How to force Mac (Yosemite) to use USB Bluetooth instead of internal?

Question

I'm on an older Mac Pro, and I bought the ASUS USB-BT400 so that I can use Yosemite's Handoff feature. The problem is, I don't know how to disable the internal Bluetooth and force my machine to use the USB Bluetooth instead. I searched around but didn't find anything that worked.

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '15 at 20:47

10

To force your system to use an external Bluetooth controller instead of the internal one, open Terminal and type:

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=always

then reboot. To revert to the default OS X behavior, type:

sudo nvram -d bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior

You may need to turn off (or un-pair) Bluetooth accessories that are currently using your internal Bluetooth controller, as they can prevent the dongle from being detected by the Continuity Activation Tool.

answered Mar 21 '15 at 20:47

DavidD

394

this worked for me – HAL 9000 Jun 06 '16 at 10:20
(Hackintosh) sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=never – flapjack Sep 03 '20 at 02:45

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 20 '15 at 17:55

1

Continuity Activation Tool is a great app for doing all of the command-line stuff necessary to enable Continuity, and it claims to be able to work with USB dongles.

answered Mar 20 '15 at 17:55

user24601

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I know all about it. :) But it requires Bluetooth 4.0, which is why I bought this USB dongle which I can't get working. – CaptSaltyJack Mar 20 '15 at 17:55
@CaptSaltyJack Are you on version 2.0.0? That's what I'm on, and after I press 1 for "Activate Continuity," it says it'll go with the dongle if it detects you plugging one in. – user24601 Mar 20 '15 at 17:57
Yeah, I run contitool.sh -d and it says Verifying Bluetooth version... NOT OK. Your hardware doesn't support Bluetooth 4.0, necessary for Continuity. Current LMP Version=4, expected 6. – CaptSaltyJack Mar 20 '15 at 18:07
How old is your Mac Pro? This graphic from the developers shows what CAT can and can't do. – user24601 Mar 20 '15 at 18:08
Early 2009. USB 4.0 dongle is plugged in. – CaptSaltyJack Mar 20 '15 at 18:09
When I ran "Activate Continuity," it said "If you want to activate Continuity using a USB dongle, then plug-it in now." Try unplugging it and then only plugging it in when prompted? – user24601 Mar 20 '15 at 18:10
Ok, will try. Let me ask: can I revert to all the standard kext drivers if something goes haywire? – CaptSaltyJack Mar 20 '15 at 18:14
I have to reactivate Continuity every time I reinstall the OS or get a software update, so I assume an OS X reinstall would do the trick. – user24601 Mar 20 '15 at 18:15
Weird, it says the script will continue once it detects a USB BT 4.0 dongle, I plug it in, and nothing happens. – CaptSaltyJack Mar 20 '15 at 19:06
That's strange. I'd recommend taking it up with the developer. – user24601 Mar 20 '15 at 19:08
I probably have a dud dongle. :( I plug it in and I don't see it show up in the Apple system info. – CaptSaltyJack Mar 20 '15 at 19:09
Oh, if the computer itself isn't detecting the dongle, that's probably it. – user24601 Mar 20 '15 at 19:09
Never mind, it's there. BCM20702A0. I'll hit up the developer and check back in later, thanks! – CaptSaltyJack Mar 20 '15 at 19:10
1

Got it! This was documented in the issues page for CAT. I had to disable Bluetooth, plug in the dongle, enable Bluetooth, and then the tool worked. Handoff is working like a charm! – CaptSaltyJack Mar 20 '15 at 20:04

How to force Mac (Yosemite) to use USB Bluetooth instead of internal?

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