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Any way to do this either via a utility, command-line, or otherwise? I regularly have my headphones and moused paired which causes the bluetooth service to crash nearly daily. Sometimes I can just repair the devices but other times the service breaks completely. When that happens I have to reboot; very annoying indeed.

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My mac sometimes gets confused when I turn my mighty?mouse back on in the morning. Fortunately, I keep a wired mouse around... The mac thinks its still connected to the mouse even though its been powered off all night. This solution worked for me! Thanks! – Paul May 4 '11 at 15:07

migrated from superuser.com May 9 '11 at 2:59

3 Answers

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The way to systematically remove pairing records and HID devices is to use the Bluetooth Explorer that comes with Xcode 3. (as of today, early June 2011 - this is something available at no cost if you agree to the terms of the free developer program. It might also be bundled with Xcode 4 - available with paid download or paid mac developer program - but I can't vouch for that) You can also browse the developer documentation for free to learn more about bluetooth implementation.

The explorer has a detailed window with many settings to automate resetting devices for testing. Here is a portion of the window showing that not only are the local mac settings cleared, it will reach out to Apple Bluetooth devices and reset their internal state as well.

Bluetooth Explorer - reset options

Since bluetooth has to start very soon in the boot process (and is part of the setup assistant since new macs that have no accounts have to know how to set up Bluetooth keyboards and mouse out of the box) it's not just a simple user preference file but instead a system level preference and stored in several locations.

You will be able to make your mac factory fresh to test bluetooth with the Bluetooth Explorer.

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Shame you have to go through developer tools to do this noise. – xanadont Jun 9 '11 at 0:14
Most people don't have issues and never need these tools. Good luck and I hope the underlying problem gets resolved. Automating the reset process is a poor workaround for something that should just work. I can imagine your frustration at having to do this even once a month. – bmike♦ Jun 9 '11 at 16:49
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In Xcode 4 they have removed BT Explorer and it's now a download on the developer site as part of "Hardware IO Tools". Also your answer fixed my screwed up BT! Cheers JR – Jon Rhoades Sep 21 '12 at 2:27
up vote 3 down vote

There's a command-line tool for the bluetooth service, you could try if it can help you.

The tool can be found here

Update

I found the answer :)

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.blued.plist
sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.blued.plist

This should first kill the service if it's still on and the second enables it again.
I don't know if this fixes your problem, since I don't have BT service dying on me to test it :)

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Thanks. Just tried it. Unfortunately this only allows you to turn the service on and off as you can do from the menu. But once the service is broken then toggling on/off does nothing to fix it. I need a reset option. – xanadont Feb 22 '11 at 20:04
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This just reboots the daemon and doesn't reset the files. – bmike♦ Jun 4 '11 at 15:07
up vote 1 down vote

Go to the Activity Monitor, and under process names there should be one called "blued", click it, then "Quit Process", Force Quit, then the bluetooth service should have restarted on its own.

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This could be exactly what I was looking for. I've since gotten a new machine since this issue and haven't had problems since. But if I do, I'll try to keep this tip in mind. – xanadont Jul 17 '12 at 16:13

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