There are a number of possible issues here, mostly revolving around the fact that the system depends on a Python script piping data into Wireshark. You may find the following post from a user help to try to debug this, the cause being a potential conflict with multiple instances of Python on your system: https://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=146215#p726333

This is a limitation of the sniffer firmware from Nordic.  Advertising in Bluetooth Low Energy happens on three dedicated channels, each running at it's own frequency.  For the sniffer to 'follow' the connection it needs to be looking at the right channel when the connection happens, and there is a 2/3 chance that it is looking at another channel at any given moment.

To capture the connection and see data exchanges post connection, you may need to connect several times until the channels are aligned between the sniffer and the BLE peripheral+central devices.

Reflashing Bluefruit LE modules over SWD (ex. switching to the sniffer firmware and back) is at your own risk and can lead to a bricked device, and we can't offer any support for this operation!  You're on your own here, and there are unfortunately 1,000,000 things that can go wrong, which is why we offer two separate Bluefruit LE Friend boards -- the sniffer and the normal Bluefruit LE Friend board with the non-sniffer firmware, which provides a bootloader with fail safe features that prevents you from ever bricking boards via OTA updates.

AdaLink (SWD/JTAG Debugger Wrapper)

Transitioning between the two board types (sniffer and Bluefruit LE module) is unfortunately not a risk-free operation, and requires external hardware, software and know-how to get right, which is why it isn't covered by our support team.

That said ... if you're determined to go down that lonely road, and you have a Segger J-Link (which is what we use internally for production and development), or have already erased your Bluefruit LE device, you should have a look at AdaLink, which is the tool we use internally to flash the four files required to restore a Bluefruit LE module. (Note: recent version of AdaLink also support the cheaper STLink/V2, though the J-Link is generally more robust if you are going to purchase a debugger for long term use.)

To go from the sniffer to Bluefruit LE firmware the mandatory Intel Hex files are available in the Bluefruit LE Firmware repo. You will need to flash: 

• An appropriate bootloader image
• An appropriate SoftDevice image
• The Bluefruit LE firmware image
• The matching signature file containing a CRC check so that the bootloader accepts the firmware image above (located in the same folder as the firmware image)

The appropriate files are generally listed in the version control .xml file in the firmware repository.

If you are trying to flash the sniffer firmware (at your own risk!), you only need to flash a single .hex file, which you can find here. The sniffer doesn't require a SoftDevice image, and doesn't use the fail-safe bootloader -- which is why changing is a one way and risky operation if you don't have a supported SWD debugger.

Adafruit_nF51822_Flasher

We also have an internal python tool available that sits one level higher than AdaLink (referenced above), and makes it easier to flash specific versions of the official firmware to a Bluefruit LE module.  For details, see the Adafruit_nRF51822_Flasher repo.

The Sniffer Firmware V1 plugin was written for Wireshark 1.12.x and won't work with older versions of the tool or the new 2.x family.  Be sure to download an appropriate version (for example 1.12.1, which is the version used in this guide).

The Adafruit board has a small difference compared to the original Nordic HW that Nordic wrote their sniffer firmware for.  To keep the cost as low as possible, we don't populate the optional 32.768KHz RTC crystal on our boards, whereas it is present on the more expensive Nordic development kit.

Because the startup code in the sniffer firmware from Nordic uses this crystal, we had to request a custom version from Nordic that uses the internal 16MHz RC oscillator instead.  When providing us the custom firmware, they changed the version number slightly, which is the reason for the warning message.

You can safely ignore the firmware update warning and use the device as normal, and in fact updating to a firmware from Nordic won't work unless you also solder the optional 32.768KHz crystal on the bottom of your PCB as well.

If you think there is a problem with your sniffer, you should look at the LED closest to the black SWD connector box at the end of the board.  It should flash every time Bluetooth Low Energy activity is detected when the serial port is open.

You can also open a Terminal Emulator (Putty, RealTerm, etc.) with the following settings, and you should see data coming out almost as soon as you plug the sniffer in:

• Baud Rate: 460800
• HW Flow Control: RTS + CTS Enabled