Cannot select Bluetooth device from Sound Output

On OSX Sierra, I can no longer select a Bluetooth Audio device for sound output. I can see the Bluetooth head set is connected and I can select momentarily under Sound Output (see attached screenshot). However, within a few seconds, the Bluetooth device de-selects itself and reverts back to Internal Speakers.

A few notes:

• I have tried a few different Bluetooth headsets and none pair with my Mac. They pair with my iPhone and other Macs so I can rule out an issue with the headphones
• I have tried deleting Bluetooth plists and re-pairing. That did not work.
• I have tried deleting plists related to audio with no luck
• yes, I've rebooted my computer.

This strikes me as an issue with core audio but I'm not sure how to address this without re-installing the entire OS

I will add the answer.

Looking through discussions.apple.com, as usual, yields bad advice: reset, reformat, disk cleanup. Essentially do a bunch of random nonsense until the problem sorts itself out.

Before you do anything overly-complex or even irreversible. I recommend you try what I call the monkey's gambit:

1. Unpair
2. Forget Device
3. Pair
4. Repeat steps 1, 2, 3 a lot

(Look through comments for specific instructions)

Even when it seems like it's doing nothing, keep doing it. It took me 4 or 5 tries. I was nearly convinced it was the hardware, but then all of a sudden I'm back to listening to mediocre music on a pretty good bluetooth speaker.

This might have been expedited if I rebooted my computer, but I really didn't feel like doing that.

TL;DR please do not reformat or reset your computer without running the monkey's gambit for a while; it might save you a more major headache.

To be fair, this worked for me, but it is entirely possible your system is in a state where this will not help it. I do feel compelled, however, to claim that if you can see the device connected in the bluetooth menulet then it is probably not a hardware problem.

I'm using RHA 650MA headphones and they just stopped working with my macbook. Their name was visible in the bluetooth dropdown, but whenever I clicked connect, it would connect and then disconnect after a few seconds. The headphones never appeared in system preferences -> sound.

Here's the solution:

• Go to Activity Monitor.
• Search for bluetooth
• You should see the following two items:
  1. bluetoothd
  2. bluetoothaudiod (this might not show up)
• Choose each one and Click X icon to restart it.

Now you should be able to connect!

I was able to solve this by quitting launchd from Activity Monitor (Restarting)

I could resolve this issue finally with removing additional audio plugins in the folder /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins.

I don’t know which of the following plugins caused the problem:

• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/AppleAES3Audio.component
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/InstantOn.driver (com.rogueamoeba.instanton-agent)