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Mac mini 2018 Bluetooth issues?

jclardy said:
I just upgraded to a 2018 Mac mini and everything has been great...except for bluetooth. I first noticed with my Magic Trackpad - it will only consistently work when plugged in via a lightning cable. If I unplug the cable it connects fine, but it will randomly stop tracking and start back up in half a second or so, making it unusable. The same trackpad works fine with my MBP.

I then tried my Sennheiser BT headphones and the audio is choppy with the Mac mini visible line of sight within 3 feet of the headphones. I then tried my AirPods and they won't even stay connected, they just continuously drop then reconnect.

Has anyone experienced any similar issues? Could this have something to do with a USB hub I am using? I'm going to do some more testing and try unplugging things, but this is quite annoying to deal with from a $1800 machine in 2018. This was a completely fresh machine, no backups used when setting it up.
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1550793577][/doublepost]this - astoundingly - worked - tested several busy days - never failed...
after struggling with this for weeks and situation getting worse i became desperate - my new mac mini 2018 was becoming unusable - tried all the technical it solution possibilities - all of them... out of desperation i put a section of aluminum foil over my mini - covering sides and - of course - leaving back open where fan is - this ***** worked ! and has proven reliable - only time i lost connex was when i accidentally knocked foil off - it does not affect temp of mini - fan not speeding up during routine processes - only when processing video - same as without aluminum shroud... someone smarter than i might be able to explain how this might work - in my mind i was/am shielding it from the peripherals etc...
i hope this helps other people
 
johneshenk said:
[doublepost=1550793577][/doublepost]this - astoundingly - worked - tested several busy days - never failed...
after struggling with this for weeks and situation getting worse i became desperate - my new mac mini 2018 was becoming unusable - tried all the technical it solution possibilities - all of them... out of desperation i put a section of aluminum foil over my mini - covering sides and - of course - leaving back open where fan is - this ***** worked ! and has proven reliable - only time i lost connex was when i accidentally knocked foil off - it does not affect temp of mini - fan not speeding up during routine processes - only when processing video - same as without aluminum shroud... someone smarter than i might be able to explain how this might work - in my mind i was/am shielding it from the peripherals etc...
i hope this helps other people
Click to expand...

Congratulations!. This is almost exactly what I did with my 2012 Mac Mini when I had similar problems all those years ago. To date I have had no problems with my 2018 Mac Mini.....mind you I also have no USB devices connected directly to it (ie all Thunderbolt). You would think that Apple would be on top of this by now. I'm in an office full of Lenovo machines all with Bluetooth connected devices. Do we have any Bluetooth problems?.....No!
 
I had this issue, tried SMC and PRAM and disabling handoff and resetting bluetooth devices and controller, new user account etc. Called Apple support and they suggested the same things. Last thing I tried was safe mode. In safe mode it was still bad but after I restarted from safe mode, and logged back in it was fixed. Technician said safe mode resets stuff. This is 5 hours ago and still going fine. I knew it was not hardware alone, as I had the Mac mini for a month before the bluetooth dropping started so I suspected software. If Safe Mode had not work, next on the list was reinstall everything so glad that was not required. Only three hours of today wasted on this one!
jclardy said:
I just upgraded to a 2018 Mac mini and everything has been great...except for bluetooth. I first noticed with my Magic Trackpad - it will only consistently work when plugged in via a lightning cable. If I unplug the cable it connects fine, but it will randomly stop tracking and start back up in half a second or so, making it unusable. The same trackpad works fine with my MBP.

I then tried my Sennheiser BT headphones and the audio is choppy with the Mac mini visible line of sight within 3 feet of the headphones. I then tried my AirPods and they won't even stay connected, they just continuously drop then reconnect.

Has anyone experienced any similar issues? Could this have something to do with a USB hub I am using? I'm going to do some more testing and try unplugging things, but this is quite annoying to deal with from a $1800 machine in 2018. This was a completely fresh machine, no backups used when setting it up.
Click to expand...
 
I had an issue but it was self inflicted. I placed a external disk on top of the mini toward the back left corner. I was experiencing issues with track pad and wireless mouse. Took me a few minutes to realize why. It is indeed very sensitive for Bluetooth. My mini sits at least 3 feet from my mice. All has been good except for my one hiccup.

Edit: I measured my setup and my mice sit 4ft away. I have no drop out issues at this time.

