Bluetooth explorer mac os catalina

How to Enable the Optimal Audio Codec for Your Bluetooth Headphones in macOS

How good your digital music sounds often comes down to which file format it’s encoded in. Be that as it may, every Mac audio setup is only as strong as it’s weakest link, and if your Bluetooth connection isn’t up to scratch, even the best BT headphones will fail to deliver a decent wireless listening experience.

By design, all Bluetooth devices support the low-power SBC audio compression codec as standard. Fortunately, modern Macs also support AAC (Apple’s preferred iTunes codec) and aptX, which Android devices often use. These two codecs offer higher quality audio and generally lower latency than SBC, which is why most third-party wireless headphones on the market support one or the other, and sometimes both.

Yet for whatever reason, despite their AAC/aptX support, some headphones fall back to the bog-standard SBC codec when connected to a Mac. This can lead to a particularly underwhelming audio experience, not to mention latency-related sync issues, which will be a distinct concern if you use your headphones while gaming or watching movies.

Thankfully, it’s possible to force macOS to connect to your headphones using one of the two superior codecs. In this article, we’ll show you how to do so using Apple’s Bluetooth Explorer utility. (And if you’re comfortable opening a Terminal window, we’ve included a couple of commands at the end that do the same thing.)

But first, it’s worth checking which codecs your brand of headphones actually supports: Look for codec logos on the box, and make sure to check for references to codecs in the manual and any accompanying/online spec sheets.

Once you’ve established that your headphones support aptX and/or AAC, you’ll want to identify which codec is being activated when you connect the headphones to your Mac. Follow these steps to find out.

How to Identify Which Bluetooth Codec is Active

1. Establish a Bluetooth connection between your Mac and headphones in the normal manner.

Play some audio on your Mac so that it’s streaming to the headphones.

Now hold down the Option (Alt) key and click on the Bluetooth symbol in the menu bar. (If you don’t see it there, you need to check Show Bluetooth in menu bar in System Preferences -> Bluetooth.)

Hover your mouse cursor over the headphones in the connection list. You should see the headphones’ Active Codec shown in grey.

If your headphones are using AAC or aptX, you don’t need to do anything. Without going into the technical details, both standards provide relatively stable wireless connections and – as far as Bluetooth goes – comparably decent sound quality. However, if the codec shown is SBC, you’ll probably want to change it. Here’s how.

How to Force-Enable aptX and AAC Codecs in macOS

1. Open a web browser, navigate to Apple’s developer downloads page, and download Additional Tools for Xcode 9 [Direct Link] which contains Apple’s Bluetooth Explorer utility. Note that to access the page you’ll need to register for a free Apple developer account if you don’t already have one. Alternatively, use Google to find the Bluetooth Explorer utility hosted elsewhere and skip to step 5, but if you’re not downloading from Apple, be sure to screen the file for malware.
   

Once downloaded, double-click the Additional Tools dmg file to mount it on your desktop.

Open the Additional Tools drive and navigate to the Hardware folder.

Open your Mac’s Applications folder in another Finder window or tab.

Drag Bluetooth Explorer into your Mac’s Applications folder and launch the app from there.

From the Bluetooth Explorer menu bar, select Tools -> Audio Options.

In the Codecs section, tick the checkboxes alongside Enable AAC and/or Force use of aptX (depending on your issue). Make sure Disable AAC and Disable aptX are left unchecked.

Click Close to finish.

When your Mac reboots, you can confirm that the codec change has been applied by following the first series of steps in this article.

Terminal commands for enabling AAC and aptX Codecs

To enable aptX, input the following command, press Enter, and type your user password if prompted:
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod «Enable AptX codec» -bool true

Alternatively, to enable AAC, input the following and press Enter:
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod «Enable AAC codec» -bool true

To disable either codec via Terminal, simply replace -bool true with -bool false at the end of the command.

Источник

Как включить кодеки AAC и aptX для Bluetooth на Mac

Многие владельцы Mac используют с компьютерами беспроводные наушники и гарнитуры. Для разговоров по FaceTime или Zoom-конференций качество звука сгодится, а вот при прослушивании музыки не всегда раскрывается потенциал гарнитуры.

