card into (to enable Auto Unlock)... it would make sense that I never had this issue until recently - never had the culprit hardware your talking about until now.
I'll be sure to file the bug! It's great to know exactly where the issue lies... with this push to Bluetooth audio I imagine more and folks are going to run into this.
This is perhaps the finest forum reply I have ever seen, so first off, thank you for that.
I have a mid 2012 rMBP that I recently swapped an AC AirPort card into (to enable Auto Unlock)... it would make sense that I never had this issue until recently - never had the culprit hardware your talking about until now.
I'll be sure to file the bug! It's great to know exactly where the issue lies... with this push to Bluetooth audio I imagine more and folks are going to run into this.