I use Track Pad 2, MX Anywhere 2S, Beats Solo
 
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Hey guys and gals, I'm thinking of upgrading. No big rush (my older MacMini is running fine) so I thought I would be smart and check the forums first.

This BT issue (along with some others) caught my eye.

Admittedly, I did not read the whole thread, but I did read the first few pages. My question is ...

Has anyone tried connecting an ethernet cable and turning off WiFi ? (and only use the BT wireless radio).
... and use your (Apple) BT mouse and keyboard as you might normally expect to (or as you did with old MacMini).
 
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One person said they both turned off wifi and used a bt dongle. For me the issue is only really present when I have a cheap USB type-a device plugged in - it doesn’t present eg with the USB 3.0 cable going to my dell monitors.

As the type-a ports report as 10Gbit (despite apple specs saying 5Gbit) I’m still looking for a decent 10Gbit USB hub with either a type a cable or removable cable.
 
I purchased the Bluetooth dongle and USB extension cable and that resulted in the issue still occurring occasionally, however, it did recover much faster. Ultimately, what seems to have resolved my issue was to relocate the external Seagate hard drive (used for Time Machine backups) using the USB extension cable a few feet away from my mouse and Mac Mini. I have not encountered the problem in a few hours and am relieved as it was extremely annoying when the Magic Mouse would repeatedly disconnect and reconnect.
 
Stephen.R said:
As the type-a ports report as 10Gbit (despite apple specs saying 5Gbit) I’m still looking for a decent 10Gbit USB hub with either a type a cable or removable cable.
Click to expand...

Checkout the Anker devices. I have an Anker powered hub on my old Mac mini and it works fine.
 
I have a brand new Mini 2018 i7 and reused the BT full size keyboard and the older style (non-rechargable) Magic Mouse from my iMac that the Mini replaced. While they paired right away I had issues with both devices, the mouse would stop and start, skip over while scrolling and back-click randomly. I had my TimeMachine hard drive plugged into the far USB-A port and after removing that and plugging it into the USB hub connected to the near USB-A port it all seems to wor great now.

I thought it might have been the mouse so I tried a different one and even that one still did the same. I tried swapping out with a new mouse mat, no joy there either.

My next purchase will probably be a new USB-C hard drive for TimeMachine and/or a USB-C USB hub, perhaps some sort of docking station with USB-A ports and a card reader.
[doublepost=1551111912][/doublepost]
Tesla1856 said:
Hey guys and gals, I'm thinking of upgrading. No big rush (my older MacMini is running fine) so I thought I would be smart and check the forums first.

This BT issue (along with some others) caught my eye.

Admittedly, I did not read the whole thread, but I did read the first few pages. My question is ...

Has anyone tried connecting an ethernet cable and turning off WiFi ? (and only use the BT wireless radio).
... and use your (Apple) BT mouse and keyboard as you might normally expect to (or as you did with old MacMini).
Click to expand...


I do not use WiFi on my Mini, it is connected via Ethernet. I still had the issue until I unplugged the backup hard drive from the far USB port, once I did that all was well with the world again. (I have a Magic Mouse and full size Apple BT keyboard.)
 
Tesla1856 said:
Hey guys and gals, I'm thinking of upgrading. No big rush (my older MacMini is running fine) so I thought I would be smart and check the forums first.

This BT issue (along with some others) caught my eye.

Admittedly, I did not read the whole thread, but I did read the first few pages. My question is ...

Has anyone tried connecting an ethernet cable and turning off WiFi ? (and only use the BT wireless radio).
... and use your (Apple) BT mouse and keyboard as you might normally expect to (or as you did with old MacMini).
Click to expand...
My husband and I each have a 2018 mini. We both use an ethernet cable without the need for wifi (I think it is on for airdrop). Both of us have bluetooth on. I don’t use bluetooth with my magic trackpad 2 (directly connected) and he uses his old magic mouse 1 with bluetooth no dongle. We have zero issues.

And we don’t use the outside usb plug on the mini. I have a powered hub behind the mini and he uses the usb hub on his dell 27” 4k monitor.
 
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Hello there

I’m back from my trip to the US & a conference so I haven’t used my mini for a while. However I haven’t noticed anymore issues with BT, specifically with the Magic TrackPad & Keyboard.

Is the issue finally resolved? I did do the latest update.
 
no, i still have it. bluetooth will sporadically freeze for couple of seconds and then reconnect. i only have magic keyboard connected to the USB port...
 
