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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > How to force Bluetooth ON

How to force Bluetooth ON
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gradient
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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Mar 30, 2010, 10:27 PM
 
I picked up a magic mouse a little while back, thinking that I'd be able to use it easily with the Kensington Bluetooth dongle that I had kicking around. What I've found, though, is that OS X doesn't particularly like this dongle very much and won't let me enable it properly in the Bluetooth pref pane (the on/off check box is grayed out).

What I've resorted to doing is launching the Bluetooth File Exchange app with my keyboard, which senses that bluetooth is off and lets me turn it on by hitting enter. Then, and only then, will my mouse work.

I have to do this every time I restart the damed computer and usually after it comes back from sleep as well.

Can anyone provide a suggestion as to how I could force OS X (10.5.8) to turn on bluetooth automatically everytime it starts and wakes up from sleep? Other suggestions would be welcome as well, though they would obviously need to be suggestions that don't require a mouse (i.e. no dashboard apps).

Cheers.
     
ghporter
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Mar 31, 2010, 07:36 AM
 
I find it odd that a name brand dongle isn't turned on automatically. I bought a no-brand BT dongle a while back and it worked every time on my wife's iBook...

Of course you can pick up another dongle-you can get Targus dongles (VERY low profile) at Target for about $20, and these seem to work just fine-though I haven't tried one on a Mac lately.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
gradient  (op)
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Mar 31, 2010, 11:37 AM
 
I agree that it's strange, I figured that it would work fine as well. I'd like to avoid buying new dongle, though, so I'm hoping there is some other solution.
     
ibook_steve
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Mar 31, 2010, 11:48 AM
 
What machine do you have, considering that it must be old enough to not have BT built in (must be quite old at this point)?

Steve
Celebrating 10 years and 4000 posts on MacNN!
     
gradient  (op)
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Mar 31, 2010, 04:38 PM
 
Originally Posted by ibook_steve View Post
What machine do you have, considering that it must be old enough to not have BT built in (must be quite old at this point)?

Steve
It's a dual 2Ghz G5 tower. It's got a slot for an optional internal Bluetooth module but I don't have one installed. I looked into getting one a while back but the price seemed high considering I already had a dongle.
     
gradient  (op)
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Apr 4, 2010, 03:24 PM
 
Anyone have an idea?
     
   
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