Alfred Workflow: Bluetooth Controller

A powerful toolkit for managing your bluetooth connections. Includes Remote Trigger, to manage your Bluetooth devices on the big screen.

Contents

• Installation
• Usage
  • Commands
    • Manage bluetooth status
    • Toggle Device Connections
    • Manage favorite device
    • Pair/Unpair Device
    • Large-Type Bluetooth Status
  • Safe Mode
  • Remote triggers
• Troubleshooting
  • Notifications not working, or notificator error
  • Error xcrun: error: invalid active developer path
  • Remove quarantine using terminal
  • Allow Alfred to control bluetooth
  • Why do I need to install blueutil with Homebrew?
• Installation images
• Screenshots
• Attribution

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Installation

1. Download the Alfred workflow and double-click to install.
2. Install blueutil:

• Using package manager Homebrew:

    # install
    brew install blueutil
  
    # update
    brew update
    brew upgrade blueutil
  
    # uninstall
    brew remove blueutil

• Using package manager MacPorts:

    # install
    port install blueutil
  
    # update
    port selfupdate
    port upgrade blueutil
  
    # uninstall
    port uninstall blueutil

4. Allow Alfred to control bluetooth.
5. Enjoy!

Please see troubleshooting section if you experience any issues, and post an issue if the problem persists. Description of commands can be found below.

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Usage

Commands

Manage bluetooth status

• Turn bluetooth on: bton
• Turn bluetooth off: btoff
• Toggle bluetooth status: bttoggle
• Reset (disable, wait 1.5 seconds, enable: btreset

Toggle Device Connections

• Connect/disconnect from device: btd + device name

Manage favorite device

• Set favorite device: btsetfavorite + device name
• Toggle connection with favorite device:
  • with hotkey: cmd-ctr-option-f
  • with keyword: btfavorite
• Remove device as favorite:
  • btd + device name + press modifier key shift
  • btsetfavorite + device name + press modifier key shift

Pair/Unpair Device

• Pair:
  • btp + device name
  • Wait 5 seconds for results to show up.
• Unpair:
  • btd + device name + press modifier key cmd

Large-Type Bluetooth Status

• See status of bluetooth connection and paired devices.
• btstatus

Safe Mode

Set workflow configuration variable confirm in workflow to true if you want to force user confirmation on toggle and deactivation commands. (Useful for iMacs and Mac Minis who that would have trouble turning Bluetooth on again without any input devices.)

Remote triggers

Most, or all, the listed commands have their own Remote Trigger. (You're welcome to add ones that are missing.)

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Troubleshooting

Notifications not working, or notificator error

Have you granted Alfred access to controlling bluetooth? If you still experience issues after granting access, these problems probably stems from the notificator binary being blocked by Gatekeeper. We therefore need to allow it to run (remove the quarantine attribute from the bundled binary):

1. Open workflow folder in Finder by right clicking workflow (see image).
2. Right-click on notificator and click 'open' (see image).
3. Confirm open when dialog appears.
4. This can alternatively be done using the terminal.

Error xcrun: error: invalid active developer path

If you experience the error xcrun: error: invalid active developer path, Command Line Tools is likely not installed properly. More info, as well as instructions on how to install it, can be found here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/254381

Remove quarantine using terminal

Use the following command once in directory:

• Notificator: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ./notificator
  

Allow Alfred to control bluetooth

Go to System Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Bluetooth and add the Alfred version you are using (e.g., Alfred 5). If you have already added Alfred, ensure it is turned on.

Why do I need to install blueutil with Homebrew?

Many users with silicon chip macs experienced issues with the local binaries provided in the workflow. It also required manual removal of quarantine for many users, and relied on workflow updates for every new release of blueutil. After the implementation of Alfred's new [Resolve Dependecies feature], use of Homebrew installed tools suddenly became a lot more user friendly. I decided the time had come for letting Homebrew manage blueutil.

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Installation images

(Note: in the second image, the binary should be notificator, not blueutil.)

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Screenshots

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Attribution

• blueutil binary is used for bluetooth functionality.
• notificator binary is used for notifications.