Bluetooth Anti-Pairing with hearing aid device

[Dan Becker]

I am having trouble with relentless pairing requests from my bluetooth
hearing aid adapter to my laptop that I have been unable to stop.

The Apple Stuff:
Macbook Pro 6,2; 2.66 Ghz i7; Mac OS X v10.6.8;
iPhone 4; iOS 5.1.1

The Background:
Bluetooth is turned on for the laptop when in desktop mode in order to
pair with a Magic Mouse.

I use Bluetooth with the hearing aids (Bernafon CN9 CPx) paired to the
iPhone. The bluetooth adaptor (Benafon SoundGate 1.4, Bluetooth v2.0)
hangs around my neck on a lanyard that doubles as a radio antenna. The
connection from adaptor to aids is via radio. Phone works great with
the adaptor...worn hearing aids all my life, and this technology is an
awesome revelatory telephonic communication experience to have
someone's voice right in the middle of my head with a clarity never
before experienced.

The adaptor also has a music streaming feature (two different buttons
for phone and music). I paired the adaptor with the laptop to try out
streaming iTunes. But it never connected reliably, or confused phone
with music, and long story short after much fiddling with Bluetooth
prefs I gave up with that and deleted the Soundgate from my Bluetooth
devices list. If I want to listen to music, I connect the two by wire
via audio plug. Music piped into my head through the aids is also a
sensory delight. I should note that I have no problem streaming music
via Bluetooth from the iPhone to the hearing aids; just from the
laptop.

The Exasperating Issue:
Even though the SoundGate has been deleted from the device list, I get
frequent repeating splash boxes [every 10-15(?) minutes] stating
"Pairing Request from: SoundGate 1.4". The splash boxes instantly
become the front window, and whatever I am touch typing immediately
continues in the Passcode box. If I am immersed in materials, I can get
a good ways before I realize that I'm not in my document, I'm in the
Passcode field. I have to stop, close the pairing request box, return
to my document, find my place, and pick up the thread. Terrible. I did
not have this issue before I paired the adaptor to the laptop.

The Settings:
Even though Bluetooth is turned on on the laptop, the checkbox for
"Discoverable" is left unchecked. Only the Magic Mouse is in the device
list.

Bluetooth Sharing is off.

Advanced settings are all off.

Bluetooth v2.0 used in the SoundGate is pretty long in the tooth I know
(sorry, couldn't resist). It recharges via a USB dongle, however
there's no hint in the Bernafon literature that suggests the dongle
might be an avenue for firmware updates. There is also nothing in the
literature that suggests any user ability to adjust settings on the
device (aside from holding the Bluetooth on/off button to initiate the
pairing sequence).

My Plaintive Plea:
Can some kindly soul advance a means for escaping my Bluetooth Echo
Chamber of Torture? What am I missing in the Bluetooth settings (even
though I've toggled everything I can see to try)? Is there a particular
.kext file or a .plist file holding some remnant of my earlier pairing
attempt that I can delete or edit so to kill off the laptop's
recognition that the SoundGate is calling?

Or is this something that is all SoundGate generated and without any
means to interact with the SoundGate I am doomed to an eternity of
annoyance.

If so, I fear I would have to give up my Magic Mouse in order to shut
off Bluetooth on the laptop entirely. I love my little Jerry Rig, and I
would hate to feed him to Tom.

Dan

[André Berger]

* Dan Becker (2012-09-05):

> I am having trouble with relentless pairing requests from my bluetooth
> hearing aid adapter to my laptop that I have been unable to stop.

Dan,

Caveat emptor, I'm no BT expert.

I would start over with Bluetooth.

A quick search in Terminal.app revealed the following .plist files in
the $HOME/Library/Preferences/ directory:

ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.*.plist
com.apple.BluetoothAudio.plist
com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent.plist
com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist
com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist

To get there in the Finder, run in Terminal.app

open $HOME/Library/Preferences/

respectively

open $HOME/Library/Preferences/ByHost/

$HOME/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.*.plist (the
wildcard needs to be resolved locally) contains the list of known
devices. Depending on the computer skills, you could edit that file.

The easier way would be to turn BT off; move the first three files to
your Trash (without emptying it), turn BT on and re---pair your
devices. Then move the old prefs from your Trash to your Desktop, so
you wouldn't destroy your backup copy. --

As a side note, I came across
<http://www.amazon.de/BEEWI-BBR100-A1-Audio-Empfaenger-Audio-Empfang/dp/B003WUXIW2>
recently, where user "meshabay" suggests to tune your preferences for
increased music quality with BT music adapters. The suggested
Terminal.app commands are:

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Max (editable)" 80
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" 48
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Initial Bitpool (editable)" 40
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool" 58
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool Max" 58
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool Min" 48

This alters $HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent.plist,
in case you would rather get your hands dirty. You've got that backup copy
on your Desktop, haven't you?

-Andr�

P.S.: Congratulations to your brillant writing style!

--

L'art d'ennuyer est de tout dire. [Voltaire]

[Your Name]

In article <040920122312440284%No...@address.invalid>, Dan Becker

<No...@address.invalid> wrote:

> I am having trouble with relentless pairing requests from my bluetooth
> hearing aid adapter to my laptop that I have been unable to stop.
>

<snip>

>
> The Exasperating Issue:
> Even though the SoundGate has been deleted from the device list, I get
> frequent repeating splash boxes [every 10-15(?) minutes] stating
> "Pairing Request from: SoundGate 1.4".

<snip>

Sounds more like a problem with the hearing aid - it's that device
requesting the pairing, not the Mac. Maybe there's a way to reset the
hearing aid back to factory defaults and then re-pair it with just the
iPhone.

[monste...@gmail.com]

I had the same problem with a phone that I connected to a friends phone with my soundgate and then told the phone to forget it. Every time I was around my friend his phone wanted to pair with the soundgate. I had to erase all connected bluetooth devices from the soundgate and reconnect to only the ones I wanted to keep. You just hold down the bluetooth button for 10 seconds or so and it forgets all connections.