I’ve raged a lot on my networks about how crap my Apple Magic Mouse battery life has been and how it keeps constantly disconnecting. I would get constant disconnects and I have done research and found one suggesting that the battery contacts were getting bumped so I jammed a piece of paper in there and it appeared that it was doing a better job, for about a week, then back to the old tricks.
To diagnose the problem I wondered if the OS was logging anything. I opened up the Console app to see if the OS was logging anything about the mouse and sure enough it was. I was able to see my mouse disconnect and reconnect in real-time as it logs with entries like this:
11/08/11 8:48:12 AM kernel [12a53600][AppleMultitouchHIDEventDriver::start] entered 11/08/11 8:48:12 AM kernel [1723e400][AppleMultitouchDevice::start] entered 11/08/11 8:50:04 AM kernel [1723e400][AppleMultitouchDevice::willTerminate] entered 11/08/11 8:50:04 AM kernel [1723e400][AppleMultitouchDevice::stop] entered
Ok, so it’s disconnecting, what does that mean? I saw these in the logs months ago but googling the error nothing came up. I decided to give it another go today and came across this post on the Apple Discussion Forums. With its first post in 2009 which is weird cause I didn’t find that in my searches earlier in the year. It’s got 5 pages of people mostly saying ‘I got the same problem’ but one guy sparklelellama suggested it could be the batteries themselves and specifically mentions Duracell batteries and other cheap batteries. He hypothesizes that the magic mouse requires a 1.5V constant power output and that cheaper batteries can’t handle it.
So I decided to give his idea a bit more thought. I pulled out the multimeter and sure enough he was right. A brand new Eveready ‘Super Heavy Duty’ was outputting 1.68 V while one that has been in my magic mouse for a week was only outputting 1.46V after a week of moderate use it dropped 0.24V, that’s massive! Not so super heavy-duty it would seem.
I put some Duracell’s back into the Magic Mouse and the disconnect problems seem to have disappeared. If it changes in a week I’ll report back. Otherwise don’t skimp on your batteries and get the best you can, cause I can finally talk about the magic of the Apple Magic Mouse.
UPDATE:
I’ve purchased an Apple rechargeable battery pack and all my issues with my mouse have gone for good!
15 thoughts on “Apple Magic Mouse keeps disconnecting [SOLVED]”
awesome thx for the help
I have the rechargeable battery pack, but the problem continues.
How has it been going since you switched to the rechargeables?
I haven’t had an issue with disconnects since switching to the apple rechargeables. Still run down every couple of weeks but at least it stays connected.
Well I had my first one and it didn’t right click all the time and purchased a new one and this one keps disconnecting. Whats with the issues?
Have you tried any of my suggestions? I have one mouse that was disconnecting from my macbook air just recently. A bit of paper jammed between the batteries and the cover was enough to stop it.
This solution works! well done!
still sucks yo
Try jamming a piece of paper between the back cover and the batteries, that has worked sometimes for me.
it seems to me the problem is the spring getting weak after a while so little bumps and jerks of the mouse cause a disrupt in the power n it cuts off, I use duracel rechargeables BTW, n still got the disconnection probs .. so tonight i got some foil paper and folded it a bit to give it some thickness the cut into a square n placed 2 pieces over each of the ends that hold the negative end of the battery in place… then slipped the batteries in in essence making the space the battery fits in tighter .. n viola i can now shake n bump the mouse with out the disconnection… will monitor it and see if that was really the problem… i suspect that it should fix it tho cause with some television remots and stuff after a while the springs get slack hence allowing the batteries to move out of place just slight enough to disrupt the circuit
I have one mouse where this trick works and the other just having decent batteries seems to fix it. Doesn’t really show much for build quality. Glad you got something working!
Yes I never thought the battery had any impact on this issue. I tried placing a piece of paper between the batteries and it seems to work fine for now. Thanks
That is not the problem at all. The problem is the design of the battery compartment SUCKS, and every time you pick up your mouse, if you don’t gently set it down, the bump on the desk causes the battery to slide away from the contact enough to shut the mouse off. It’s a ROYAL pain and I’m considering switching to some other mouse.
I agree that the design is a bit silly in regards to the need to hack the mouse with a sheet of paper to stop the batteries moving. This may not be the fix for all but a few people have reported success. I also don’t often pick my mouse up off the surface I’m using. Maybe your mouse settings aren’t optimal that require you lift it from the surface?
Have you tried jamming some paper between the batteries and the cover? Not ideal but it may help?
This works! I was using brand new sets of cheap batteries and after a few hours use I would get intermittent disconnections where the light on the mouse would go off. Tried putting foil on the contacts and packing the batteries down but still no green light. I swapped the batteries over with my new apple keyboard which came with ‘advanced’ batteries and the light came straight on. The cheap ones are working in the keyboard, for now anyway. Thanks for the tip
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