Изначально компьютеры Apple используют самый простой и распространенный кодек SBC, который ограничивает качество звука. При наличии совместимых наушников лучше использовать продвинутые кодеки AAC и aptX. Сейчас расскажем, как их активировать на любом Mac.

📌 Спасибо re:Store за полезную информацию. 👌

Как активировать кодеки в macOS

1. Запустите приложение Терминал через Spotlight или Launchpad.

2. Введите такую команду для активации кодека AAC:

sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod «Enable AAC codec» -bool true

3. Для активации кодека aptX введите команду:

sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod «Enable AptX codec» -bool true

4. Подтвердите действие вводом пароля разблокировки Mac.

5. Для проверки успешной активации введите команду:

sudo defaults read bluetoothaudiod

Теперь можете переподключить совместимую гарнитуру к Mac, чтобы активировать новый кодек.

Вернуть прежнее значение параметров можно такими командами в терминале:

sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod «Enable AAC codec» -bool false

sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod «Enable AptX codec» -bool false

Использование более мощных кодеков на поддерживаемых Bluetooth-наушниках не только улучшит качество звука, но и сократит задержку. Включить aptX и AAC можно на любом современном компьютере Apple, даже на новых устройствах с чипом M1.

Источник

Does macOS 10.15 Catalina no longer support aptX?

On version 10.15 Beta (19A558d) I can’t seem to get aptX to work anymore and was wondering if anyone else has aptX working still? Could this possibly have been removed?

Hardware: Late 2018 MacBook Pro 15, Bowers & Wilkins PX.

Trying to force aptX via Bluetooth Explorer from Additional Tools for XCode 11 GM Seed doesn’t seem to be giving any results either. I have tried the following combinations, restarting Bluetooth each time:

☐ Force use of aptX ☐ Disable AAC
☐ Disable aptX ☑️ Enable AAC
Result: Active Codec: AAC

☑️ Force use of aptX ☑️ Disable AAC
☐ Disable aptX ☐ Enable AAC
Result: Active Codec: SBC

☑️ Force use of aptX ☐ Disable AAC
☐ Disable aptX ☑️ Enable AAC
Result: Active Codec: AAC

7 Answers 7

I was testing the theory today with a codec name error.

Indeed, aptX remained 100 %. Very similar to Bug with the name. I hope they correct in the future. Checked in Bluetooth Explorer. Ran using the check box in the SBC codec menu and aptX to check bitrate in one case or another.

It turned out when put in priority aptX the bitrate was exclusively 384 kb/s and it was not possible to change it by any software, which is possible only with this code. Then banned aptX and it turned out bitrate which is possible only in SBC 327 kb/s.

Plus it was possible to change bitpool, which immediately led to the fall of bitrate and sound quality.

For those still looking, it appears that aptX support has been silently removed from macOS Catalina (10.15); even in the public release.

I had the exact same issue with a 13 inch model. Searching elsewhere, some people on r/headphones discussed what is better between AAC and aptX and seems to have agreed AAC is better. In that sense, I think I’m satisfied to listen to my PXs on AAC.

I didn’t realize Catalina had this issue until I switched my PXs from my iPad to my Mac and heard a huge difference in the balance between frequencies (equalizers off on both devices), so checked in my Bluetooth menu and found it was also to AAC, like your situation. For what it’s worth, I also ran sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod «Enable AptX codec» -bool true and with «Enable AAC codec -bool false (and restarted my Bluetooth module). They had no impact – but I think does the same as your approach.

However, when I’m using my PXs, it’s to focus on work, not music. If sound quality really bothers you and you prefer aptX, I hope there’s another solution! Maybe this is just a beta build bug!

Источник

dvf / change-codec.md

If you’re using a high-end bluetooth headset on your Macbook Pro it’s likely your mac is using an audio codec which favors battery efficiency over high quality. This results in a drastic degradation of sound, the SBC codec is the likely culprit, read more about it here.

