Apple - Sharing a Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse sequentially between two Macs

I, too, was looking for an answer to this very question. Here is the solution that I came up with:

  1. Go to System Preferences -> Bluetooth
  2. Click 'Advanced'
  3. Make sure that 'Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer' is unchecked
  4. Click 'OK'

Now, when I want to switch from my main computer to my MacBook Pro, I put the main computer to sleep and wake up the second one. The bluetooth keyboard and mouse both switch over to the laptop and away I go. When I want to return to the main computer, I put the laptop to sleep and wake the Mac Mini using its power button.


http://www.share-mouse.com/ FREEWARE and PAID versions

or

Synergy - https://github.com/symless/synergy-core#synergy-core FREE and PAID versions

works on Mac and PC and can share between them both.

I've been using this solution so I can use my Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse on my Mac and PC at the same time. To switch you just drag your mouse to the edge of the screen and it shows up on the other computer as if it were one big desktop.


The trouble is with the devices, the Apple mouse and the keyboard in your case. They don't pair with more than one BlueTooth host at a time. You need a BlueTooth host that's "central" to both Macs if you want to use them.

You can find KVM switches that have BlueTooth host receivers in them. For example, this model from Zonet (dead link) works over USB and provides BlueTooth receiver capabilities. I cannot attest to how well that would work. Presumably you'd pair the keyboard and mouse with the BlueTooth receiver in the KVM instead of in either Mac and then using the keyboard shortcuts, switch between control of the Macs who are connected to the KVM via USB. How the Macs would respond to the BlueTooth receiver in the KVM coming and going as you switched between them is unclear to me. Could be they handle it just fine.

The other option is to seek out BlueTooth accessories that allow themselves to be paired with more than one host. And then switch between those hosts from hardware keys on them. For example, this keyboard+trackpad combo from IOGear supports switching between 6 BlueTooth hosts. So you'd pair it with both Macs and the use the keyboard switches to decide which one you were talking to at any point in time. That, to me, seems like the more reliable approach. Of course: now you're stuck using IOGear's keyboard instead of the Apple peripherals.