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Mac mini 2018 Bluetooth issues?

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phatrumour

macrumors newbie
Jan 16, 2019
2
0
You can add me to this issue as well. New Mac Mini purchased over Christmas and arrived 11 Jan. Has been fine until just now when a plugged a small 128GB USB stick into the outer USB port. Mouse went nuts. Thought it was battery level (reported as 33%) but that didn't fix it. After reading this chat, I've connected my Dell monitor via USB and plugged the USB stick into that - all fine again.

*EDIT: should have said it's the older Magic Mouse (white version) previously used on my 2011 iMac. USB stick is (I think) a tiny SanDISK one.
 
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Easttime

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2015
696
498
Easttime said:
2018 Mac mini. I simply unplugged the old 2014 mini and replaced it with 2018 in early December, with all the same peripherals. The BT Magic Trackpad began disconnecting and reconnecting every hour or two. Then a couple of weeks ago Safari started crawling periodically. Finally it stopped completely and the mini would not connect to our home wifi. Called Apple who were very helpful. First and second level tech support tried a number of software fixes. Removing and replacing the wifi connection in System Preferences worked great for half an hour. But next time I woke the mini from sleep it was again disconnected from wifi and nothing got it going again. After reading this thread, I unplugged the HooToo USB hub, plugged all the peripherals directly into the 2018 mini or the USB hub on my new USB-C Dell minitor, and wifi connected fine. Safari has been quite crisp. No TrackPad drops either. Hope it holds.
Click to expand...
Update: system was stable until yesterday when the wifi disconnect occurred again. I unplugged a running external spinner that was in one of the C ports, and shut down a Windows laptop that I had on my desk: wifi reconnected. I’m beginning to believe that my new 2018 mini is hypersensitive to the low grade radio noise in my office, where the 2014 mini ignored it. Now I’m trying to decide whether this is enough of an issue to go through the hassle of sending this new mini back to Apple (I live hours from an Apple store). Fortunately I still have the 2014 mini and a backup MacBook if it comes to that.

It is interesting that replacing the software network connection worked once so dramatically. Maybe this can be rectified by a future software update.
 
gigatoaster

gigatoaster

macrumors 68000
Jul 22, 2018
1,544
3,003
France
Apple called me back and asked me to delete these files:

Screenshot 2019-01-18 at 7.00.28 PM.png


I will try over the weekend. So far the TrackPad and keyboard are responding with 0 lag!
 
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Easttime

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2015
696
498
Easttime said:
Update: system was stable until yesterday when the wifi disconnect occurred again. I unplugged a running external spinner that was in one of the C ports, and shut down a Windows laptop that I had on my desk: wifi reconnected. I’m beginning to believe that my new 2018 mini is hypersensitive to the low grade radio noise in my office, where the 2014 mini ignored it. Now I’m trying to decide whether this is enough of an issue to go through the hassle of sending this new mini back to Apple (I live hours from an Apple store). Fortunately I still have the 2014 mini and a backup MacBook if it comes to that.

It is interesting that replacing the software network connection worked once so dramatically. Maybe this can be rectified by a future software update.
Click to expand...

Update #3: Well, the 2018 mini's Internet worked fine for a few days and became flakey again yesterday. Back to apps that need the Internet intermittently crawling to a slow or halt: Safari, App Store, Mail, etc. But my MacBook, iPad and iPhone are all working fine here at the same desk, in the same wifi environment. Trackpad periodically disconnecting again too. And this is with all external USB hard drives and HooToo hub disconnected. Time to bite the bullet, unplug the 2018 mini and see what Apple can figure out. Good thing my 2014 mini hasn't sold yet.
 
harriska2

harriska2

macrumors 68000
Mar 16, 2011
1,918
1,043
Oregon
Easttime said:
Update #3: Well, the 2018 mini's Internet worked fine for a few days and became flakey again yesterday. Back to apps that need the Internet intermittently crawling to a slow or halt: Safari, App Store, Mail, etc. But my MacBook, iPad and iPhone are all working fine here at the same desk, in the same wifi environment. Trackpad periodically disconnecting again too. And this is with all external USB hard drives and HooToo hub disconnected. Time to bite the bullet, unplug the 2018 mini and see what Apple can figure out. Good thing my 2014 mini hasn't sold yet.
Click to expand...
How was the 2018 mini connected to the internet - via ethernet or wifi? Also how was the trackpad 2 connected - bluetooth only or with usb charging cable? Which OS version are you on - 10.14.1 or something else?

I haven’t had any issues but I am ethernet cable, trackpad 2 with usb cable always connected, and I’ve stayed on 10.14.1. I’ve been stable since out of the box in November. I haven’t upgraded because it sounds like upgrades have introduced some weird bugs.
 
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Easttime

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2015
696
498
harriska2 said:
How was the 2018 mini connected to the internet - via ethernet or wifi? Also how was the trackpad 2 connected - bluetooth only or with usb charging cable? Which OS version are you on - 10.14.1 or something else?