Find out what codec you’re using

1. Play a song on your headphones
2. Option (⌥) click the Bluetooth button at the top of your screen
3. If you’re using AAC or aptX, you can stop here—those are the highest quality codecs.

Change your codec to AAC or aptX

UPDATE: It looks like Apple has silently dropped support for aptX, leaving only AAC

You’ll need to download Apple’s Bluetooth Explorer in order to change codecs.

Search for additional tools and download Additional Tools for XCode 11.dmg

Open the dmg , and open Bluetooth Explorer

Click on Tools > Audio Options and change your audio codec to the following settings:

• Enable AAC
• Force use of aptX

Disconnect your Bluetooth headset, reconnect it, and while some music is playing, inspect your codec. It should now show either AAC or aptX.

Squeezing the most out of AAC

You can increase the AAC bitrate in Audio Options but be sure to keep an eye on the graphs. The retransmission percentage is roughly equivalent to packet loss, and if you increase the bitrate too high your audio will start cutting out:

The retransmission rate is a function of distance and interference, and you’ll need to disconnect/reconnect on each attempt before you find the sweet spot.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

alexkerber commented Nov 19, 2019

This doesn’t work in Catalina (10.15.1) … strange that Apple in silent just removed the support for aptX

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

emikaadeo-git commented Nov 21, 2019 •

Yep, aptX no longer works on Catalina.
Also if you increase the AAC bitrate to maximum, Bluetooth Explorer (v7.0.0) will crash every time you click on Tools > Audio Options

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

Maksoud commented Dec 16, 2019

The correct link to download the additional tools:

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

dvf commented Dec 27, 2019

Thanks @Maksoud, I’ve updated

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

tcurdt commented Dec 30, 2019

Hm. Still shows SBC for me. Turned BT off and on again.
At the moment retransmission is at 0% — which is at least something.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

kerti commented Feb 27, 2020

@emikaadeo-git did you ever recover from those crashes? Maybe manually edit the AAC bitrate somewhere?

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

emikaadeo-git commented Feb 27, 2020

@emikaadeo-git did you ever recover from those crashes? Maybe manually edit the AAC bitrate somewhere?

No. Crashes are still there.
Even when manually trying to set AAC bitrate using:
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

dvf commented Feb 27, 2020

Let me know if you folks figure it out and I’ll update the gist.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

Saijayavinoth commented Mar 18, 2020

Yep, aptX no longer works on Catalina.
Also if you increase the AAC bitrate to maximum, Bluetooth Explorer (v7.0.0) will crash every time you click on Tools > Audio Options

I need solution for this. I’m stuck here.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

emikaadeo-git commented Mar 18, 2020

Yep, aptX no longer works on Catalina.
Also if you increase the AAC bitrate to maximum, Bluetooth Explorer (v7.0.0) will crash every time you click on Tools > Audio Options

I need solution for this. I’m stuck here.

There’s no solution for aptX because there’s no more support for aptX in Catalina.
For AAC bitrate — I was trying latest additional tools for XCode 11.4 beta 2 but Bluetooth Explorer is still in 7.0.0 version so crashes are also still there.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

Saijayavinoth commented Mar 18, 2020 •

I can change the audio options using the additional tools for XCode 9.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

emikaadeo-git commented Mar 18, 2020

I can change the audio options using the additional tools for XCode 9.

Maybe you can but XCode 9 is for older version of macOS.
I’m not saying that you can’t change audio options with Bluetooth Explorer (v7.0.0)
I’m saying that it will crash every time you run it again after you increase the AAC bitrate to maximum.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

InteractiveLogic commented Mar 18, 2020

I was able to recover from the crashes by doing the following:

1. Turn Bluetooth off with Bluetooth menu
2. Launch Bluetooth Explorer
3. Open Tools > «Audio Options. » menu item
4. Click «Reset audio default» button
5. Close Audio Options
6. Quit Bluetooth Explorer

Opening Bluetooth Explorer and Audio Options no longer crashes for me.

