Letting Chrome use Bluetooth on a Mac

macOS asks for permission the first time Chrome talks to a Bluetooth device. Here is how to grant it, or fix it after a refusal.

The first time you click "Pair a device" in ToyControl on a Mac, macOS asks Chrome for permission to use Bluetooth. If you said yes, you are done. If you said no, or you never saw the prompt, this article walks you through fixing it.

Granting the permission

  1. Open System Settings (the icon that looks like gears, in your Applications folder or in the Apple menu).
  2. In the sidebar, click Privacy & Security.
  3. Click Bluetooth.
  4. You should see Chrome (or Edge) in the list. Make sure the toggle next to it is on (green).
  5. If Chrome is not in the list, that is fine. Open Chrome and click the + to pair a toy in ToyControl. macOS will show the permission dialog. Click Allow.

If you accidentally clicked Don't Allow

  1. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Bluetooth.
  2. If Chrome is in the list, toggle it on.
  3. Quit Chrome (Cmd-Q) and reopen it.
  4. Try to pair a toy in ToyControl again.

If the permission keeps being denied

Sometimes macOS gets confused. The reliable reset:

  1. Quit Chrome.
  2. Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal).
  3. Paste this command and press Enter: tccutil reset Bluetooth com.google.Chrome
  4. Open Chrome again.
  5. Pair a toy in ToyControl. The permission dialog will appear again, and you can click Allow.

The command resets just the Bluetooth permission for Chrome. Nothing else changes.

A note on different Macs

Recent Macs (Apple Silicon, MacBook Pro from 2020+, MacBook Air from 2020+, iMac from 2021+) ship with stricter Bluetooth permissions than older Intel Macs. The steps above are written for macOS 14 (Sonoma) and later. On older macOS versions, the path is similar but the labels may differ slightly.

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