pair a1016 wireless keyboard in monterey

• The steps below were taken from a closed discussion with no answer - I found the answer
• Read and follow all the following steps - but when it comes time to enter the pairing code '0000' enter that on the wireless keyboard! Because of course you have been doing everything on a USB extrernal keyboard or a built in keyboard - there was no indication but just input 0000 on the wireless and away i went.
• GOOD LUCK
• Step 1: Install Homebrew for macOS

Copy/paste the following command (taken from the Homebrew website https://brew.sh) into Terminal and type Return

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

• Step 2: Install blueutil with Homebrew

Still in Terminal, enter the following command and wait for it to complete:

brew install blueutil

• Step 3: Use blueutil to discover your Bluetooth peripherals and get its MAC address

Using blueutil is pretty simple. There is a good documentation of what it can do out there, but you can also simply type in Terminal :

blueutil --help

From now on, make sure:

– Your Bluetooth module is on by clicking on the BT icon in the menu bar,

– Your keyboard is in 'Discovery' mode (you just turned it on, it isn't connected to anything else and its green light is blinking)

Run the command:

blueutil --inquiry

to discover the available Bluetooth peripherals in your area. It will give you something like this:

(base) you@your-computer ~ % blueutil --inquiry                    
address: xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx, not connected, not favourite, not paired, name: "Apple Wireless Keyboard", recent access date: 2021-11-06 18:22:39 +0000

You may have more than one peripheral here, be careful to select which one is most likely your keyboard. Note the 'address' part. That's the MAC (not Macintosh) address of your keyboard which is its unique network identifier, with x hexadecimal numbers between 0 and f. You want to highlight and copy that part with Cmd+C.

Now that you have your keyboard's MAC address all you have to do is run the following command:

blueutil --pair xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx 0000

The '0000' is the PIN key we specify so we have to type the same on the keyboard to finalize pairing. Be careful, here, after you press enter, nothing happens. It's a bug of the current BT API embedded in Monterey. Just wait a few seconds and then enter 0000 and press Return on your external keyboard. Pairing should then be successful and you would be able to use your ancient but nicely designed keyboard with your modern Mac. If not, you can try several things (for which I have no proof they actually help):

• Reboot your computer
• Enter the PIN number by using the main keyboard, or conversely, the numeric keypad
• Make sure that your keyboard isn't already paired — with blueutil, you can check that by running the command blueutil --paired
• Reset your computer's SMC and NVRAM (How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support)
• Reset the keyboard by removing the batteries for ~20 seconds, putting them back in and turning the keyboard on again
• Replace the batteries

Mine was reluctant to pair until I reset the SMC and PRAM once more. Good luck!