Magic Mouse keeps disconnecting from bluetooth

Well, count me in on the mysterious disconnects. After months of no issues, my Magic Mouse is disconnecting frequently. Sometimes every 30 seconds.

This just started a few days ago. I even wondered if it had something to do with Delicious Library as it began after I was scanning items into that app.

I've changed my batteries (Apple rechargeable) twice.

I'm going to be more aware of physical "bumping" issues and see if that makes any difference.

I'm left with my favorite, if desparate, explanation of "demonic possession."

I remain cautiously surprised to find that adding a folded sheet of paper under the battery cover of the mouse seems to have "cured" the problem. I use the term cautious because I used my computer for about 5 hours today without a single "lost connection". That has not occured since the problem first began some months ago.

I used a sheet of regular weight scratch pad paper and folded it in a tri-fold. (3 layers of paper) The folded paper was sized to fit just inside the opening so that when the cover is snapped back in place, no paper is visible from the outside.

The apparrent fix helps hold the batteries from moving and that stops the mouse from coming disconnected. Hopefully this continues to work and if so, I will be selling sheets of iScratchpad paper.

Just as what Nick Radonic said, I think there is a problem with the physical design of the battery holder. The positive plate does not hold on to the batteries properly, and in time, the batteries start to droop down. This explains why some people disconnects after lifting it up and dropping it down; the gravity pulls down the batteries and with the abrupt stop the batteries fall down a little.

So, what i simply did was to get a piece of memo paper, fold it in half then in half again and put it between the batteries and the cover. This way, the batteries will be forced in place by the pressure of the cover. So far after that no problems found 😀. Give it a try and see how. (IDK, maybe I'm wrong, just see how this method works)

I am very confident that I have eliminated the battery issue. I bought a new Magic Mouse and right out of the box the issue continues. Swapping between locations, the problem follows. Since my last response, I also bought a couple of small USB Bluetooth units and have tried them in several locations close to the mouse. Even plugged into a wired Apple keyboard, they have not made the problem go away.

To summarize, I think I have eliminated the mouse by replacing it with a new one. I have eliminated the internal Mac Bluetooth by using the external Bluetooth units. By locating them right next to the mouse, I believe I have also eliminated interferance from other devices. That brings me back to where I started in my belief that this has to do with the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Something is killing the connection for a microsecond. Since it shows disconnected on the screen usually followed by a reconnection notification the software is operating.

My next step is to contact Apple, but based on the number of postings on this subject I doubt they have a solution yet.

I have experienced this intermittent disconnection issue for some time with both my keyboard and MM. I seem to have fixed the MM issue by packing a wad of paper in the battery compartment to stop the small bumps on the mouse pad forcing disconnection.

I haven't resolved the keyboard problem.

Hi,

I had many problems with the Magic Mouse, disconnecting again and again. I thought it was a battery problem and tried many different thing as discussed in the various forums including SMC reset.

However, the real cause was a bluetooth problem. I had a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard connected to my mid 2010 MBP. The keyboard was totally stable while the Magic Mouse was disconnecting every other hour.

I have now replaced the Bluetooth keyboard with another nice logitech keyboard, but working not via bluetooth. It works via a micro USB dongle. And guess what: The Magic Mouse is totally stable and has not disconnected since a week. No matter what batteries, even with rechargeable batteries.

The problems is very likely caused by a lousy bluetooth implementation in the magic mouse, because I have never heard that any other bluetooth device is kicked out by a Logitech bluetooth keyboard. Also most other Apple bluetooth devices like the touchpad work coexist well with Logitech keyboards.

Bottom Line: This should encourage users who like to stick to the magic mouse, to search for interference from other bluetooth devices, rather than the details of the bluetooth stack in their Mac Books.

Stefan

Interesting. I tried many things too. But changing to brand new copper top batteries seems to have solved the problem for me. I also made sure that there is good contact with the electrodes. Bestbuy even ordered a new one for me but am reluctant to get it as the old one works so well for over 6 weeks. Go figure.!

There could be a software component -- a less than robust driver, as you describe it -- incapable of tolerating disruptions.

For my part, I look more at the battery issues. I had an Apple wireless keyboard. Now I am using the Apple wired keyboard. I still get disconnects, and I don't have other Blue tooth equipment to conflict. In addition I look at the bottom of the mouse when I'm having difficulties, and the indicator light is flashing erratically until I push the batteries in more securely. This tells me that power is intermittent. When I move of bump the mouse, the battery position shifts, so I am led to suspect the hardware.

The proof is to wire some test lines to the mouse's internals and check for a stable power supply and if possible, some sign of reset condition. From a software perspective a Bluetooth snooper of some type would be good. But this becomes a science project that Apple should have done.

Nick

My feeling is that it is the shape of the battery tips - not the material or the color.

After messing with this for months, I broke down and bought a new mouse from Apple. Set it up and.....same problem.....Bluetooth kept coming disconnected and then reconnected. I finally decided to call Apple Customer Service knowing that I was going to pay for the service help. It was either that, or go to a less capable mouse either wired or Bluetooth.

It took a while to get my case moved up the chain to the tech guy, but he walked me through a number of steps starting with resetting the PRAM. (shut down and restart then immediately press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen shows up. Continue holding unti the computer starts up and you hear the chim start-up sound TWICE. Then release keys)

After that, we deleted the Bluetooth prefs file from the system library (com.apple.Bluetooth.plist) and tossing it in the trash followed by another restart.

Guess what? After two weeks, of continued use, the Bluetooth issue has not come back.

While these seem too simple to be true, all I can say is that it worked. While on the call, he did ask if it looked like my batteries were not seated correctly, so I am guessing this is an issue that they are working on and have yet to find a univeral problem.

Brand new Mac Mini and on my 2nd Magic Mouse. It keeps randomly disconnecting, I pick it up and give it a firm pat on the back to make it reconnect.

I have around 30 Imacs that were running the magic mouse and all of them experienced the same random behavoiur.

We use the imacs in presentaions and have had to replace them all with wired equipment to solve the problem of them not being available at the right time.

Nothing worse than having to wait for the mouse to connect to move the the next cue -

Fixed this thing in the weirdest way - I noticed that the plastic sticker shrink-wrapped to the battery (duracells in this case) covered the positive end of the battery a little bit around the edge. Maybe a few millimeters. I peeled the sticker back around the positive end (so the whole positive face of the battery is exposed), and now it's fixed!

I've had this prob with an older (home) AND a brand new (work) Magic Mouse. Seems to be a consistent manufacturing fault.

I have found that replacing the batteries significantly improves this but today I had the problem persistently with my older home MM. I use rechargeable batteries (NiMH) and for the most part I haven't had probs with using them (apart from them dying quicker than regular batts). After replacing the batts a few times today I still kept having the dropoff problems. As a last resort I cleaned the terminals inside the MM (with just my T-shirt and elbow grease) and the problem has completely gone (for now). Dropping it a good 1-2cm has no effect!

Just thought I'd share. :-)

Putting in small pads of aluminum foil into the battery tip holes, in the mouse battery compartment, seems to have totally fixed the intermittent dropout behavior. So much so that when the batteries died (without interruptions until they were flat) I had forgotten about the foil and it dropped out as I removed the old batteries. The foil makes a better contact with the battery, and reduces the depth the battery tips have to go through the plastic. As well, it is rough and the tips don't slide around now. Apple could stand to redesign the metal plate at the battery tip side.