M2 Mac Mini Bluetooth Issues

[Omek]

My mom recently upgraded to the M2 mac mini in December 2023. I'd been setting it up with my wired razer mouse and a bluetooth Apple keyboard, and everything was running smoothly until I decided to use my bluetooth Apple mouse instead of my razer mouse. Then weird stuff started happening. After a little while, my mouse would start lagging and skipping. And not long after, I heard clicking noises coming from the mini and the system would sometimes freeze up as would my keyboard.

I've used the mini multiple times before now with no issues. It seems to only be the bluetooth Apple mouse that messes it up. It's not a huge deal, since my mom uses a wired apple keyboard and Logitech mouse. But I found it incredibly concerning especially the clicking thing.

I read a lot of other posts on here that says the Apple mouse in particular does not play well with the M2 Mac mini. Is it just having multiple bluetooth devices going at the same time? Or is it just the Apple mouse that's the issue? I just wanted to make sure the mini isn't defective or something. From what I've read it sounds like it's just the bluetooth. It is an older magic mouse, probably the 1st model as is the compact Apple bluetooth keyboard. This just doesn't seem normal at all. I still use both of them with my 2011 Macbook Pro and don't have this issues. The M2 mini is still running the latest Ventura, because I didn't want to deal with compatibility issues with Adobe stuff yet in Sonoma. Although, I've heard Sonoma doesn't make it any better. Thoughts?

 

[Ben J.]

I, and many with me, have struggled with bluetooth on M-series minis for a long time. I never found what the underlying problem is, but it seems to be a thing with the design of all the M minis. The good news is; I now have solid bluetooth performance with 3 keyboards and 3 mice spread around the living room, plus Airpods. All Apple devices. So it is absolutely possible to make it work, I promise.

Here's a few of the things I've found that helps:
• Place the mac so there's little or no physical obstacles.
• A usb drive enclosure caused obvious BT problems, so I stopped using it - in fact the types of stuff connected to the usb ports often had immediate impact on BT, positive or negative. I've settled on having "simple", permanent stuff connnected there, like a wired keyboard, audio interface etc., and heavier stuff like docks, ssds and monitors connected to thunderbolt/usb-c ports.
• The BT antenna on minis is positioned in a circle under the black bottom, so I have the mini on its side with the black bottom pointing outward to the room.

There are other looong threads here on the forum about this, often loaded with theories, assumptions and simply silly suggestions, so don't believe everything you read, because this is an unsolved riddle, and Apple has not acknowledged it as an issue at all AFAIK.

Good luck.

 

[Omek]

I, and many with me, have struggled with bluetooth on M-series minis for a long time. I never found what the underlying problem is, but it seems to be a thing with the design of all the M minis. The good news is; I now have solid bluetooth performance with 3 keyboards and 3 mice spread around the living room, plus Airpods. All Apple devices. So it is absolutely possible to make it work, I promise.

Here's a few of the things I've found that helps:
• Place the mac so there's little or no physical obstacles.
• A usb drive enclosure caused obvious BT problems, so I stopped using it - in fact the types of stuff connected to the usb ports often had immediate impact on BT, positive or negative. I've settled on having "simple", permanent stuff connnected there, like a wired keyboard, audio interface etc., and heavier stuff like docks, ssds and monitors connected to thunderbolt/usb-c ports.
• The BT antenna on minis is positioned in a circle under the black bottom, so I have the mini on its side with the black bottom pointing outward to the room.

There are other looong threads here on the forum about this, often loaded with theories, assumptions and simply silly suggestions, so don't believe everything you read, because this is an unsolved riddle, and Apple has not acknowledged it as an issue at all AFAIK.

Good luck.

Thank you. Ya I have been reading around about it. I thought maybe with the 5.3 bluetooth in the M2 it might be better. I do have a PC running right next to me here while I'm setting it up (and I did add the external antenna thing that came with the asus tuf motherboard. I also have 2.1, logitech speakers, and my 30" Cinema Display. And my Macbook Pro 2011 is up on top of my desk. It's just all really strange. Wired stuff works flawlessly as does the bluetooth Apple keyboard. It's just when I added the magic mouse that it started flipping out. I even made sure I "forgot" them both on my Macbook before I added them on my mini, so they wouldn't get confused. It is the original magic mouse though. I think first white model one, but I'm not sure that should matter since the keyboard is older too.

It just seems insane that my Macbook Pro from 2011 can handle both the bluetooth devices better than a brand new M2 machine.

I did see some people say they had better luck orienting the mini vertically, so maybe we'll try that at some point too. Really though, my mom said she just uses wired peripherals now anyways, so it probably doesn't matter in this situation. Although I'm definitely going to rethink getting one for myself.

I was also going to ask, is this also affecting the Macbook Pros and Airs? And the M3s?

 

[dotzero123]

I had Magic Mouse freezing problems using a Dell monitor. I switched monitors and haven't frozen since. Not sure what the problem was but haven't seen it since - more than a month with new monitor and no problems.

 

[Omek]

Good to know... I'm using a 27" IPS LG via HDMI. Just curious what monitor did you switch to?

 

[dotzero123]

ASD 😁

 

[Dittybopper]

One more thought for you. I had mouse pointer jerking and freezing and restarts or shutdowns would clear it temporarily. Finally with another problem, I cleared history and my mouse problem cleared too. Something about cookies or other unknown processes built up and consumed the processor time. No problem since.