How-To Bluetooth 5.0 USB Dongle [guide]

[mjban]

I was able to make the device work by manually adding the device ID and vendor ID to the BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext. Upon restart, the device was recognized and it is working in 10.15.4. Unfortunately, I still have issues with Apple Watch Unlock, it initially works but then it seems that macOS loses connection to the watch. Attached is my edited kext file.

 

[theSov]

@theSov Mine is arriving today and will update with the results, but if you are running Catalina your file system is read only and that is probably why you cannot edit the file. My plan is to use BrcmPatchRAM and add the IDs to that kext file and make sure it is injecting the device properly at boot.

Thanks for the reply and reminder about the Catalina file system changes, totally forgot about that. Appreciate any and all input.

Looking forward to hearing about your experience, and I will look into modifying BrcmPatchRAM.

 

[ski4evr]

@tokyocpu Is Apple Watch unlock working for you?

@tokyocpu I'm Interested to know as well.

I was able to make the device work by manually adding the device ID and vendor ID to the BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext. Upon restart, the device was recognized and it is working in 10.15.4. Unfortunately, I still have issues with Apple Watch Unlock, it initially works but then it seems that macOS loses connection to the watch. Attached is my edited kext file.

@mjban I have a DW1560 card installed in the slot on my GA-z97n mother board. It has wifi and bluetooth 4.0. I can get my Apple Watch to unlock the hack only once and then I have to redo everything to get it to work only once again later.

 

[mjban]

@mjban I have a DW1560 card installed in the slot on my GA-z97n mother board. It has wifi and bluetooth 4.0. I can get my Apple Watch to unlock the hack only once and then I have to redo everything to get it to work only once again later.

Same issue here, if I enable it in System Preferences it works for a moment and stops working until it is turned off and on again. I have tested with three different Bluetooth devices already, both are working in macOS OOB but have the same issue. I am getting an original card and will test again with it. I noticed macOS reports this in the logs:

error    19:25:38.524734-0400    bluetoothd    CoreBluetooth isn't advertising for client type 16
error    19:25:38.532915-0400    sharingd    Nearby advertising failed to start of type: 16 with error: Unknown error.
error    19:25:38.532458-0400    bluetoothd    Error starting advertising - Unknown error.
error    19:25:38.532653-0400    bluetoothd    Advertising failed to start for client sharingd type 16 with error: Unknown error.
error    19:25:38.533776-0400    bluetoothd    No Devices In Whitelist

 

[ski4evr]

I started doing some research on the error logs in console. One of the things I searched was "CoreBluetooth isn't advertising for client type 16". I got some interesting results. I then searched for "no devices in "whitelist" bluetooth catalina" and got this one that's interesting about modifying the IOBluetoothFamily.kext to whitelist the bluetooth module. It may be a bread crumb to solving this.

Whitelisting

 

[jackmyapple]

Wanted to drop in this thread and offer my experience. Was working 100% awesome in Mojave, but Catalina completely broke it for me. Used a regular injected bluetooth 4.0 dongle and Fenvi wifi+bt card, no issues until Catalina. Think it had something to do with new security features with Apple Watch they introduced like "Approve with Apple Watch"

 

[ski4evr]

@jackmyapple, did you have Apple Watch Unlock working 100% with Mojave?

 

[jackmyapple]

@jackmyapple, did you have Apple Watch Unlock working 100% with Mojave?

Yes, it worked as well as my MacBook. Once I upgraded to Catalina, it seemed broken completely. My Macbook with Catalina works with the feature still though (obviously).

 

[mjban]

I started doing some research on the error logs in console. One of the things I searched was "CoreBluetooth isn't advertising for client type 16". I got some interesting results. I then searched for "no devices in "whitelist" bluetooth catalina" and got this one that's interesting about modifying the IOBluetoothFamily.kext to whitelist the bluetooth module. It may be a bread crumb to solving this.

Whitelisting

Thanks for sharing your findings. I tried that method, patched the IOBluetoothFamily.kext but it did not work, I had the sames issues as with the unpatched version. I ended up getting a BCM94360CD and the PCIe adapter, and everything works as expected.

 

[KarlKupermang]

I got this device in today. I've got the BCM94360CD and adapter like mjban, and it works just fine (mostly), but I wanted BT 5.0 because of some of the limitations in 4.0 (in 4.0 when you put it in microphone mode like for a Zoom chat, it knocks the headphone quality down to 8khz (very unacceptable! - SCO codec)), whereas with 5.0 it won't (fresh and clean! - well, mSBC has it at 16 kHz)). I got it working using the BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext method, but it's nowhere near as fast to respond as the Broadcom. For example, pairing is much slower. Also, Handoff and Continuity are much noticeably slower/less reliable with the Laird than with the Broadcom. I've still got some tinkering to do to see if it's something in my config or placement, but I may just be putting this back in the box and sending back if I can't make much headway soon.

Also for what it's worth I couldn't get Apple Watch unlock working with either the BRCM or the Laird.

Actually I rebooted without loading those kexts or patches and I can see the device and it pops up as my preferred bluetooth device out of the gate. Still same sluggish handoff stuff (if I open Safari or Mail on the iPad it takes four to five seconds to register on the Mac desktop; with the Broadcom it's immediate. The interesting thing is that switching apps on the Mac desktop register immediately on the iPad with either the Laird or the Broadcom. Hmmm)