Comments on: Check Bluetooth Signal Strength in Mac OS X

By: pierre larsen

pierre larsen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:54:48 +0000

Thx, great tip indeed. I looked for my mouse for more than one hour in my large cluttered office and had to give up – even though I could see the mouse was there under bluetooth options.

But the signal strength helped me find it right away (inside a magazine).

Should work for finding mobile phones as well (if they are on silent and still have battery)

By: dmitri

dmitri — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 04:40:22 +0000

for what it’s worth, this trick does NOT work on the gigabyte z77n-wifi motherboards running ivy Bridge and Mountain Lion 10.8.2, however the bluetooth antenna is definitely on the left (looking from the rear at the ports), and does create a diagnostic report with option clicking on the bluetooth menu…although I did not fully investigate the results, 4.0.9f33 10885 is the version reporting if anyone cares….

also, you can use file exchange, which is handy if you somehow don’t have a micro usb cord for android, or corresponding cable for your iphone (lost) left behind….who knows.
and yes, tethering would be a primary purpose, although I suspect not particularly quick…

By: Owen

Owen — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 20:03:21 +0000

In MacOS X 10.5.8 you can open Bluetooth Explorer (search for it using Spotlight), then go to Devices, and choose Show Link Quality Information.

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:57:51 +0000

internet tethering is the only reason I can think of, but you can do that with wi-fi too.

By: K

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:45:54 +0000

Unrelated question – What features can you use by pairing a mac with iPhone? Does anything useful come out of this pairing? Tethering? Audio? Microphone? Camera? What can you do?

By: Neenowhia

Neenowhia — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 23:45:03 +0000

I think it should read as

“The lower the number shown as the signal, the worse the connection”

“The higher the number shown as the signal, the better the connection”

-20dBm is higher than -90dBm

By: Domi

Domi — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 22:30:29 +0000

-20 is “lower” than -90? Who knew?

By: David

David — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:57:35 +0000

Cool tip, I kind of wish it was always turned on.

One extra tip — hold option key while pulling down Bluetooth menubar to show more info on connected devices.