What is Bluetooth technology? It allows us to connect different types of equipment without any cables or wires. It might be used when we want to join headphones or microphones to our computer, to use a wireless mouse or keyboard with it, to use our mobile phone as a modem, etc. The working distance covered by this technology is about 10 meters.
So, it will be better for us to know the main principles of how to set up Bluetooth with different units. The special associated process is called pairing. The basic main steps for Bluetooth connect are as follow
- Check that the wireless technology is really enabled on the computer. Most Mac computers have this technology built-in. Otherwise, we can obtain external adapters or use special USB dongle that often comes with the equipment.
- Activate wireless mode on the second unit e.g. gadget, mobile or another computer.
- Ensure that the wireless mode is enabled in our Mac and initiate another equipment searching.
- Choose the second unit to pair with.
- Type or compare provided Bluetooth passkey that is required for authorization and finish procedure.
There is no need to connect the Mac and second unit again in the future because they automatically connect when they are in the range of each other with the wireless mode turned on.
Unpair Bluetooth device from the computer by removing the first one from the linked units list in case no need.
Modern versions of Mac operating systems are quite similar, so below steps are provided without separation to particular versions.
- Change Mac recognizable external name in “System Preferences\Sharing” if needed.
- Check that the wireless mode is enabled on the second unit. Look at how to connect to Bluetooth for iPhone, iPad and other mobiles. Also, there are device pairing descriptions for gadgets like a mouse, keyboard, headphones, etc.
- Ensure that the wireless mode is on in “System Preferences\Bluetooth” and launch setup assistant to connect the new unit via bottom or central button. Enable Bluetooth discovery mode trough check “Discoverable” if we want to be visible by other units.
- Choose the needed device from the list and continue.
- Validate Bluetooth pairing PIN (or enter it if necessary) to accept pairing and finish the adding process.
Now the computer and the device are paired. And now we should assign the function to the second one depends on the purpose. If it’s a mobile phone we can use the device as the Internet connection for the computer by connecting it to a network by the popup menu command. If it’s a speaker system, we should activate it as an audio device via the corresponding command in the same popup menu. In other cases, look at appropriate commands in this menu. Also, we can change the local name of the paired device.
Use the bottom “Disconnect” menu command to unpair the device. After that, we’ll have to repeat the pairing process if you want to use it again.
Notice that some devices such as mouse or keyboard might disconnect after some time of inactivity to save their battery power. So, we might need to press any button or control to activate the device again.