Tag Archives: os x

Mac OS X Apple Airpods + Logitech MX Keyboard / Mouse Bluetooth conflicts

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I recently encountered what appears to be a common issue with Apple bluetooth and Logitech MX products.

Hardware & Software

  • OS X 13.4.1
  • Apple 14″ Macbook Pro M1
  • Apple Air Pod Pro v2
  • Logitech Options+ v1.5
  • Logitech MX Keys Mini
  • Logitech MX Master 3 (mouse) for Mac

Symptom

The Logitech MX keyboard and mouse work just fine when they are the only devices connected over Bluetooth to my Mac Laptop. As soon as I connect my Apple AirPod Pro headphones to the computer my keyboard and mouse are intermittently disconnected.

Keyboard Specific Symptoms

  • The keyboard will disconnect from the laptop
  • Keystrokes must be pressed multiple times before the keyboard will re-attach to the laptop

Fix

There appears to be no simple fix since when apple products connect to an apple laptop they in most cases take conflicting bluetooth channels which are already in use. This creates a scenario where the AirPod pro headphones work, but the other bluetooth connected peripherals do not.

I solved this issue by purchasing not one but two Logitech usb receivers.

This is a bit of a sledgehammer solution and completely removes both Logitech MX mouse and keyboard connectivity from the Bluetooth OS X stack. Since I work from home and use these products every day it was worth the roughly $30 to permanently resolve this issue.

Note: If Logitech updates their Bolt software to include OS X 13.4 support only one receiver is required.

Fix: Youtube buffering issue

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Over the past two weeks I’ve noticed a continuous issue with loading youtube videos and having them endlessly buffer. Tonight I did some digging and found a quick fix!
The solution is pretty simple, and involves blocking a specific IP range associated with Verizon FIOS servers which are buffering Youtube traffic.  Since the IP may be different depending on your location I’ll go through the simple steps to identify the IP to block and the associated OS X command to run to block it.

1. Open a terminal window and type “traceroute youtube.com”
2. Note the first IP address which shows up outside of your network.  It should be the one which doesn’t start with 192.x.x.x
On my network the offending IP is:
l100.<your area>-vfttp-<some number>.verizon-gni.net (1.1.1.1)  19.260 ms  20.116 ms  18.862 ms
Also, note any entries which end in “alter.net” as these are Verizon FIOS servers.
3. Test loading a highdef youtube video.  Make sure to switch its resolution up to 1080p, and watch it buffer.
4. From the terminal window block the offending IP by running the following command
sudo ipfw add reject src-ip 1.1.0.0/16 in
5. Confirm the IP is now blocked by running sudo ipfw list
Example output:
00100 reject ip from 1.1.0.0/16 to any in
6. Refresh your browser by hitting F5 and reload the high def YouTube video.
Note, if this doesn’t work the blocked IP subnet can be removed using the following command:
sudo delete 00100 reject ip from 1.1.0.0/16 to any in
If this doesn’t work you can also try blocking the IPs found within this post.