0

Due to the lack of Bluetooth 5.0 on my 2014 MacBook Pro, I've purchased an Asus BT500 as I've seen reports of people using it successfully with macOS. The dongle is listed as USB device, but I can't activate it such that my Bluetooth devices would connect to the dongle rather than to the internal Bluetooth controller.

Is there any advice on how to force macOS to use the dongle or how to debug the process? I still can return this Asus dongle, so if you do know of an alternate manufacturer's dongle which does work for you, I would also welcome your suggestions!

Environment

macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 (but I've also tried latest Catalina)

MacBook Pro Retina, 15", mid 2014

The dongle is recognised as usb device:

dongle is recognised as usb device

Things I've tried

  • I've tried to deactivate bluetooth, connect the dongle, reactivate bluetooth (source)

  • I've tried sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=always (source)

  • I've tried switching the controller with apple's "Bluetooth Explorer" (source). The dongle is listed there. But if I activate it, bluetooth devices are disconnected, then reconnected again; then the internal controller is displayed as [ACTIVE] again in the Bluetooth Explorer, not the bluetooth dongle.

    Bluetooth Explorer

  • I've tried sudo kextunload -b com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport to unload the kernel module for the internal controller, but I get: Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=71 "Kernel request failed: (iokit/common) unsupported function (-536870201)" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Kernel request failed: (iokit/common) unsupported function (-536870201)}

  • I've disabled System Integrity Protection (source) and tried to switch the controller then, but this does not make a difference.

fiedl
  • 683
  • That dongle looks cool, but I can't find any documentation on the Asus site to indicate that it is macOS compatible. Do the reports you've seen say it works specifically with Big Sur and the generation of MBP you use, or just macOS in general? – IconDaemon Mar 24 '21 at 00:41
  • They were mentioning Catalina. It was in the QnA for this article on amazon: "Is the Asus BT-500 Bluetooth stick compatible to macOS (Catalina)?" A: "Very good: everything is okay" (2020-12-05) — I've tried with Catalina as well as Big Sur. The Asus website only lists Windows and Linux drivers. However, the dongle is listed as USB device on my MacBook. Also, a friend has recommended the predecessor, BT400 for Bluetooth 4. — Thanks for your edit, by the way! – fiedl Mar 24 '21 at 00:51
  • @fiedl Just wondering if you got this working. I have the same dongle. – nospam2k Sep 09 '21 at 16:17
  • @nospam2k Unfortunately, I didn't get it working. I've returned the dongle. Also, I have not found a better dongle, yet. – fiedl Sep 10 '21 at 17:14

0 Answers0