Anyone else experiencing bluetoothd using a lot of cpu? I have a work around but looking for a fix (permanently disable Sniff Mode)

I've had this happen on several machines over the passed year, including my MacBook: the bluetoothd process takes up a lot of cpu for no apparent reason. Even when doing nothing at all its taking 20-30%. The weird thing is that it's not easy to reproduce. I did several reinstalls and sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't or doesn't happen till after a few days.

This could be a macOS bug, not related to hackintosh. Cuz there are many threads about it on Apple forums and other places. But unfortunately I haven't found a proper fix, only a work around. The work around has 2 disadvantages. It has to be applied manually after each boot and it breaks waking from sleep using a bluetooth device.

The work around is to disable Sniff Mode using Apple's Bluetooth Explorer (source).

There's nothing useful in the logs and it unpredictable too. Reinstalling over and over hoping for the best isn't really an option too. I tried different wifi/bt combo's and it doesn't make any difference.

  • Does anyone know a proper fix or maybe the cause?

  • It is possible to disable that Sniff Mode automatically without resorting to using macro's?

Maybe some defaults to write so it's always off? I can live with waking up the computer by pressing the power button but can't live with a simple bluetooth daemon that eats up 1/4 of my cpu or more.

To toggle it in Bluetooth Explorer go to Devices -> Connection List and then click on Link Policy for the connected device. As soon as Sniff Mode is disabled the cpu usage drops to like 0.1%.

In Sniff Mode, a device checks for Bluetooth signals at a reduced rate, Hold Mode remains synchronized and maintains an active status without actually participating, and Park Mode gives up an active status while maintaining synchronization (source).

From Apple: Page 112.

Since it also happens with Apple's own bluetooth devices I don't think this is caused by 3rd party bluetooth devices not implementing sniff mode properly.

There's very little info about these modes out there but it seems to have something to do with power management. There must be a way to set these options in a way thats retained between reboots...

submitted by /u/DragonfruitFlashy800
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