Bluetooth not working any more

I'm trying to sync an iPaq with my Powerbook using MissingSync. I've previously used PocketMac and synced OK - well at least the sync has happened, although PocketMac has tended to make a hash of it all, which is why I've swapped.

The iPaq will sync fine using USB or Wifi, but not Bluetooth. It makes a connection to the laptop but doesn't go any further.

In troubleshooting this I noticed there is something odd about Bluetooth on the Mac. If I try to initiate a pairing from the Mac, as it searches for devices I get "An error occurred attempting to perform the search". It eventually does find devices but it takes it a good few goes. If I initiate the pairing from the iPaq, it's generally more successful, but still fails about 50% of the time.

I'm running 10.4.4. Having a look around, there seem to be a lot of issues with the Bluetooth Firmware Update which came with this release. I've tried resetting the PRAM and also resetting the PMU, but this hasn't made a difference.

Other Bluetooth activities, such as browsing another device (phone) using BT File Exchange, seem to work OK. It's just this pairing / sync thing which is puzzling.

I'm talking to the Missing Sync people, but I'm wondering whether the problem is with the laptop, not the sync software. Any suggestions anybody?

Out of interest, I got a suggestion from Mark/Space, who make Missing Sync:

In Terminal, type:
sudo killall blued
sudo rm -f /private/var/root/Library/Preferences/blued.plist
...then reboot.

This has sorted some of my problems - particularly the "An error occurred" problem - but I still can't pair the iPaq properly with the PowerBook, although other devices are fine.

Might be worth a try if anybody else is experiencing problems.

As a follow-up, I find I *can* Activesync the iPaq with the Mac over Bluetooth now, even though I can't pair the devices. So the pairing isn't really relevant now.

Cool, sometimes bluetooth is a little wonky for me too - maybe i'll try the suggestion from markspace.

Good of you to post the follow-up!