Wireless Keyboard lost?

How to make a bluetooth device a favorite

My MacBook Air has problems finding my wireless keyboard. It is paired, but not seen. I have to go through the whole rigmarole of adding a new device to make it visible. Why?

Sometimes Bluetooth preferences lets me connect; sometimes not.

My Keyboard isn't a favourite! Solving this should be easy—just use Bluetooth panel in System Preferences.

There's an obvious button to press in Tiger; but on Leopard it's hidden.

Solution

Open Bluetooth Preferences ...

Select your device (Keyboard or whatever).

For an immediate fix select Connect from the settings menu.

For something longer-lasting, select Show More Info

The trick: From the settings menu (which has now changed) select Add to Favorites. You're done.

Sometimes it shows connected but still no keystrokes appear: Disconnect and then Connect using the settings menu.

USB Ethernet "not connected"?

Oh, yes it is!

"Oh, no it isn't," says System Preferences.

Physically it is connected. The ethernet works fine when I try it with another laptop. But my MacBook Air has no network connection.

Solution

Not sure what causes this, but it seems to arise when moving from one network to another — work to home. Until Apple fix their bug, one workaround is as follows:

• Open System Preferences >> Network
• Select USB Ethernet in the ports list.
• Click the - sign at the bottom of the ports list to delete your existing USB Ethernet port
• Click the + sign, to add a new one; select the new one click Apply.

If you're lucky (it's worked for me a couple of times already) you will find that, after a short pause, the USB Ethernet n port you just created now works as normal.

If the option to create a USB Ethernet port doesn't appear, check that you have the ethernet adapter dongle plugged in. This seems to be neccessary.

If it still doesn't appear (sometimes it doesn't), restart and try again. This has always worked for me (so far).