An accessory that drops off is rarely broken. Four things produce that symptom and they are easy to confuse, so the order matters: the cheapest checks first, and unpairing last, because unpairing is the step that costs you time if it was not the cause.
First: the two things that are not settings
Battery and distance. An accessory with a nearly empty battery disconnects before it dies, which is why a keyboard that worked all morning stops at lunchtime. Charge it or change the cells before anything else.
Range is the other one, and Bluetooth range is shorter than people assume, particularly with a body or a wall in between. If the drops happen when you lean back or walk away, that is the answer and no setting will change it.
Second: whether the Mac still sees it
Open the Apple menu, then System Settings, then Bluetooth in the sidebar. Apple documents the screen in its page on Bluetooth settings on Mac. The device should be listed and should say it is connected.
If Bluetooth will not turn on at all, Apple's guidance for a Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad that will not connect is to restart the Mac and try again. One detail from that page is worth keeping: if you use an external USB Bluetooth adapter, the Mac's own option may not appear, and unplugging the adapter is what turns the built in radio back on.
Third: the other radio in the machine
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi share a band, and Apple's own troubleshooting lists interference from other wireless devices as a cause of an accessory that will not stay connected. This is why the two problems so often arrive together and why fixing the network sometimes fixes the mouse.
A practical test takes a minute: move the Mac and the accessory away from the router and from anything else transmitting, and see whether the drops stop. A crowded desk with a hub, a monitor and a router on it is a worse place for Bluetooth than it looks.
Fourth: audio that connects and still sounds wrong
Headphones are a special case, because they can be connected and still not be the thing the Mac is playing through. Apple's guidance is to confirm the headset is selected as the input or output device in Sound settings. A pair that connects, shows as connected, and produces no sound is usually this and not a Bluetooth fault at all.
If the menu is not where this says
Older versions of macOS call the window System Preferences rather than System Settings, and Bluetooth is an icon in a grid instead of an item in a sidebar. The Control Center toggle works the same in both, and turning Bluetooth off and on there is faster than opening either window.
What this does not fix
Unpairing and pairing again is the last step on purpose. It does resolve a corrupted pairing, but it also makes you set the device up from scratch, and on a keyboard it can leave you without the keyboard you need to complete the pairing. Do it with a wired keyboard or trackpad available, and only after the four checks above have come up empty.
If the drops started at the same time as network trouble, treat that as one problem rather than two: the two radios share a band and a crowded one affects both. Wi-Fi on a Mac that keeps dropping has the checks for that side, including the test that separates your machine from your router.
Last updated October 30, 2026