Catalina security update seems to break wireless keyboards?

[AVR2]

I've recently bought a 2012 Mac mini quad-core running Catalina to go alongside a 2009 running Mojave. My Apple Bluetooth wireless keyboard, bought in 2014, which still works faultlessly under Mojave, doesn't work properly under Catalina.

It frequently drops the connection for short periods and when it's connected it'll suddenly decide not to respond for a couple of seconds after you start typing, and then you get repeated keypresses and all sorts. My Bluetooth mouse still works fine.

So I thought I'd try a brand-new third-party wireless keyboard with a USB receiver under Catalina - and it's got *exactly* the same problems, minus the on-screen "connection lost/connected" graphics. It's hugely frustrating, as the physical layout of the system (it's being used as an HTPC) means a wired keyboard is very inconvenient.

Googling around, there seems to be an undercurrent of wireless keyboards being fine under Catalina until a security update suddenly borked a great many of them?

 

[chscag]

There must be a multitude of folks with wireless keyboards running Catalina and Big Sur without any problems at all. Including me. (Apple magic wireless rechargeable keyboard 2.)

Did you unpair the keyboard from your 2009 Mac before pairing it to your 2012 iMac? Also, the fact that a new third party wireless keyboard has the same problem indicates it may be the BT board on the 2012 iMac.

 

[AVR2]

Yep, unpaired it from the 2009 first.

If it could be BT interference, are there really any options for addressing that?

 

[chscag]

Read my reply again. I edited out the interference since I noticed that the 2012 iMac was new to you. It could very well be a bad BT board in the 2012.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Actually this sounds much like a problem I had also. My particular keyboard was a Matias model that could be paired to as many as four different devices. It frequently failed to respond when waking my iMac up, so I’d toggle temporarily to “device 2” via the button on the keyboard, then back to “device 1” on which the iMac was paired. That got me going. I never found a solution and wound up switching to a Logitech model using a Unifying Receiver. I always assumed the problem was my keyboard, but maybe it does have something to do with Catalina. I don’t recall having this issue before then now that I think about it.

 

[AVR2]

But the third-party keyboard uses a USB receiver so it's appearing to the Mac as a USB peripheral, not a BT one. There's no pairing involved, it's just plug and play as if it was a wired USB keyboard.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Here are some troubleshooting resources to read over.

Fix Bluetooth Problems in macOS Catalina • macReports

This article explains what you can do if Bluetooth isn't working as expected on your Mac. Sometimes you may have issues while trying to connect to a

macreports.com

macOS Catalina bluetooth issues - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[Lifeisabeach]

But the third-party keyboard uses a USB receiver so it's appearing to the Mac as a USB peripheral, not a BT one. There's no pairing involved, it's just plug and play as if it was a wired USB keyboard.

Ah dang it. I overlooked that. My bad.

 

[chscag]

Okay. Do you have wired keyboard handy that you can try? You never mentioned in your first post that the third party keyboard was a USB wireless model.

I have one of those third party mice that uses a small USB receiver plugged into my iMac and it works wirelessly. Your third party keyboard works the same way.

 

[AVR2]

Okay. Do you have wired keyboard handy that you can try?

Yes, and it works perfectly. As I said, though, because it's an HTPC it's extremely inconvenient to use a wired keyboard with it.

You never mentioned in your first post that the third party keyboard was a USB wireless model

I'm afraid I did - look again

 

[chscag]

Sorry about that, I missed the part about the USB keyboard in your first post.

Well, I don't know what to tell you or advise you except that it appears that something in your 2012 iMac that's new to you is not working right with regard to wireless keyboards. (BT or USB wireless)

It's not Catalina that's causing it because as I noted to you there are lots of folks running Catalina using an Apple BT keyboard without any problem whatsoever.

The only suggestion I can think of is to try resetting the NVRAM and SMC for the iMac and give it a try again.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Which exact 3rd party keyboard is this anyway? As I mentioned, this sounds identical to the problem I was having with a Bluetooth keyboard, but had no problems with my Logitech using the wireless USB receiver.

Try the bluetooth keyboard again after trying the various steps recommended in the articles I posted (they cover what chscag suggested also) and see if that helps.

 

[MacInWin]

It could be interference. Lots of devices use the same radio frequency band as those dongles, so it could be that a new device or a new arrangement of devices in that same band is creating interference with your signals. Depending on where you live, it could even be a device in an adjoining apartment, or a neighbor. Bear in mind that all of those "wireless" devices all share that same band--wireless landline, remote controls, wifi, dongles, etc. And given the frequency they operate at, the wavelength is just inches, so just a small movement of one can create a totally new interference pattern. So, have you added any wireless devices recently, or rearranged anything? (wireless speakers, remote monitors, wifi routers, repeaters, boosters)