CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphonemacosshellbluetooth
Afshin
Afshin

Reputation: 91

Connect to bluetooth device (iPhone) via command line on MacOSX

I'm trying to figure out a way to connect to my iPhone via Bluetooth with a shell script. I'm currently using an applescript which essentially does this through UIElements, but I'm wondering if this can be done with a command line utility, a.l.a. blueutil but with the ability to connect to the device not just turn on/off bluetooth? Thanks for the consideration.

-Afshin

Upvotes: 9

Views: 16259

Answers (8)

raine
raine

Reputation: 1929

This tool1 allowed me to connect to bluetooth headphones from command line.

Upvotes: 2

Greg Schwartz
Greg Schwartz

Reputation: 73

Updating this for High Sierra 10.13.2, based on the answers provided by Andrew Burns and dougal. 

set DeviceName to "LG HBS730"

tell application "System Events" to tell process "SystemUIServer"
    set bt to (first menu bar item whose description is "bluetooth") of menu bar 1
    click bt
    if exists menu item DeviceName of menu of bt then
        tell (first menu item whose title is DeviceName) of menu of bt
            click
            tell menu 1
                if exists menu item "Connect" then
                    click menu item "Connect"
                    return "Connecting..."
                else
                    key code 53 -- hit Escape to close BT menu
                    return "No connect button; is it already connected?"
                end if
            end tell
        end tell
    else
        key code 53 -- hit Escape to close BT menu
        return "Cannot find that device, check the name"
    end if
end tell

Changes:

  • Clicking on the Bluetooth icon no longer closes the menu. Solved by hitting the Escape key, per this answer and confirmed on this page
  • Checking to see if the device is listed in Bluetooth menu, to detect incorrect names. (I spent quite a while debugging, only to realize ' isn't the same as ’...)

Hope this helps others, not trying to steal karma!

Upvotes: 5

lawsome
lawsome

Reputation: 185

I have multiple bluetooth audio device(s). So Andrew's script is very helpful. Here's my modification to his script. I'm not a programmer/IT person, just learned some bits from the internet.

set btchoice to BT_Choice()

on BT_Choice()

display dialog "Choose the device of your choice" with title "Selecting Device" buttons {"Bluedio", "Reconnect S-TS", "Anker A7721"} default button "Reconnect S-TS"

set Ndialogresult to the result
set DNameSel to button returned of Ndialogresult

display dialog "Whether to Connect or Disconnect the Device" with title "Handling Bluetooth" buttons {"Connect", "Disconnect", "Cancel"} default button "Connect"

set Bdialogresult to the result
set Bbuttonsel to button returned of Bdialogresult

activate application "SystemUIServer"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "SystemUIServer"

        set btMenu to (menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 where description is "bluetooth")
        tell btMenu
            click
            tell (menu item DNameSel of menu 1)
                click
                if exists menu item Bbuttonsel of menu 1 then
                    click menu item Bbuttonsel of menu 1
                    return "Connecting..."
                else
                    click btMenu -- Close main BT drop down if Connect wasn't present
                    return "Connect menu was not found, are you already connected?"
                end if
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end tell
end BT_Choice

Upvotes: 0

Arius Kahn
Arius Kahn

Reputation: 221

Dougal's answered worked for me. You can also use Automator to create a service that can be run from anywhere and assign it a Keyboard Shortcut in Keyboard Shortcut Preferences for an even faster workflow.

Upvotes: 0

Danica
Danica

Reputation: 28846

I had to change a bit to get Andrew Burns's answer to work for me in Yosemite; his code keeps giving me

connect-mouse.scpt:509:514: execution error: System Events got an error: Can’t get menu 1 of menu bar item 3 of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer". Invalid index. (-1719)

Seems like selecting the menu bar item that way lets you click on it, but not get to the menu, for some inscrutable applescript reason. This very similar code works for me:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "SystemUIServer"
  set bt to (first menu bar item whose description is "bluetooth") of menu bar 1
  click bt
  tell (first menu item whose title is "The Device Name") of menu of bt
    click
    tell menu 1
      if exists menu item "Connect"
        click menu item "Connect"
        return "Connecting..."
      else
        click bt  -- close main dropdown to clean up after ourselves
        return "No connect button; is it already connected?"
      end if
    end tell
  end tell
end tell

I don't know the difference between (first menu bar item whose description is "bluetooth") of menu bar 1 and (menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 where description is "bluetooth"), but....

Upvotes: 6

Andrew Burns
Andrew Burns

Reputation: 14519

This answer is very similar to @Wolph's answer; however after fighting other issues this is what I came up with. I like it better for two reasons: # It will not disconnect the device if it is already connected # Nice output from osascript

Just save it in a file and call osascript path/to/file.applescript

This was working on OSX Mavericks 10.9.2 as of 11-Apr-2014, although you may need to grant access to whatever method you use to run this in the security preferences panel. See this Apple KB: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5914

All you should have to do is change the "LG HBS730" string to match the name of your device and you should be set. The returns are there so you get nice output from osascript.

activate application "SystemUIServer"
tell application "System Events"
  tell process "SystemUIServer"
    -- Working CONNECT Script.  Goes through the following:
    -- Clicks on Bluetooth Menu (OSX Top Menu Bar)
    --    => Clicks on LG HBS730 Item
    --      => Clicks on Connect Item
    set btMenu to (menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 where description is "bluetooth")
    tell btMenu
      click
      tell (menu item "LG HBS730" of menu 1)
        click
        if exists menu item "Connect" of menu 1
          click menu item "Connect" of menu 1
          return "Connecting..."
        else
          click btMenu -- Close main BT drop down if Connect wasn't present
          return "Connect menu was not found, are you already connected?"
        end if
      end tell
    end tell
  end tell
end tell

Upvotes: 11

Wolph
Wolph

Reputation: 80081

After messing about a bit with Applescript I wrote this little bit of Applescript to connect:

Note that the "Show Bluetooth in menu bar" checkbox needs to be on for this as it's effectively just using that menu.

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "SystemUIServer"
        tell (menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 whose description is "bluetooth")
            click
            -- You can use your phone name as well over here if you have multiple devices
            -- tell (menu item "YOUR_PHONE_NAME_HERE" of menu 1)
            tell (menu item 1 of menu 1)
                click
                tell (menu item 1 of menu 1)
                    click
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

Upvotes: 4

cody
cody

Reputation: 3277

As far as I know you can only turn on/off bluetooth and check the status in command line (using blueutil or manipulating with launchctl). But you can use your applescript routines via osascript in shell.

Upvotes: 0

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