I haven’t had any issues but I am ethernet cable, trackpad 2 with usb cable always connected, and I’ve stayed on 10.14.1. I’ve been stable since out of the box in November. I haven’t upgraded because it sounds like upgrades have introduced some weird bugs.
Click to expand...
Wifi, and BlueTooth for the Trackpad - i could plug in the trackpad, but I can’t run a wire to the router without drilling holes through finished walls and a floor, though I’ve considered that in the past. But no other device in the house has had problems with wifi in 20 years, and the TrackPad worked fine with the 2014 mini. Hard to figure out whether this is software or hardware or both. I had done a clean install when I switched to the 2018 mini and had no problem initially, seemed to start after one of the Mojave updates.
 
harriska2

harriska2

macrumors 68000
Mar 16, 2011
1,918
1,043
Oregon
Easttime said:
Wifi, and BlueTooth for the Trackpad - i could plug in the trackpad, but I can’t run a wire to the router without drilling holes through finished walls and a floor, though I’ve considered that in the past. But no other device in the house has had problems with wifi in 20 years, and the TrackPad worked fine with the 2014 mini. Hard to figure out whether this is software or hardware or both. I had done a clean install when I switched to the 2018 mini and had no problem initially, seemed to start after one of the Mojave updates.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I keep hearing about various things breaking after Mojave updates. Apple really needs to tighten this stuff down. Clean working software isn’t as sexy as throwing money and programmers at new hardware and forced annual OS updates but at some point it will bite them in the tush.
 
HackerJL

HackerJL

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2009
212
62
Ive been monitoring this thread, and thought I would finally put my 2 cents in.

As one of you mentioned there is a different spot for the bluetooth. Since I got my mini, Ive been eating batteries in my keyboard, Magic Mouse, and unable to unlock the mini with my watch.

One of you mentioned some interference with unshielded cables. So I unplugged a usb3 extender that is hooked up to an amazon basics usb hub. Just like that, my watch is unlocking, no more stuttering. Just thought I would throw that out...
 
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haruki

macrumors newbie
Mar 20, 2011
20
0
I left the outermost USB port empty and bluetooth is working fine.
[doublepost=1548127802][/doublepost]Which USB-C to USB adapters are you all using.

Seems it's really tricky as not all USB-C to USBs work for Mac. Having a hard time finding one and will avoid paying Apple premium for a USB adapter.
 
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Ploki

macrumors 601
Jan 21, 2008
4,313
1,560
NewMacMiniuser

NewMacMiniuser

macrumors newbie
Jan 23, 2019
3
0
roman.stapunov said:
Hi all, I have bought Mac mini i5/8/256 base model few days ago and got a bluetooth issue when connected my bluetooth headphones MDR-ZX770BT (after that I started to face the issue even without headphones connected, seems I used other port for my T3 SSD before). Everything gets disconnected frequently. So was experimenting and I found out that issue occurs when I plug-in my Samsung T3 to outermost USB-3 port. When I plug it to USB 3 near HDMI or any type-c than everything works fine. Tested it using all devices connected and run VM with Windows on the SSD.
My setup is 2 Asus MX27AQ displays (HDMI (2.0) and type-c->display port), Samsung T3 via USB 3.0 (currently put into type-c), Magic Trackpad 2 and magic keyboard 2 both space grey.

So, my advice is to avoid usage of the outermost USB port or use it for something that doesn't require power and won't have high load.
Click to expand...
 
harriska2

harriska2

macrumors 68000
Mar 16, 2011
1,918
1,043
Oregon
"So, my advice is to avoid usage of the outermost USB port or use it for something that doesn't require power and won't have high load."

I use the outermost USB port for thumbdrives and the Apple DVD/CD recorder/player without issue. In fact, I'm pretty sure I plugged my external spinners into the outermost because they wouldn't recognize when I plugged it in for the first time into the powered hub. Once initialized and formatted, I could then plug it into the hub. I happen to plug my USB3 powered hub into the innermost and it has been working fine with 2 external spinners, Logitech camera, Magic Trackpad 2 (permanently plugged in) and switch box with keyboard.
 
Hessel89

Hessel89

macrumors 6502a
Sep 27, 2017
591
328
Netherlands
My trackpad and keyboard would occasionally disconnect when I moved them a little too far but since I updated to 10.14.3 the bluetooth connection seems very stable. *knocks on wood*
 
dspdoc

dspdoc

macrumors 68000
Mar 7, 2017
1,955
2,360
My Magic Mouse 2 and Keyboard are totally unusable with the mini 3 feet away. Cuts in and out and completely sporadic. What is the deal with Apple?
 
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Easttime

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2015
696
498
Hessel89 said:
My trackpad and keyboard would occasionally disconnect when I moved them a little too far but since I updated to 10.14.3 the bluetooth connection seems very stable. *knocks on wood*
Click to expand...
There was a report in the 14.3 update thread that after a clean install of Mojave, his wifi disconnect problem seemed to be fixed. Here’s hoping. The combo updater has been broken, but I’m going to try the method of clean install preserving data using Recovery Drive. Fingers crossed, maybe it will fix the wifi and BT disconnect problems I’m having.
 
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Ploki

macrumors 601
Jan 21, 2008
4,313
1,560
Easttime said:
There was a report in the 14.3 update thread that after a clean install of Mojave, his wifi disconnect problem seemed to be fixed. Here’s hoping. The combo updater has been broken, but I’m going to try the method of clean install preserving data using Recovery Drive. Fingers crossed, maybe it will fix the wifi and BT disconnect problems I’m having.
Click to expand...

Over-writing your installation of macOS via recovery is not the same as a clean install tho
 
gigatoaster

gigatoaster

macrumors 68000
Jul 22, 2018
1,544
3,003
France
Hello there

I mentioned a few days back that Apple Support instructed me to delete files. It worked for one or 2 hours. After restarting the mini, my TrackPad is not recognized anymore.

Now everyday when turning on the mini, I am still facing the same issue.

I am supposed to hear back from them today...

Has anyone tried the new updates and seen some improvements?
 
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