On: Tell HN: How an elderly couple I know had their co...

[gitgud]

I chuckled reading this… would restarting the Mac re-enable the Bluetooth?

[slowwriter → gitgud]

:)

Well, add that to the list of things that didn't prevent or solve the problem, unfortunately.

Also, I was thinking: If I was in that situation I might SSH into it from a different machine. Yeah, good luck with that to the elderly couple.

[addandsubtract → slowwriter]

You have to enable remote SSH in the settings, first.

[pwg → addandsubtract]

And actually have a second computer -- "elderly couple" quite highly implies that this computer is likely the only one they have.

[slowwriter → pwg]

For sure. I did say ‘if it had happened to me’, though. And I do happen to have SSH enabled on both of my machines.

[tambourine_man → gitgud]

Perhaps. IIRC, if a Mac starts and no keyboard is attached or paired it will show a Bluetooth searching dialog box

[slowwriter → tambourine_man]

Interesting. Didn’t know, will have to check that.

[Dalewyn → gitgud]

Yes.

One of the things I absolutely fucking loathe on my MacBook is it will always turn on the Bluetooth upon hard (re)boot. I never use Bluetooth; I turn it off for a reason.

It literally does not matter what I tell the operating system to do: The tooth must blue, for that is the One Apple Way(tm).

[HWR_14 → Dalewyn]

Although that sounds annoying, clearly the reason for that behavior is this entire thread. If the old couple had not been zooming at the time, they would have rebooted and that would have fixed things.

[slowwriter → Dalewyn]

If I had known that rebooting would re-enable Bluetooth, that would’ve been a good fix in this particular situation. Although I do see how it can be annoying under normal circumstances.