Note: If this tutorial worked for you (and it should work), please leave a comment below. Thanks.
One of the biggest appeals for buying Apple products is their ease of use. They are tremendously easy to set-up and use out of the box. Case in point–my wife just got a new iMac for work. I opened the box and there was a power cord, a Bluetooth keyboard and a wireless mouse. Plug it in, turn it on, and it just works. Corny, but absolutely true. Apple get’s it. For a new customer the ability to set up a new device, and use it with relative ease is invaluable.
So when I couldn’t get my 3rd generation iPad to recognize my Apple wireless keyboard that I have used for almost a year, I was perplexed to say the least. I reviewed the steps multiple times thinking that I must have missed something. It’s not too complicated. On my iPad I did the following
- Open Settings
- Select Bluetooth from the menu on the left sidebar
- Switch to on
- Hold down power button on Apple wireless keyboard to power on
- Wait for green light to come on, let go
- Select Apple Wireless Keyboard from devices
- Enter pairing code on keyboard
- Press enter
- Your connected and ready to use
So why would’t my keyboard and iPad play nice? I explored the forums, I checked the message boards, and nothing was making sense. Then I saw that some users suggest that I make sure I didn’t try to pair the devices while in close proximity to other devices that had Bluetooth active (e.g. my MBP, or another iPad). So I went to another room of my house. The iPad would see the keyboard, but it still wouldn’t pair. Then it hit me–the keyboard can only pair with one device at a time! Even though I wasn’t currently using it, I remembered that a couple days prior I had paired the keyboard with my Apple TV after the latest software update.Armed with this epiphany, I went to test it out right away. I turned on my Apple TV, went to settings, Bluetooth keyboard, and selected forget this device. I repeated the steps above, and presto, it worked as advertised! You live and you learn.
