The Problem
Use wireless mouse, keyboard and headphones at the same time, without the headphones cutting out.
The Root Cause
Fighting with the WiFi. Turns out Bluetooth and WiFi are like siblings sharing the same 2.4GHz frequency bedroom. And just like siblings, they don’t always play nice. This command tells them to take turns instead of fighting over the toys.
Common Solutions That Didn’t Work
- Turning devices off and on again
- Resetting the Bluetooth module
- Switching to 5GHz WiFi (maybe different WiFi channels would work, but seems too much)
- Sacrificing a rubber duck to the debugging gods
The Working Solution
The fix involves modifying the Bluetooth-WiFi coexistence management settings using this Terminal command:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.airport.bt.plist \
bluetoothCoexMgmt Hybrid
Yes, you need to restart
No, it is not a security risk, afaik.
Yes, can be reversed, need to delete the parameter set.
Why works
Some Apple’s proprietary implementation of Bluetooth/WiFi coexistence mechanisms, which follows broader wireless coexistence protocols but with Apple-specific optimizations.
bluetoothCoexMgmt
is an Apple-specific configuration parameter that controls how macOS handles concurrent Bluetooth and WiFi operationsHybrid
is one of several possible values for this setting, representing a specific coexistence strategy. Options are:Hybrid
- Balanced approach to time-sharing between Bluetooth and WiFiDefault
- Standard coexistence behaviorLegacy
- Older management style