How to Fix Bluetooth Network Unavailable on OS X 10.10.4

UPDATE:

In the comments a new workaround has been identified since my solutions don’t seem to be working anymore. Try making sure the hotspot is turned on on your phone! It’s a weird one, but it works!

The best way explanation I can come up with is because of the way hand off works in the Apple world, turning on the hotspot on an iPhone (Bluetooth being key for handoff to work properly) it triggers an update call to the Bluetooth stack. If anyone has any insight on my theory I’d welcome it in the comments!

Thanks for all who’ve commented with more info!
I love MacID, before I started using it I didn’t have a lock screen enabled nor a password. Bad, bad, bad; I know. Especially since this machine is my dev machine, and I obviously have the source code and design documents on it for all my projects. After a change in my circumstances that left my MBP in a situation that someone else could have accessed the computer (fortunately that didn’t happen) I enabled the lock-screen and started using a strong password; a bit of a pain in the ass. That’s when I found MacID, and soon forgot I had the lock screen enabled because I didn’t really even notice it.

After updating my MacBook Pro to the latest and greatest OS X 10.10.4, I had lost the ability to pair my iPhone 6+ using bluetooth. This, unfortunately, disabled MacID and left back at having to enter my password each and e-v-e-r-y time I opened my MBP!

 

Well, after a lot of digging and trying different solutions, I finally fixed the issue!

 

The Problem:

NetworkUnavailScreenCap

When attempting to reconnect by bluetooth from MBP to iPhone 6+ (both updated OS) I was greeted by the notification above. Poopie.

Handoff still worked, along with Airdrop. No MacID though.

The Solution:

Following several suggestions from around the web, even asking the MacID developer for help, yielded no success.

Now, I want to take a moment and point out that even though the gentleman behind MacID had no obligation to help me out, he still tried! And, he was speedy about the offered help as well!

So along I went, without the use of my MacID, depressed and forlorn. Until today!

This is what worked for me and my setup, this may not work for anyone else but is here for reference and a hope that someone else will be helped by this info. If it helped you out, then leave a comment/let me know here.

  1. Turn off bluetooth on the Mac
  2. Delete the iPhone pairing (I’m not sure if any other pairings will need deleting as the iPhone is the only pairing I have on my MBP)
  3. Delete the bluetooth plist file:
    1. Open the Finder app
    2. Navigate to the preferences directory by pressing CMD + SHIFT + G and typing /Library/Preferences/
    3. Trash the file com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
  4. Shutdown your Mac
  5. Power on your Mac and immediately hold down CMD + OPTION + P + R until you hear the startup sound three (3) times
  6. Open the bluetooth preferences and repair the iPhone

All is fine now, I had to set up MacID again as I had removed my iPhone there as part of a failed troubleshooting attempt.

 

Now all is right in the world!

 

If this worked for you, or lead you in the right direction, I would like to hear about it! If you find an error or missing step, do let me know and I will update this post.

8 comments

    1. Thanks for the feedback Dave! Since it has been a year and a half since I posted this fix, I am not all that surprised the fix didn’t work for you.

      Out of curiosity, are you still using OS X 10.10?

  1. Didn’t work for me – I was all exited when I saw the screen shot of the network issue, but alas, it didn’t work for me.

    1. Thanks for letting me know!

      Unfortunately, it looks like the workaround isn’t effective anymore. I suspect it has to do with the MacOS change. Unfortunately, I haven’t had any time to go back and see if I can figure out how to make this work again yet (I’m going to see if I can find some time soon to look into this).

      1. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

        I kept experimenting and found that it would connect if I enabled Personal Hotspot on my iPhone 6S.

        I don’t know when it stopped working, but the only recent change that I can recall is the iOS update from 10.1 to 10.2

        Thanks.

          1. Interesting that worked for you, but yay for a fix! Let me know if there’s any other problems with this and I’ll update the post!

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