You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “How to Reset an Apple Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard, Mouse or Trackpad (Troubleshooting Pairing and Other Common Problems)”.
Travelling Through Life
You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “How to Reset an Apple Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard, Mouse or Trackpad (Troubleshooting Pairing and Other Common Problems)”.
Hi. I’ve had my wireless keyboard since 2010. It has been working properly. I use it with my iPad. It is the late 2009 model with only two batteries. Well, today it decided not to pair with my iPad. First it would display the name of the Keyboard in the tablet, but not connect. Then I umpaired them, turned all Bluetooth devices of and tried to pair it again with my iPad. Nothing. Then the keyboard’s name disappeared and now it is just label as Keyboad. Well, Iv’e been reading forums for hours. It seems that my keyboard behaves ike it’s paired to some goshtly device that doesn’t exists. When I turn it on, the LED won’t blink as when it is umpaired and now the other devices are only able to see the keyboard when it’s being turned on. No device (iPhone, iPad, MacBook) can now pair to it. I’ve replaces the batteries, fresh, new, and not rechargable; I’ve pressed down the power button, but it seems that it is paired to something… Even if I’m in the middle of nowehere, with no bluetooth devices on, the thing thinks its paired to a ghostly MAC. I cannot reset it.
UPDATE: WHILE WRITTING THIS, THE PROBLEM WAS MAGICALLY SOLVED. IT HAPPENS THAT MY COLLEAGUE PAIRED HIS IPHONE TO MY KEYBOARD ONE DAY AND HAD FORGOTTEN… I SWEAR… HE WAS THERE WITH ME IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWEHERE WHERE I WAS TESTING THE KEYBOARD…. AND NOW THAT I’VE DECIDED TO TEST AGAIN IN THE OFFICE, I TOUCHED THE PLAY KEY AND HIS MUSIC COMES ON!!! DUDE!!!! IT WAS ACTUALLY PAIRED… /()($·/=)Q=()$(Q·!!!!!
I have an iMac and the bluetooth mouse and keyboard stopped responding last week. At first the bluetooth connection was dropping and reconnecting every 30 seconds or so. When I was able to connect I went through the PRAM and SMC reset and that didn’t fix it. Now they will not connect at all. I went and bought a USB mouse and keyboard thinking it was just a bluetooth issue but those do not work either. I’ve read that reinstalling the OS might fix it but I had a CD in the drive when this started and I can’t get it out. Hope someone might have some ideas on what might fix this. This thing is less than 2 years old and the entire reasoning behind purchasing it was that the Mac would last much longer than a PC! Hope I wasn’t wrong about that.
You should use a USB keyboard in order to do a PRAM reset, bluetooth keyboards don’t connect early enough in the boot sequence. If you cannot get a USB keyboard or mouse to work then its possible that you have a hardware failure on the USB controller – the Bluetooth controller is connected via USB in many Macs, so a failed USB controller will likely disable bluetooth also.
Wow! Thank you for the tip that rechargeable batteries won’t do the trick. Have used Apple everything since 1988, including purchasing the Apple batteries and charger last December. Wow. Yours is the explanation for my mouse suddenly jumping aimlessly. I feel scammed by Apple, and that is something I’ve never experienced before. Truly disappointed in Apple. Thank you, Dave, for your help. (installed charge rechargeable Apple batteries….the mouse is still jumping around…difficult to select “submit”)
Lisa, thanks for the reply. Whilst Apple obviously make their own battery charger, and therefore condone the use of rechargeable, there has always been an issue with power quality from rechargeable batteries. Quality makes a difference, and no reason to suspect that Apple are using anything inferior, but when the life on alkalines is as good as it is, I’ve never seen a good reason to use rechargeables.
Fantastic! Worked like a charm the first time. Clear and simple procedure to fix a problem that Apple seems to have forgotten about… Thank you, Dave.
Thanks!
Awesome, thanks! This could have saved me a few hours over the years, I’ll bet. Sure worked this time!
Nice one, the holding down the power button during pairing worked a treat! I’d tried everything else (PRAM resets, removing my Bluetooth.plist files etc).
This was the only method that worked.
THANKS!
Hi,
The trick works, my keyboard even got my name attached to it.
But, my keyboard still doesn’t work. Some keys are not responding. I tried to pair it with my iPad and the same keys were not working. So, I guess my keyboard did not like it when I cleaned it up with Windex…
thanks for the tip. It worked perfectly!
My keyboard was paired with the ipad as well as with my macbook pro. Suddenly it stopped working with the ipad. The ipad still seemed to be paired with it (no keyboard shows up on the touchscreen) but I cannot seem to write using the wireless keyboard anyway. I did as you instructed and removed the pairing from the macbook pro, tried to reset the pairing on the ipad but still not working.
Re-pairing it with macbook pro makes me conclude that there does not seem to be problems with (fresh) batteries, but something else is preventing it from pairing with ipad. Any ideas?
I would remove the pairings with all devices, then just add ack to the ipad.
If you go to the Bluetooth settings on the ipad, it does tell you if the device is paired. If the keyboard is not popping up it suggests something is connected, but maybe not wht you think. It’s easy to get frustrated by this stuff!
Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I’ve been trying EVERYTHING for the past 1/2 hour and was just about ready to slam my keyboard against the wall.
tnx, gracias amigo.. pense que ya no servia mi teclado 🙁 pero tu me has ayudado a solucionarlo. 🙂
Well done!!! I wish I would have come across your article sooner. Add me to the list of grateful readers!
This worked perfectly for me, thank you.
After an hour of searching all the official apple articles – this is the one that worked! THANKYOU!
Now back to looking at kittens on the internet.
Thanks! This worked great!
Hi, interestingly, I tried the holding of the power button during the pairing a few weeks ago as the ‘fault’ appears to be that the pairing light goes off after only a few seconds thus disconnecting from the PC before pairing is completed. It didn’t work for me then.
Read your article today, tried it again and…..it now works.
A tad random but hey….thanks.
Pete….
When I started my imac the password window opened but my keyboard is not getting connected my mouse is conected and the key board is not connected with any other device. No USB is installed . I bought my imac just 3weeks ago . Please tell how I will connect it
If you use the power button reset trick as outlined, your Mac should assume that its a new keyboard and offer to do the initial pairing, just like when you first setup.
Fantastic !!! it worked after what seemed an eternity searching forums your simple instructions were perfect ‘HOLD DOWN THE ON/OFF BUTTON CONTINUALLY”
This started to work but I don’t know what to enter for a pairing code. How do I locate this information?
Thank you
When you are running the Bluetooth Assistant it shows you the pairing code, which you enter on the keyboard (and you MUST remember to hit Enter at the end).
I found the passcode right in front of me just needed to type in. Thank you this worked!
Thanks. Holding the power button worked for me. Couldn’t figure that out for myself and could find no help on Apple Support site.