Category: Trackpad (Bluetooth)

Original problem description

Recently, I have been experiencing problems with my ergonomic Bluetooth keyboard¹⁾Microsoft Surface as Apple doesn’t offer one. and my Magic Trackpad 2.

The keyboard has been unavailable at boot-up since, say, a week or two (prior to updating from Catalina to Big Sur, which I’ve just done) .²⁾I understand that non-Apple products can be expected to take a little longer to be recognized—though I don’t know why—but it makes no difference how long I wait. Once I’ve logged in, it becomes available without further problem and functions normally. The trackpad, on the other hand—also a Bluetooth advice, but Apple-made, obviously—is available as soon as I attempt to use it but is intermittently sluggish after boot-up. In the latter case, the problem seems to have begun with the move to Big Sur.

The following solutions have been proposed by Apple:

1. increase the tracking speed on the trackpad
2. unpair and repair the devices
3. charge the trackpad to 100%
4. enter Safe Mode and see whether the problems persist
5. reset SMC and NVRAM
6. consult the following articles:
   1. if your Apple … trackpad isn’t working … as expected, and
   2. if your pointer is jumpy when you use a … Magic Trackpad ….

Solution attempts, pass one

I have so far attemped solution ##1, 2, and 3, as well as the first step described with regards to resetting SMC (viz., holding the power button down 10 seconds, then booting up) for the trackpad, so far without any improvement to trackpad erratic behaviour.

I am delaying doing the attempt with the keyboard as I have in the past found pairing the Microsoft Surface keyboard to be difficult, and, as I’m in the middle of my teaching term, can’t afford the problems which would ensue should the keyboard not repair. I’ll fiddle with this at end of term should the issue persist. (It is, after all, not that big a deal to enter the boot-up password on the built-in keyboard, as I don’t use a docking station.)

New problem: built-in keyboard

This morning (ca. 5:15 am), I experienced a new problem at boot-up: I was unable to enter the password at boot-up. It was not just invisible, the keys were not registering at all!

I powered down and rebooted, to no avail. Eventually, I was offered the cryptic advice that I should reboot which would put me into Recovery Mode, where I could address the issue.

I did so, and thanks to the trackpad, was able to choose a bullet-point option corresponding to non-functional keyboard, and was then invited to turn off FileVault. As I had no other choice, I did that, and was able to log in normally.

What is that all about? I posted an update to my Apple contact through the messaging system as this is not only worrisome but potentially related to the problems noted above.

Solution attempts, pass two

After today’s two lectures, I decided to shutdown the machine and continue the SMC reset procedure (shut-down, hold left-control, left-alt, right-shift for 7 seconds, then press the power button, hold for another 7 seconds). The Mac booted up, and the Bluetooth keyboard was available to type the password!

This was not quite what the script predicted: I was supposed to push the power button myself after the second set of 7 seconds to boot up the machine. So I shut the machine down again, waited a few seconds to be sure it was good and truly shut down, then powered it up again.

The Bluetooth keyboard was still available for log-in. So it looks like I’ve licked the Bluetooth keyboard part of the issue, but I’ll keep an eye on it to be sure. Let’s also see whether the trackpad behaves any better now.

Update

After a few days, the Bluetooth keyboard continues to be available at boot-up, however the trackpad continues to be erratic.

I read the two articles recommended above by Apple, but found nothing there which was relevant and which I’d not already tried.

I tried booting up in Safe Mode. As far as I could see, the trackpad functioned normally; but unfortunately, I couldn’t do any real work in that mode (besides the fact that everything else performed poorly) so it didn’t prove to be much of a diagnosis. When I rebooted normally, the trackpad behaviour was as bad as ever. Incidentally, I did turn it off and on again, as I’d heard that this sometimes makes a difference, but it did not.

Finally, I reset NVRAM as well. No change.

Current state of affairs

Here’s where we stand, at present:

• The reset of the SMC cured the Bluetooth keyboard not being available prior to login.
• Nothing made any difference to the trackpad issue. It works most of the time, and drags occasionally. As far as I can see, this behaviour coincides with the upgrade to Big Sur, so it’s either a Big Sur issue, or coincidence,³⁾Which does happen; it turns out that this was the case with my last problem, as it happens. or a hardware issue. The trackpad is only a few months old, so I’m inclined to one of the two software issues for the moment, but if we can’t fix it, then … whatever remains (hardware), however unlikely, must be the truth!⁴⁾That said, having temporarily paired the old Magic Trackpad and disabled the new one made no difference either, so I think we can eliminate the trackpad hardware.
• I would really like to know why the laptop’s built-in keyboard failed to respond, and what on earth turning off FileVault had to do with it?⁵⁾This also suggests to me a software issue on the previous point. And I would add that occasionally, I seem to sense a lag in the Bluetooth keyboard response, as well, though that is much less obvious than the trackpad issue, which is glaring.

Two other things which one might try:

• Disable OneDrive. Typically, there is very little going on in the OneDrive space, but it does poll regularly so this may be worth a shot.
• Turn off wi-fi, since it is only needed for AirDrop; otherwise, internet is provided by ethernet to router. I have been told in the past that having both active can lead to potential issues.

No cigar.

Chat with Apple

My support person called back on Saturday, 5 December. Apparently, we’ve pretty much covered all possibilities, with the exception of re-installing Big Sur or wiping the system and re-installting Big Sur and the file system from backups.

She was skeptical of the value of this, as that was done recently, towards the tail end of the Catalina OS. I indicated that I could try the first option at some point when I had some time available, but as for the latter, that would have to wait until end of term, since it would be long and tedious and impracticable in the mean time.

I have tried neither of these—yet.

Another internet search

I’m not the only one with Bluetooth problems, it seems; there are many reports of Bluetooth audio problems, but I haven’t tried audio, though maybe I should, just to see?

One site suggested deleting the associated plist file, so I decided to try that. Apple had suggested a similar procedure for one of my earlier problems, after all.

• Navigate to /Library/Preferences
• Delete or move com.apple.Bluetooth.plist⁶⁾I opted to rename it to com.apple.Bluetooth-old.plist.
• Restart, and
• Reconnect the Bluetooth devices.

I’ve now (December 7, 6 am) done that.