In case you are facing problems in establishing a successful Bluetooth connection or using a Bluetooth accessory, here’s what you need to do to troubleshoot when ‘Bluetooth is not working’.

{FIXED}: Mac Bluetooth Not Working Issue (2022)

Before we get into the advanced troubleshooting steps, it’s best to start with the basics.

SYMPTOMS: “Bluetooth Is Not Available On Mac” Error (2021)

Bluetooth icon getting dimmed with a squiggly line through it. You may see the error message “Bluetooth: Not Available”. When you try to access Bluetooth from System Preferences, you may see the message “you can’t open the Bluetooth preferences pane because it is not available to you at this time. ” The Bluetooth Settings are turned off on your Mac. From your Network Settings, you may witness the error message “Bluetooth PAN is not connected”.

If the Mac ‘Bluetooth Is Not Available On Mac” error hasn’t gone away, try the following workarounds to fix connection issues.

WORKAROUND 1 = Run A Mac Cleaner & Optimizer

Often, there are a few corrupted files that may interfere while establishing connections via Bluetooth. To fix the issue, it is highly recommended to wipe useless junk files & temporary data. Install and run Cleanup My System to thoroughly clean your Mac in a few clicks and get rid of all the potential junk files, logs, caches, cookies, browser history, and other residues that may hamper your performance. Let’s take a look at how to use Cleanup My System to optimize your system in a go:

STEP 1= Download & install Cleanup My System. With its advanced features & powerful tools to enhance the speed with ease, you can fix the issues on Mac.

STEP 2= Launch the Mac cleaning & optimization utility and go to the One-Click Care and click on the Start Scan button.

STEP 3= As soon as the scanning process gets completed, Cleanup My System will display the results. Click on Clean now to remove all the potential junk files and other redundant data to reclaim storage space and improve speed and overall performance.

Once you’ve cleaned your Mac thoroughly, try establishing a connection through Bluetooth. Hopefully, you’ll not face any error like “Bluetooth not working” on Mac anymore!

WORKAROUND 2 = Get Into Safe Mode

Well, switching to Safe Mode on Mac automatically fixes plenty of issues, including Bluetooth not available error. To switch to Safe Mode, here’s what you need to do:

STEP 1= Switch off your Mac securely.

STEP 2= Now turn on your system and instantly press and hold the Shift key.

STEP 3= Simply release the Shift key as soon as you encounter the login screen.

STEP 4= At this point, you need to login into your machine.

Hopefully, the annoying Bluetooth not responding issues will be fixed in the Safe mode.

WORKAROUND 3 = Pair Your Bluetooth Device With Mac Again

If you’ve already paired the device in the past, and are still facing issues while connecting to Bluetooth, you need to tell your Mac to forget it and start again.

STEP 1= Firstly, you need to display all the paired Bluetooth devices. Click on System Preferences and click on Bluetooth.

STEP 2= Navigate to the device that you might think is causing problems, click on the X button next to it, and click on the Remove button to unpair it.

Simply, pair the device again with your Mac like the usual way.

WORKAROUND 4= Eliminate Bluetooth.PLIST Files

If you are still witnessing ‘Bluetooth Not Available’ error on your Mac, it is highly recommended to delete Property List Files. Your Mac stores information about Bluetooth devices in two files on your hard drive: one is personal & another is used by all users. If they get corrupted by any chance, they may hamper the Bluetooth connectivity issues. To remove .PLIST files, all you have to do is:

STEP 1= Switch off Bluetooth feature and exit System Preferences. 

STEP 2= Navigate to a Finder window > select Go from the Finder menu and Go to Folder.

STEP 3= Now enter the path mentioned below and hit the Go button.

/Library/Preferences/

STEP 4= At this step, you need to locate the following files and delete them one by one.

com.apple.Bluetooth.plist

com.apple.Bluetooth.plist.lockfile

STEP 5= Now restart your Mac!

As soon as your Mac starts, a new set of .PLIST files will be generated and the Mac Bluetooth Not Available error must be fixed by now!

WORKAROUND 5= Reset Bluetooth Module

Well, some users even reported that resetting Mac’s Bluetooth module altogether, helped them to fix Bluetooth connectivity issues. If you are all set, let’s start the process:

STEP 1= Hold Shift key + Option key and hit the Bluetooth option from the Menu bar.

STEP 2= Choose the option to Reset the Bluetooth module.

Restart your Mac and start repairing each of your Bluetooth devices!

WORKAROUND 6= Reset NVRAM & SMC

Oftentimes, a hardware-specific SMC reset helps to resolve the Bluetooth Not Working issue on Mac. The entire process may differ depending on the Mac models, but you can check out Apple’s Documentation for complete information.

STEP 1= To start resetting NVRAM, you need to switch off your Mac.

STEP 2= Now switch on your Mac and immediately & press the shortcut keys – Command + Option + P + R. Keep holding the keys for almost 20 seconds.

STEP 3= Simply release the keys, as soon as you hear the startup sound.

To reset the SMC, you can check out our detailed guide here!

This was all for today! We hope today’s guide helped you to fix the annoying error “Bluetooth Is Not Available” on Mac. If you are still struggling with any other issues related to Bluetooth, write to us at [email protected]

You can rely on ToothFairy, a dedicated application that helps users to create a custom setup for any number of your Bluetooth devices. It provides an easier way to establish successful connections on MacBook without facing any hiccups.