If your Bluetooth device connections seem flakey, or if your Apple wireless keyboard or Magic Mouse isn’t as responsive as you think it should be, there’s an easy way to check Bluetooth signal strength and then make adjustments accordingly.

  1. Open System Preferences from the ? Apple menu and click “Bluetooth”
  2. Press and hold the Option key to reveal signal strength for the device

The lower the number shown as the signal, the better the connection, just like measuring wireless signals in the hidden awesome OS X Wi-Fi tool. For example, -20 is a much stronger signal than -90, but don’t feel bad if you can’t get a very low signal. In the screenshot above a bluetooth enabled iPhone was right next to a MacBook and got -38.
Check Bluetooth Signal Strength in Mac OS X

 

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