El Capitan losing bluetooth mouse and pan connection after sleep

bluetoothmousesleep-wake

I already gave up of using my iPhone as Internet connection by Bluetooth PAN because if I close the Macbook, or it sleeps, after re-opening the connection is gone, and will not come back. But I have a good mouse: Microsoft sculpt touch mouse. It lost too, I have to pick a wired mouse or restart the Macbook.

This mouse already has the random lost of connection when Macbook is awake but it always reconnect (I am aware this is a common problem with bluetooth mouses, at list with El Capitan). As the PAN connection, bluetooth is lost almost every time I close the Macbook or after sleeping. Sometimes, the mouse come back after a while (minutes later) – mysterious!

I have researched around the web about, there was a solution for Yosemite by command line to restart the service, but won't work on Capitan. I could kill the Bluetooth but could not restart it.

Yosemite solution in githubgist

I found a complex solution that needs home-brew and blue tools installation, will monitor the wake up and restart the bluetooth service automatically (If I understood right). But is not an end user solution, imo.

El Capitan complex solution

Is there any simpler solution?

EDIT: Sometimes the mouse is back when Mac sleep and awake again. One thing was working: move the mouse to wake it BEFORE opening the Macbook. Always worked. I did reset all Bluetooth and delete the .plist file – observing the behavior…

Best Answer

I have come across many cases of various Microsoft Bluetooth mouse users having issues, so as a minimum some of their Bluetooth mouse products appear to be very fussy.

However, one thing I have seen that does work in some cases is to make sure it's the first Bluetooth device paired to your computer.

In a nutshell you need to reset both the macOS Bluetooth Device List and Bluetooth Controller. However, this will reset all connected Bluetooth devices, including a keyboard and mouse.

In other words, this will remove all existing pairing information for Bluetooth devices, so each will need to be reconnected. I have some steps you can follow, but I strongly suggest you read all of the steps first before commencing (or perhaps print out the instructions / view them on another device).

Before starting, ensure you have the Bluetooth icon showing in the menu bar. If it is not there, open System Preferences > Bluetooth and enable the option Show Bluetooth in Menu Bar.

Also, since you're trying to resolve an issue with a Bluetooth mouse, you will need to use another mouse to follow these steps:

  1. Hold down both the Shift and Option keys and at the same time click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar. Once the menu is showing, release the keys.
  2. From the Bluetooth menu, choose Debug > Remove All Devices
  3. Hold down both the Shift and Option keys again and at the same time click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar.
  4. From the Bluetooth menu, choose Debug > Reset the Bluetooth Module
  5. Shutdown your Mac
  6. Ensure your Microsoft sculpt touch mouse is fully powered off
  7. Restart your Mac
  8. On your Mac, click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar (obviously with a USB mouse)
  9. Select the Set Up Bluetooth Device option
  10. On the mouse, press the power button down and keep it down for at least 5 secs. From memory a blue light should start blinking
  11. Once the Setup Assistant finds the mouse, select it from the list and click on “Continue”.
  12. Now pair your mouse
  13. If you have any other Bluetooth devices, you can go ahead and pair them now (or you can do it later). However, the point is to pair the Microsoft sculpt touch mouse first before any other Bluetooth devices!

Let me know how you go.

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