I sent my original Mini back, mainly because I'd under spec'd it rather than the BT issue although was occurring. I've had a replacement for a couple of weeks now and it seems to be fine. I wonder if they have changed something in the hardware already.
 
Touch wood mine is perfect - using magic keyboard, logic mx mouse, AirPods. I’ve not had one disconnection in 2 weeks
 
macmini and bluetooth go together like toothpaste and orange juice.
perhaps the metallic base on the mini hinders the bluetooth signal?
 
Well last week I thought I had resolved my Mac Mini Bluetooth isse by not using the outside USB port, it worked great for over a week. I ma now having sporadic issues with the old Magic Mouse (AA battery version) skipping or becoming non-responsive like it was before. The keyboard doesn't seem to be affected now, but it is used a lot less than the mouse.

I might try the foil trick or try to find a slightly more elegant solution. Wouldn't this block the Bluetooth signal to the KB and mouse though?
 
N9JIG said:
Well last week I thought I had resolved my Mac Mini Bluetooth isse by not using the outside USB port, it worked great for over a week. I ma now having sporadic issues with the old Magic Mouse (AA battery version) skipping or becoming non-responsive like it was before. The keyboard doesn't seem to be affected now, but it is used a lot less than the mouse.

I might try the foil trick or try to find a slightly more elegant solution. Wouldn't this block the Bluetooth signal to the KB and mouse though?
Click to expand...

Do you have your WiFi turned off?

Bluetooth works fine on my MacMini-2012. I have an genuine Apple BT keyboard (the one with 2 batteries) and an iHome BT-3.0 Mouse. Both work fine and always have.

As I consider a MacMini-2018 upgrade, this thread (and others, about different problems) are troubling.
 
Yes, WiFi is off since I use an Ethernet connection. My KB is last year's full size Magic Keyboard and the mouse is the original Magic Mouse with AA batteries.
 
N9JIG said:
Yes, WiFi is off since I use an Ethernet connection. My KB is last year's full size Magic Keyboard and the mouse is the original Magic Mouse with AA batteries.
Click to expand...

- WiFi OFF (using ethernet wire instead)
- Genuine Apple Bluetooth peripherals

As for as ideal environment and config ... it doesn't get any more ideal than that, IMO.
 
Well, two weeks later I still have mouse issues, random disconnects and jumpiness. I have tried a couple wired and wireless mice (RF ones with dongles as well as a MS Bluetooth mouse. All these seem to be working fine, even the BT Microsoft mouse with the MM internal Bluetooth.

The RF and wired mice work fine, but I really miss the Magic Mouse to which I have become accustomed to over the years.

Is there a better alternative to the Magic Mouse that people have had good luck with? I prefer wireless, either Bluetooth or RF. The scrollwheel mice I have been using recently just don't work as well when I have been so spoiled by the Magic Mouse...

Also, does anyone know if the 10.14.4 update addresses the MM BT issues? I didn't see anything in the release notes but there was a USB Audio issue noted that might be kind of similar...
 
I've been using my Logitech MX Trackball with little dongle and so haven't had issues, but you got me thinking that it's time to pull my Magic Trackpad back out and give it a shot again
 
The last couple days I have used my Logitech Ultra Thin mouse connected via the Mac Mini's BlueTooth and it seems to work much better than my older AA style Magic Mouse. It is very similar to the Magic Mouse and supports most of the same actions. While it is a little smaller I have grown accustomed to it that last couple days and if it continues as such it might become my regular Mac mouse.
 
inmnbob said:
The lack of range for the Mac Mini Bluetooth is so frustrating. I have new EarPods and have a range of a foot. The same EarPods on my MacBook work across the room.
Click to expand...

Good troubleshooting. Seems to point to the Mac-Mini-2018 (Bluetooth radio) being the problem.

However, the post above yours (by @N9JIG ) seems to point to the Bluetooth device itself (mouse ) being the problem. Only thing I can come-up-with is that there is more than one Bluetooth issue here.
 
I think there are multiple issues. The loss of all Bluetooth which looks like a system lock up is one. This affects the mouse and keyboard when it happens but it does reconnect after a short time.

The other is simply the range of then BT. I just tried it with wireless headphones too and the range was a little longer than the. Earbuds but not close to acceptable. My Beats studio headphones on my MacBook work wirelessly for a huge area around my house. Not several feet like the mini
 
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