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How to Connect Bluetooth Accessories to Your Mac

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The world is overflowing with Bluetooth accessories, with products like headphones, speakers, keyboards and mice. Here’s how to connect them to your Mac.

Bluetooth is one of the most popular forms of wireless, and most users prefer Bluetooth peripherals over RF wireless simply because there’s no receiver dongle that they have to deal with; they just connect a Bluetooth accessory to their device and off they go.

However, Bluetooth is kind of a scary world for those that are unfamiliar with it. Connecting and pairing Bluetooth devices to your computer can be a confusing endeavor, but once you know how it works and the steps that it takes to pair a Bluetooth device to your Mac, it’s easy sailing.

Here’s how to connect a Bluetooth accessory to your Mac computer.

Turning On Bluetooth

There are two ways that you can turn on and off Bluetooth on your Mac. The easiest way is to go up to the menu bar, click on the Bluetooth icon and turn the feature on. Or you can open up System Preferences, click on Bluetooth, and then turn on Bluetooth from there.

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You’ll need to access the Bluetooth menu anyway in System Preferences when you want to add a Bluetooth accessory, so heading there first thing is probably the best option, but after you set up your Bluetooth accessories, you can just access Bluetooth from the menu bar at the top to control certain features of your Mac’s Bluetooth capabilities.

Connecting Bluetooth Accessories

Connecting your Bluetooth accessories to your Mac is called “pairing,” so whenever you see that word, it means connecting any Bluetooth accessory to your computer, like headphones, a keyboard, or a printer.

To pair a Bluetooth accessory with your Mac, open up System Preferences and click on Bluetooth. Doing this will automatically make your Mac “discoverable,” meaning that your computer can find any Bluetooth accessories that are currently looking for a device to connect to that are in range.

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However, simply just turning on your Bluetooth accessory isn’t enough to pair it with your Mac. You have to put the accessory into what’s called “pairing mode.” This will allow it to connect to your iPhone.

Every Bluetooth product is different, but most of them require that you hold down the power button long enough for the lights to start blinking. That means it’s in pairing mode. Check the accessory’s manual for specific steps on how to put it in pairing mode if you can’t get it to work yourself.

Once it’s in pairing mode, you should see the accessory show up on your Mac with a Pair button showing up next to it. Just tap on that accessory in the list and the two devices will begin pairing to each other.

You may need to enter in a PIN or other number to confirm.

You may need to enter in a PIN or other number to confirm.

Some Bluetooth accessories require a PIN to connect to your Mac. You can look this up in the manual of the Bluetooth accessory, but it’s usually an easy PIN like 0000 or 1234. Once you enter that in, the two devices should successfully pair up and you can start using them right away. However, it’s rare if an accessory requires a PIN.

If you’re connecting a keyboard, sometimes it will ask you to enter in a string of numbers to confirm that the right keyboard is being added.

Once you have the accessory connected, you’ll be good to go, and you can turn on and off Bluetooth whenever you’re not using it, in order to save battery. Doing this will not erase any saved Bluetooth devices that you’ve paired with your Mac.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. mrbigglesworth

    03/22/2015 at 2:58 pm

    i love how u dont even mention ipod touch 5th gen. this didnt help me at all

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