Sequoia’s Warning When Turning Off Bluetooth
Jeff Johnson (Mastodon, Hacker News):
Does this prompt appear monthly? No, that would be far too convenient. So how often? Every. Single. Time. You. Try. To. Disable. Bluetooth.
Have I mentioned that Apple re-enables Bluetooth on every OS update on purpose? This behavior continues with macOS 15. Also, Bluetooth is notorious for security vulnerabilities; just google site:support.apple.com bluetooth “security content”.
The prompt warns that I “won’t be able to use a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse,” despite the fact my Mac mini already has a USB keyboard and mouse plugged in. Indeed, the Mac isn’t using any Bluetooth devices, and macOS knows this but doesn’t care. Moreover, the Bluetooth prompt appears even when all Bluetooth-related features are disabled such as AirDrop and Handoff. There’s no “intelligence” to the prompt.
[…]
The issue isn’t whether the existence of a warning makes sense. The issue is that the warning can’t be suppressed. The prompt has no “Don’t ask me again” checkbox.
thankfully, looks like you can still turn it off without a confirmation by using the shortcut action, but still ridiculous
The prompt also appears on macOS 14.7 (but not macOS 13.7).
The prompt does not appear on laptops.
Previously:
- macOS 15 Sequoia
- macOS 14.7 and macOS 13.7
- Sequoia Screen Recording Prompts and the Persistent Content Capture Entitlement
- Apple Updates Silently Enable iCloud Keychain
- Apple Re-enables Bluetooth on Every Update
- Bug Opted Users Back In to Sharing Siri Recordings
- Mac Software Updates Open Up sshd
3 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
Of course, we know why they hassle us to leave Bluetooth on: because it's crucial to their location data mining, errrr I mean services. Used to improve location accuracy is the positive phrasing, i.e. ping known ID/location pairs and update the global map of devices.
Jeff’s good points notwithstanding, I don’t think it’s more nefarious than “we have a lot of support volume from people having turned off Bluetooth and complaining their devices no longer work right, because they don’t understand what role Bluetooth plays in that”.
I imagine “accidentally disabled Bluetooth / thought they didn’t need it any more” is way more likely than “disabled Bluetooth for a good reason”, and that this guided their thinking. Arrogant and paternalistic, sure.
I agree with Sören, with the biggest proof Jeff's statement "The prompt does not appear on laptops."