Hope this helps!

P.S. My headphones are still getting major retransmissions and are super choppy, but it seems unfixable at this point. Too bad aptX is disabled. I would have liked to see if that actually helped.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

FlxVctr commented Mar 24, 2020

aptX seems to be back on Mac OS. At least it is for me. But I’d recommend sticking with AAC if listening via iTunes/Apple Music App.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

kerti commented Mar 25, 2020

Let me know if you folks figure it out and I’ll update the gist.

@dvf @emikaadeo-git I ended up just resetting the PRAM.

Also, AptX seems to be working fine for me (Catalina 10.15.3), but I switched back to AAC using default settings because it isn’t causing any noticeable delay.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

achembarpu commented Mar 30, 2020 •

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

benmthomas commented Apr 22, 2020 •

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

Cheers! step 4 helped 👍

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

fuergaosi233 commented Apr 24, 2020

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

Thanks ! Step 4 works for me 🎉 .

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

DannyFoxDJ commented May 2, 2020

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

Worked for me! Thanks!

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

amit4j commented May 23, 2020

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

Worked for me as well! Thanks a lot!

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

vbhaskerabotla-bsft commented May 29, 2020 •

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

Wow, the setting on the Headphone app fixed for me. «Priority on Sound quality» , I don’t know why I changed this to begin with. Thanks

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

tomhoad commented Jun 4, 2020

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

renderfarmer commented Jul 9, 2020

Nothing works for me. Using JBL Tune 500BT. Tried all the above, still showing SBC . they don’t have an app that supports these specific headphones.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

stevenya97 commented Jul 13, 2020

@renderfarmer Looks like that the JBL Tune 500BT doesn’t support any other codec than SBC. Which means you won’t be able to see AAC or AptX being activated through this tweak unfortunately. Sadly a lot of headphones don’t support advanced codecs

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

dimidagd commented Jul 19, 2020

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

Have you been having a stable connection thereafter? In my case (Catalina 10.15.5, same headphones model) I keep getting disconnected.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

abelfernandezh commented Aug 3, 2020

To fix crashes: sudo defaults delete bluetoothaudiod «AAC Bitrate»

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

zeeshanaslam78 commented Aug 5, 2020

For me AptX is already working fine on Catalina without anything changing but I have an other issue which is with microphone. When I use Tronsmart bluetooth earbuds on my mobile, mic picks voice from far and loud but when I use with MacBook pro it picks voice very very slow even If I take close to mouth still picks slow. I already volume up Input Volume under System Preferences -> Sound

Does anyone know how to fix this ?

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

gabyblech commented Aug 13, 2020 •

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

I tried exactly this on my MacBook running Catalina 10.15.6, but still no dice! My Active Codec is «SCO». I am using the Sony WH-1000XM3s.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

Aberdeener commented Aug 16, 2020

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

gabyblech commented Aug 16, 2020

So it turns out the real answer is that if the input device is the microphone in the headphones, it forces the lower-quality codec.
Grea post here that solved my problem:

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

jaseclamp commented Sep 18, 2020

If you’ve tried everything and are till having issues like I was, if you have krisp.ai installed, try uninstalling it and see all your problems go away.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

Delfic commented Oct 15, 2020

So it turns out the real answer is that if the input device is the microphone in the headphones, it forces the lower-quality codec.
Grea post here that solved my problem:

But what if my issue is exactly this. I had AAC from the start with the headset (using Bose 700) but on calls it uses SCO and I don’t want that. I actually found this page to fix the quality since it switches to Hands-Free Profile when on calls.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

dtelaroli commented Nov 12, 2020

I have same problem with headphone edifier w830bt and MacOS Catalina. When I use the internal microphone, the audio changes to SCO codec with HFP profile, even if I use the option DIsable HFP = 1.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

mirfilip commented Dec 14, 2020 •

btw. what’s the root cause of inability to use headphones mic and have AAC for output sound to headphones at the same time? I lived through this issue for 8+ years now haven’t seen any good writeup on this.

