Bluetooth Mouse Not Working in Recovery Mode

OS El Capitan 10.11.5
Late 2015 iMac
USB keyboard connection
Bluetooth Magic Mouse 2

I'm trying to use disk utility first aid in recovery mode for my Macintosh hard drive. My USB keyboard works in recovery mode but not my mouse
with a bluetooth connection does not. I'm able to boot into recovery and use my keyboard only, to choose disk utility, choose Macintosh HD but unable to move up from Mackintosh HD to choose the first aid button. I've tried tapping the option key>tab key>spacebar and return key but none of those keys work.

I've tried researching if bluetooth devices don't work in recovery mode or only usb connected mouse and keyboard devices work in recovery but there's not any info on it. Does anyone know if this is the case? Does anyone know a keyboard key to use after selecting HD to choose first aid button in recovery? The arrow right and left won't move to first aid and the up and down arrows change the HD option away from Macintosh HD I need to choose.

Hullo and a warm welcome to Mac-Forums.

Both Keyboard and Mouse should work in the Recovery Partition if they are both Bluetooth driven devices.

But before we go any further, would you be prepared to share with us the problem(s) with your Internal HDD that is pushing you to use the First Aid option? Maybe, we can solve that or make suggestions?

Oh, and just so we are all clear about things — can you confirm the method you're using to get into the Recovery Partition? In case there's a problem there; no offence.

Ian

Thank you for the welcome.

I am using a usb Apple keyboard and a bluetooth driven magic mouse 2. My usb keyboard works in recovery but the bluetooth driven mouse does not work at all.

I've been looking at console logs and researching some of the failed messages such as address book, mail, spotlight, calendar, boot problems updating accounts etc. I use various search engines to do a bit of reading researching on the errors. One suggestion was to run disk utility first aid in recovery so gave it a try only to find I couldn't run first aid not being able to select it in recovery using keyboard only. So, when I couldn't find the solution to mouse not working I thought I'd post.

t've been thinking about doing a clean install How to make a bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan installer drive using the built in createinstallmedia in terminal. I haven't attempted due to the problem above for one and would like to resolve the bluetooth driven mouse problem for now.


I haven't posted nor saved any of the exact info from console

Suggest buying a wired USB mouse as well. Often in installing/setting up the procedure starts before the Bluetooth keyboard/mouse are recognised. Don't use Terminal and that software. Much easier to download and use DiskmakerX and use with an 8GB thumb drive:-


http://diskmakerx.com

Thank you! I was thinking a refurb usb mouse would be the way to go. I'll also create a DiskmakerX thumb drive...Thank you IWT and harryb2448. xx

Our pleasure Lisa. Keep us posted on your progress?

Thanks, I will. I've ordered a usb apple mouse so won't be here until this coming Wednesday.

lisaz10 said:

Thanks, I will. I've ordered a usb apple mouse so won't be here until this coming Wednesday.

Click to expand...

Ouch!!

Almost any $10.00-$15.00± mouse from any local computer related store would have worked.

Yeah pm-r! This is my 1st Mac! I ordered a refurbished usb apple mouse so it's more reasonable. Too bad I couldn't have ordered the usb lightening cable for magic mouse 2. @ least it would be useful in other instances...lol

I found this info so thought I'd post it just in case another new Mac user would find it useful!

if you use Apple's Bluetooth keyboard, you could find that the system may ignore these inputs and boot normally. While you might assume that these options require a USB keyboard or other physical connection, this is not always the case. There are a couple of workarounds if you find yourself in this situation.

Apple's Bluetooth hardware controllers activate after all of the system's self-tests at boot complete and the EFI firmware loads successfully, which is indicated by the system playing the standard Mac startup sound. It is at this point that the system will accept boot variables, either stored in the PRAM or those being sent via keyboard inputs. These are then passed to the OS X kernel to invoke the desired startup sequence.

If any inputs are being sent via the Bluetooth keyboard before the controllers are active, then they will not be recognized by the system. However, if these inputs are performed after the controllers are activated, then they will be properly read. Therefore, for Bluetooth keyboards, be sure to press the desired key sequences after you hear the boot chimes and not before.

While this approach for wireless keyboards should work, it may not in all situations. Should that happen, you can try various alternative approaches, such as using a spare USB keyboard to connect and send the desired boot argument to your system. Alternately, you can manually adjust the system's PRAM variables to invoke these boot arguments the next time the system starts up.

I wanted to update my progress with bluetooth driven keyboard & mouse. What I found is, that, they both worked in recovery if I waited for the chime at boot to hold down command r keys.

However, the bluetooth driven magic mouse 2 does NOT work in startup options, holding down option key at boot after hearing the startup chime. So a usb apple mouse is required in startup options.

I performed a clean install of OS X El Capitan without any problems using a bootable USB flash drive with OS X El Capitan installer using DiskMaker X 5. This did not separate my fusion drive like many others who erased the drive using disk utility. My iMac shipped with OS X El Capitan 10.11 and version of disk utility. I think those who had their fusion drive separate is due to their version of disk utility was different then the version that ships with OS X El Capitan. I hope that makes sense.

Always pays to have those wired options available Lisa. I personally do not like Fusion drives and went all Flash Storage on my iMac.

Great job Lisa!

Just for those who may be interested for future reference. When you press the option key to select the boot drive not having a usb mouse at that screen is not often a big deal. You should be able to use the arrow keys to select the drive that you want to use. Once you select the drive, pressing enter works in place of the mouse click.

Also, if you have the current Apple keyboard that uses the lightning connector to charge, it can be plugged in and used in the same way as a wired keyboard. Usually this isn't necessary to do this to get to the boot screen but it can be done if need be.

harryb2448 said:

Always pays to have those wired options available Lisa. I personally do not like Fusion drives and went all Flash Storage on my iMac.

Great job Lisa!

Click to expand...

That's sage advice! Thank you for the "great job."

Also, if you have the current Apple keyboard that uses the lightning connector to charge, it can be plugged in and used in the same way as a wired keyboard. Usually this isn't necessary to do this to get to the boot screen but it can be done if need be.

Click to expand...

I didn't know that, but it makes sense that it would work that way. Good info!

I've only had to do this once or twice but it seems to work. I was able to booth that way and bluetooth wasn't working.