MacBook + BLE Microcontroller Incompatibility?

Question

I've programmed an Adafruit Feather nRF52840 board to send MIDI signals to my computer via BLE. I can confirm that the board pairs successfully with an Android phone and a Windows PC, but my laptop (MacBook Pro 2021) will not recognize the board; it does not appear in the Bluetooth menu as an option for pairing. I've tried the following troubleshooting options:

1. Turned bluetooth off & on on laptop
2. Turned device off & on
3. Added the name of the board in the code (advertisement.complete_name = "BOARD_NAME")
4. Downloaded Bluefruit Buddy, Bluefruit Connect & Bluetility to find any BLE signals coming from the board (verdict: no trace!)
5. Tried a BLE smart dongle
6. Unpaired/forgot device from Android phone, attempt to re-pair with laptop
7. Attempted to connect the device via Apple’s Audio MIDI setup (https://support.apple.com/guide/audio-midi-setup/set-up-midi-devices-ams875bae1e0/mac)
8. Tried steps 1-7 with two additional MacBooks (2016 & 2022)

I know that the BLE pairing functionality of the board is working, since it consistently pairs with an Android phone and a PC laptop; I just cannot figure out why it won't pair with my MacBook. I want to resolve this issue and ensure that the board can be used across platforms.

Are there any other troubleshooting actions I should try?

• jsotola: try pairing with a Windows PC and a Linux PC
• jsotola: this is not a question about the Arduino until you determine why a Mac does not accept the connection
• carsoap: @jsotola, I tried pairing with a Windows PC yesterday and the board showed up in the Bluetooth menu and paired successfully. This is a good sign, however I still need the bird to work across all platforms. I posted the question in this forum to see if possibly there was any hardware setting on the board that may impact its ability to pair with a Mac (i.e. double-tapping the reset button or holding down for a certain amount of time). Generally, I just wanted to know if anyone else had run into this issue or could suggest helpful ways to troubleshoot beyond what I’ve already done.
• Fahad: What macOS version do you have?
• carsoap: Ventura for two computers, Catalina for the 2016 MacBook

Answer 1

Have you tried Bluefruit Connect from Adafruit? It is available in the Apple store. Don't quote me on this, but I read a long time ago, that Mac requires encryption for a BLE device to be recognized, whereas, most of the out-of-the-box Adafruit example doesn't use it.

I had a similar issue. And I used Bluefruit Connect to connect my device to my Mac.

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• VE7JRO: Item not available in my country? Got a download link to the app not involving the "app store"? What versions of OSX are supported?
• Fahad: Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the information about what OSXs are supported on the app page, but I have "macOS 10.14".
• VE7JRO: Too bad it's not available in other countries besides the US.
• Fahad: That's unfortunate. Also, I found what OS are supported: "Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later."
• carsoap: Yes, I have tried Bluefruit Connect, Bluefruit Buddy & Bluetility. None of these apps are able to detect the board.