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The blog of Australian Front End / Aurelia Javascript Developer & brewing aficionado Dwayne Charrington // Aurelia.io Core Team member.

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Solution To The Apple Magic Mouse Disconnecting When Bumped

General · September 18, 2014

Recently, I encountered a REALLY annoying issue with my Mac Magic Mouse disconnecting every time it was bumped.

Sometimes when I listen to music I like to tap my desk and without realising, I tap my mouse as well (the Apple purists are probably shrieking reading that). Recently I put some new batteries into the mouse because the other ones went flat and then found I kept getting disconnected.

The issue wasn’t the batteries coming out, because letting the mouse sit and then tapping it would reconnect it to my Mac. The issue is actually the type of batteries that you use in your mouse and a subtle design flaw in the Magic Mouse battery compartment.

Even though the mouse takes double A (AA) batteries, it seems not all batteries are created equally. I was previously using Energizer branded AA batteries with no problem but ran out and only had some Eveready Super Heavy Duty batteries lying about which I put in.

Comparing the size of the older Energizer batteries with the Eveready Super Heavy Duty ones was immediately clear: the Eveready batteries were about 2mm smaller than the Energizer batteries.

The issue appears to be when the mouse is bumped one of the batteries actually seems to briefly lose contact with one of the terminals because of the smaller size and the mouse expecting a particular minimum length of the battery. Whether or not you can call this a design fault, it is annoying.

You might get the urge to fix the issue using aluminium foil to pad out the contact, but if you can afford to pay almost $100 for a Magic Mouse, you can afford $10 for a packet of batteries or the Apple-branded rechargeables which fit well.

After discovering this issue, I tested a few other batteries and discovered that Duracell batteries will be useable as well, but there was a tiny bit of play still. It seems the Apple Magic Mouse was designed with Energizer sized batteries in mind.

My advice would be to actually buy the Apple-branded AA batteries and a charger. They fit well and I think are actually Energizer batteries rebranded or made by the same company (I can’t confirm this though) comparing side by side, they appear to be the same size and thickness unlike other batteries compared.

Dwayne

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18 Comments
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Paul Gardiner
Paul Gardiner
8 years ago

I found that energizer “advance” don’t work for me, but duracell are ok. It was pretty frustrating to figure out what the issue was.

0
pekae
pekae
8 years ago

Ordinary Duracell work for me too – yet Duracell Procell don’t! Very frustrating.

0
Patrick
Patrick
8 years ago

I just went with the aluminum foil pads. Solved the issue for me. Thanks!

2
Menno
Menno
7 years ago

I had simular problem. I slightly bended the ‘battery-door’ to keep pressure on the batteries. Solved it.
$ 0.–

0
Andrew Scott
Andrew Scott
7 years ago

I find that Duracells Ultra Power (UK) have the same issue; works flawlessly until I pick up the mouse and put it down!

I’ve tried a few fixed, paper between the ‘battery-door’ & cells appear to reduce the frequency significantly.

I think I’ll get me some Apple Branded Rechargables.

0
Mark Gilbert
Mark Gilbert
7 years ago

Thanks for the advice.

I found a folded post it note inside works fine!

0
Andrew Culture
Andrew Culture
7 years ago

Well I do like a nice simple fix.

Although my magic mouse problem was made somewhat worse by the fact the battery door fell off and I accidentally ran it over with my chair.

1
Robert Anema
Robert Anema
7 years ago

@ Andrew Culture …. as I just was researching how to resolve the Magic Mouse disconnect problem … I tried the first fix of adding some paper between both batteries. Seems to be working. Wanted to mention to you that some folks found that just removing the battery door/cover altogether also fixed the problem for them … so if you broke your cover you might just use as-is.

0
David Corbaley
David Corbaley
7 years ago

Awesome! Thanks for this post. I used a folded up post-it note as well and the issue has stopped. This has been a pain for so long, what a simple fix.

0
Marie Lee
Marie Lee
6 years ago

I had the exact issue with the mouse with the second set of batteries (Kodak). The first set I used was the Energizer batteries, and until now I didn’t know that batteries differ in size. Thanks for the information! I guess I have to go back to Energizer ones to continue using the mouse.

0
Tanguy
Tanguy
6 years ago

I used folded paper behind the battery and solved my problem! Thanks

0
Stephen
Stephen
6 years ago

Thank heavens for a solution that doesn’t require spending hours struggling with software download problems! Fixed two Magic Mice in this way with bits of paper!

0
Lyuben
Lyuben
6 years ago

A bit of toilet paper solved all my problems 🙂

0
Mike
Mike
6 years ago

Paper behind the cover – stupidly genius! Works like a charm

0
Steve
Steve
5 years ago

Eveready “ACCU recharge” have problems in my Magic Mouse (v1).
Solution: a small square post-it, folded/rolled and stuck to the inside of the cover with the fattest part in the middle of the battery compartment.

0
Doug Marshall
Doug Marshall
5 years ago

Amazon Basics AA batteries seem to do the trick as well. They are longer than the ones I was using and they appear to be the correct size based on what I read here. Thanks for sharing this trick!

0
Ben Tupper
Ben Tupper
2 years ago

Bend the lend as Menno described in comment above. I just did it …. WORKS! $0

0
Oliver Lewis
Oliver Lewis
2 years ago

Finally, a solution! Thank you for sharing.

0

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