How to Reset Bluetooth via Terminal on macOS 13

When Bluetooth crashes, freezes, or fails to connect on macOS 13 (Ventura), restarting the underlying system daemon via Terminal is the fastest way to restore functionality without rebooting your Mac. This guide provides the exact Terminal commands needed to kill and restart the Bluetooth background service, forcing the operating system to reinitialize the hardware module instantly.

Step 1: Open Terminal

Launch the Terminal application on your Mac using either method:

• Press Command + Space to open Spotlight, type Terminal, and press Return.
• Navigate to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

Step 2: Terminate the Bluetooth Daemon

In macOS 13, the Bluetooth stack is managed by the bluetoothd process. Killing this process forces macOS to automatically regenerate it, effectively resetting your Bluetooth hardware.

Enter the following command into the Terminal window:

sudo pkill bluetoothd

Press Return. Because this command uses sudo (administrative privileges), you will be prompted to enter your Mac user password. Type your password and press Return. Note that Terminal does not display characters or asterisks as you type.

Step 3: Alternative Restart Command (If the First Fails)

If the process does not automatically relaunch or the crash persists, you can explicitly force macOS launch services to restart the daemon using launchctl:

sudo launchctl kickstart -k system/com.apple.bluetoothd

Press Return to execute the command. This will forcefully restart the Bluetooth subsystem immediately.

Step 4: Verify the Reset

Once executed, all active Bluetooth devices (such as keyboards, trackpads, and headphones) will temporarily disconnect for several seconds. The Bluetooth icon in your menu bar will briefly flicker or gray out, then reconnect automatically as the bluetoothd daemon relaunches and re-establishes connections with paired peripherals.