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I need to remotely grab the Bluetooth ID from multiple machines throughout my network. What are the best ways to remotely obtain the Bluetooth ID in OS X?

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4 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Option ⌥ + click the Bluetooth menulet:

option click bluetooth menulet

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Thanks, this is a very quick solution. However, in this case I need to accomplish this remotely on multiple machines. I am looking for a solution that is a little less hands on. – E1Suave Apr 28 '12 at 16:34
@E1Suave I know. This is the fastest way I know of to get the address. – daviesgeek Apr 28 '12 at 19:58
up vote 5 down vote accepted

Using ARD (send UNIX Command) and selecting all the machines you need information from, you can use the following command to obtain the Bluetooth ID along with the computer names in list form in one attempt.

system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType | sed -n "/Apple Bluetooth Software Version\:/,/Manufacturer\:/p" | egrep -o '([[:xdigit:]]{1,2}-){5}[[:xdigit:]]{1,2}'

This command below will also provide the same information.

system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType | sed -n "/Apple Bluetooth Software Version\:/,/Manufacturer\:/p" | tr -s "[\n]" "[ ]" | sed "s:.*Address\: ::g" | sed "s: Manufacturer\:.*::g" | grep "[[:graph:]]"

Both commands can also be used in Terminal to obtain the Bluetooth ID of a single machine.

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up vote 0 down vote

From the bluetooth prefpane, click the line shown below to cycle through the various pieces of info about ur bluetooth, such as the hardware name/model and MAC addressenter image description here

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Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately I am needing to do this on multiple machines and was hoping for quicker less hands on way of doing this. – E1Suave Apr 28 '12 at 15:05
This takes 3 clicks… seems faster than typing out a terminal command, or downloading some app to each computer – XAleXOwnZX Apr 28 '12 at 16:22
Good point. However, Apple Remote Desktop client (ARD) is already on the machines by default and this would be 3 clicks per machine. If I wasn't to use ARD and I just had 2 or 3 machines this may indeed be one of the faster approaches. – E1Suave Apr 28 '12 at 16:30
up vote 1 down vote

Have a look at About this Mac > System Report... > Hardware > Bluetooth. You'll find there all the information you need about the Bluetooth settings for the machine.

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Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately I am needing to do this on multiple machines and was hoping for quicker less hands on way of doing this. – E1Suave Apr 28 '12 at 15:05
You mean you want to remotely retrieve these ids, without needing physical access to the target machine? – Alexis Pigeon Apr 28 '12 at 15:07
Yes, I have edited the original question to reflect this. Sorry for the inconvenience. – E1Suave Apr 28 '12 at 15:15

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