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I have a brand new Bluetooth keyboard (replacing an old one I spilt coffee on) and I would like to pair it with my iMac.

Trouble is, I can't log in to the iMac because the keyboard is not paired.

How do I resolve this chicken-and-egg situation? (I don't have any other keyboards to hand.)

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Which iMac model do you have? Some have firmware support to ask you to pair the keyboard before boot time, others require you to reboot the device with no physical keyboard connected. Ether way, you should get the bluetooth setup dialog. If you have any old USB keyboard or can use the mouse to reboot the mac, you can avoid pulling the power cord. – bmike♦ Feb 29 '12 at 19:43
It turns out that he problem was the old, coffee-filled keyboard was still connected by bluetooth to the iMac. Taking the batteries out of it convinced the iMac to start looking for a new keyboard. – Nick Moore Mar 1 '12 at 17:30

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Here is a solution as noted here: How to unpair keyboard without original computer

Their solution was to:

  1. Disconnected everything USB, etc. from the computer.

  2. Restart the iMac while putting the new/different keyboard into discovery mode, and wait for the iMac to detect it.

The deal is you have to unplug ALL USB devices, have your wireless keyboard and mouse turned on, and restart. The system sees that there are no input devices and searches for them. Then asks you to type a passcode and hit return.

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Thanks, it took a minute at the password prompt before it recognized my trackpad and keyboard. I had to restart the trackpad at the password prompt to login to my account. – Paul Solt Aug 22 '12 at 15:34
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This is only true if you have already selected "check for bluetooth keyboard/mouse at startup" Otherwise you have to connect a USB mouse and keyboard

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