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)”.
Thank you! Holding down the power button during the duration of the procedure was the step I was missing. Your instructions worked beautifully for my missing Apple magic track pad. Cheers
I had problems to reconnect the bluetooth apple key board back to my iMac after recharging the batteries. this was the first time this happened: in the past after recharging & replacing the batteries the key board reconnected in a twiffy. Not this time though!
i tried your version by holding down the on-off button of the k-b during the whole set-up: no connection.
so i removed the wireless k-b from the bluetooth list and restarted the procedure: bang! this time i got through the connection protocol.
so with a little further fine-tuning, your method proved to work.
have a nice day & trip,
Marc
My keyboard and mouse pairing will only last for about 30 minutes before the connection is lost. I’ve had to reboot my Imac every time this happens. Dave, would your suggestion above be an option? Thanks
Marc – Definitely would recommend deleting the existing pairing, then setting it up again and using the ‘hold power button’ trick. Also consider if you have a strong local source of interference – other Bluetooth devices, 2.4Ghz wifi devices or digital cordless phones. They all use similar frequencies, so another device could be causing the keyboard and mouse to loose their connection with the iMac.
Dave,
Thanks for this post. It worked first time!
Hello-
I just turned my iMac back on after not using it for months and it looks like my keyboard and trackpad are blinking green which I think means it’s not paired. But without a keyboard or mouse I can’t get past the home screen! I feel comepletely stuck and I don’t understand how they can stop working and therefore make your computer completely inaccessible! I changed the batteries and tried the reset and still they look to pair but without logging in I am stuck 🙁 welcome all tips!!!! Thank you!!!
Yes very annoying. You may need to borrow a USB keyboard (or buy one, they cost as little as $5, any will do), just so you can get booted, then remove the pairing and try again. You may need to do a PRAM reset as well.
Hey Dave,
I seem to have an unique issue where Num keys 1-9 are not working. Every other keys are fine.
Strangely the Keyboard got unpaired from the Mac by itself & now can’t pair it back as number keys not working, any suggestions? Currently using a USB keyboard,
I seem to remember having a problem when pairing where, in my case, the enter key was not working, so maybe its a glitch in the setup. I’d make sure its not shown as a paired device, reboot, then try pairing again using the tip outlined in the article about holding the power button. I think that has worked for me every time.
Hey Dave, The number keys not working is not just at the time of pairing, I have this problem even while it was paired earlier (suddenly it got unpaired for no reason). What do you suggest
Very old keyboard would not pair with slightly younger Mac Mini running Mavricks, though it worked earlier. Finally, I attached an old wired keyboard, turned Bluetooth OFF, restarted the computer, and turned Bluetooth ON. Keyboard was immediately recognized. Magic?
it did not work for me as my iMac i7 2013 still dose not see my key board on boot but once in the OS the key board works fine but still can’t figure out the problem i looked at things that may interfere with it but surely if there was any interference it would stop it working all together but one in the oOS the bluetooth keyboard works fine the mac just don’t see it on boot any one got any idea’s ?
Worked in first try – thanks a lot! 🙂
Before that I searched Apple’s Support Communites pages – to no avail!
Hey Dave,
Came across your blog post. My aluminium (3-battery) keyboard packed up and decided not to connect to anything at all. The ‘hold button’ trick got me a little further — the keyboard assistant briefly showed the name of the keyboard but reverted to ‘no keyboard found’ when it actually tried to pair. Any other variation and just nothing appears on the Mac at all. (MacBook Pro, mid 2010, 10.9.2). I’ve also tried pairing it to my iPad but that doesn’t even see it. Far as I know, my MBP is the only thing this keyboard has ever been paired with. 🙁
Regards!
SB
Thanks for this; after losing 20 minutes of the morning to this problem again this trick actually worked and I’m now able to get on with things; much appreciated!
Power button worked like a charm! Thanks!
At least 2 x my keyboard & mouse just quit, monitor fine.
Since I can’t use mouse or anything I have to unplug computer and then everything works fine again.
Will definitely try your advice of holding down the power button, but my mouse doesn’t work, so do the same with the mouse too? Or do one then the other? Lastly, how do we do it with the mouse, since there is no power button to hold down rather a click?
Many thanks!!
The power button trick only works for those devices that have a contact power button. Some of the mice have a slide power switch, so no good. But the rest of the advice on the page regarding general Bluetooth troubleshooting holds true, so be sure to check those out too.
Thank you! So should this happen again I will try your trick, and if it works great, but will it make the mouse come back too? If not, how can I reboot computer with just keyboard?
I’m hoping/thinking that if your trick works for keyboard, then it might make the mouse ‘come alive’ again too.
Just curious, if one has to keep doing this, resetting–it can’t be good, no?
Some underlying other issue perhaps or just buy a new keyboard?
And again, thank you so much!
This document details keyboard shortcuts to restart/shutdown our computer.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Try the NVRAM reset shortcut on startup (keep holding the keys until the Mac restarts) as that can cause problems with Bluetooth config).
Obviously not good if it keeps happening, but likely to be a glitch in the configuration or local interference, which if you follow the tips you may be able to diagnose. Probably not either the keyboard or mouse if it affects both, so maybe the Mac’s Bluetooth controller failing, which on most models can be replaced if necessary.
Fine for me, Thanks a lot!!!!
<
p>My wireless mouse is not working, but my keyboard is. I can’t click anything on my Apple Mac screen because of a non-working mouse. I don’t know what to do and I have tried replacing the batteries, it still doesn’t work. If you have some sort of solution for my problem please email me your answer. Thankyou
Thanks! You have just solved my problem after an hour of searching the internet!
Ok, I have the strangest problem and I tried your suggestion but failed. I am not sure if you can help me or not, but here goes.
My imac has stopped responding to my wireless keyboard, but only in my account. SOME keys work 1% of the time! and only after smashing them.
Also, the ‘right click’ function of my wireless mouse has stopped working.
However, everything is fine when I log into the guest account, and I can type in my password at the start up screen.
Oh please help 🙁
Any chance that you have some utility installed that is meant to be ‘enhancing’ the keyboard and mouse, but that is no longer working correctly? That likely wouldn’t be installed on the guest account. Try creating another normal user account temporarily, and see what behaviour you get there. Also, check your users login items to see if there is anything loading at startup that might cause a problem, and also see if you have any addition System Preferences panes that are keyboard/mouse related, other than the standard ones.
Works great everytime. But then every time I turn my MBP off for more than a few hours it gets unpaired and I have to do the whole “hold down button” trick again. Same deal for both keyboard and magic trackpad.
Any thoughts on that?
Thank you in advance.
Are you sure its getting unpaired? Does the pairing still appear in the OS X Bluetooth preferences, but its just not connecting? It sounds more like the devices are perhaps connecting to another host which they’ve been paired with before. If so, you’ll need to remove them from the other devices pairing preferences or they’ll keep trying to connect.