1. Is that the case there is no BT profile to have both at the same time?
2. Is there a possibility to force AAC for conferencing software (think Google Meet or Pexip) so that it never ever falls back to SCO?

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

Delfic commented Dec 14, 2020

What I believe is that 1. is the case.
I tried to do 2. without much success :/

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

i3p9 commented Dec 16, 2020

@InteractiveLogic I also had the same crash but unfortunately your steps didn’t fix it, I’m on Catalina (10.15.7). But I did found out the root cause of this happening.

The command below will let you see the changes you made in Audio Options

For me, it looked like:

So I just need to delete the «AAC Bitrate» key. To do this (Remember to copy the key properly, including the » marks)

That worked for me, if you find more keys in from the first command, just delete them as well and it should work normally again.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

hpashika commented Dec 22, 2020

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

This worked seamlessly for my Sony WH 1000XM4, thank you very much

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

ewestmore commented Feb 4, 2021

sudo defaults delete bluetoothaudiod «AAC Bitrate»

thank you so much

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

victornpb commented Feb 11, 2021 •

Does anyone know how to disable HFP (SCO codec) on Catalina

but reading it still shows it as 0

Or some way to disable/hide the headphone input device, so I don’t have to set my input back to «Macbook Internal Mic», every time I connect a headset or Airpods.

Only if I could hit the [-] remove button and remove that input interface

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

lbineau commented Feb 24, 2021 •

I think the guide works for me on «Big Sur» update but I’m not sure because the interface changed and I don’t see the codec used.

The sound of my Sony headset sounded like in a calling mode now it seems to be fine.

The codec AptX seems to be enable according to Bluetooth Explorer Audio graphs

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

Profitsarts commented Mar 9, 2021

Hi!
Just discovered that this works with Bluetooth Explorer app : Additional_Tools_for_Xcode_10.2.dmg
(its the only one that works for me at least on Catalina 10.16.7 with the security patches updated at 03/09/2021)

But I don’t really know if its doing anything or if it just opens up without crashing on startup.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

evilrussian commented Apr 2, 2021 •

@Profitsarts, agree. Only Additional_Tools_for_Xcode_10.2.dmg working for me on Big Sur 11.2.3
My settings for AAC:

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

StalkAlex commented Apr 15, 2021

On 11.2.2 also works from tools 11.4. It just doesn’t show anything on startup, but required functionality can be opened from the upper menu.

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

dabster3000 commented Jun 12, 2021

$ sudo defaults read bluetoothaudiod
2021-06-12 15:26:11.798 defaults[6281:131593]
Domain bluetoothaudiod does not exist

Getting above errors on MacOS 11.3.1, any solution ?

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

marnovo commented Jun 14, 2021

Seems Bluetooth Explorer and the Bluetooth menu display of the active codec do not work anymore on macOS Monterey, although sudo defaults read bluetoothaudiod still shows things enabled. Any ideas?

This comment has been minimized.

Copy link Quote reply

rodovelazquez-meli commented Aug 27, 2021

AptX is working on Catalina — I’m on Catalina 10.15.4 and using a Sony WH-1000XM3.

Steps I followed:

1. Run the following commands (Bluetooth Explorer is no longer needed)

1. Reboot both your system and headphones.
2. Connect and use an output-only application (i.e. do not use the mic) to check if the AptX codec is being used.
3. For Sony WH-1000XM3 specifically — Connect your headphones to a mobile device with the «Sony | Headphones Control» App, and configure your headphones to «Priority on sound quality» instead of «Priority on stable connection». This is crucial — my headphones refused to stop using the SBC codec until I did this.

Hope this helps someone! 🙂

Hi! Do you know any way to connect the 1000xm4 and use both the mic and the headphones without loosing quality? When I check the 2 options the codec changes from AAC to SCO, which makes the audio and mic quality awful. If there’s no way to do it, do you know how to prevent the macbook from selecting the BT input as default. Is very annoying to change the settings every time I reconnect the headphones to the macbook. Thanks for the help!!

Источник