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Magic Mouse Loses Connection

My Magic Mouse keeps losing its connection. Has any one else had this happen to them. I reapplied the update and had gone through the set again but the connection repeatedly is lost. Luckily I still have my wired mouse plugged in or my IMAC would be useless.

IMAC, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Nov 1, 2009 1:39 PM

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357 replies

Feb 23, 2015 6:08 PM in response to ArnieB

After reading through some of these, and having the same problem - took the battery out and realized there was a lot of crud built up on the black strips on the bottom of the mouse...and some dust inside. Used a windex-dampened paper towel to clean off crud and dust off terminal points, and it works great! Had been cutting out on me every few seconds...now hasn't dropped the connection once.

May 8, 2015 10:42 AM in response to ArnieB

Great post with lots of solutions for all sorts of mouse issues. I have a late 2009 27 inch iMac that keeps chugging along, but started losing the wireless mouse connection every minute or so. After reading the post I realized I never looked at the most obvious problem - perhaps the terminals have corroded after five years. Looking carefully, sure enough, the two positive terminal recesses looked a little dingy, but they are not so easily accessible, so I just took a clean paper towel, twisted it to form a point, and twirled it around to press against the metal to remove any obvious corrosion. Didn't bother using alcohol or anything. Did this for each side, and also on the bottom spring-loaded connections for good measure. Replaced the batteries and cover and voila, it works fine.


Especially with batteries, it's important to have a solid connection. As a software engineer, I'm often reminded that it will never work right unless the hardware is working right to start with. I have also noticed that the batteries are not as snug as they could be in the battery compartment, but that's always been the case and hasn't been the problem so far. It's still has a look and feel of quality more than any of the other the battery compartments I've seen, which is a pleasant reminder today of the vision of Steve Jobs.

Jun 12, 2015 7:07 PM in response to ArnieB

I have seen lots of suggested solutions, including loose battery connections, resetting the PRAM, diddling around with preferences, etc. I thought it must be something loose in the mouse itself because when I tapped it, it would reconnect. But Apple support was convinced it was in the operating system, specifically the bluetooth software, even though this was an out of the box, new computer. So we reinstalled the OSX (Yosemite), and I have not had a problem since. This did nothing to my existing documents, programs or preference. Nothing had to be reset.

Jun 19, 2015 2:01 AM in response to rozettj

I Have been chasing this one for a year or two. I have tried all of the various "solutions" and have decided it is a design issue with the so-called "Magic Mouse". I think the problem lies in the design of the battery compartment. The power gets cut when the batteries move. This usually happens when the mouse is bumped around and can sometimes be fixed simply by gently tapping the mouse down on the mouse pad. Varies other solutions have been suggested to restrain the batteries but rather work in the long term. The design is unusual in that the batteries are not placed in the mouse "head to tail" as is usual but both plus terminals at the same end. Added to this the terminals are highly polished and may get easily contaminated. I have noticed that the problem is less likely to arise if the batteries are fresh or if the terminals are carefully cleaned.


if it's not any of the above, then the only other explanation is that the Mac loses WiFi momentarily. This does happen with the WiFi connection to printers and may be a common problem with the software or hardware associated with iMacs.


I Personally have given up on this one. It is annoying but life is too short.


THis fault seems to affect all versions of OSX - up to and including Yosemit.

Aug 24, 2015 2:54 PM in response to davearious

Just remember, this particular thread was started on 1st November 2009 and Apple still haven't fixed it - a mere 5 years and 9 months (approx)! Perhaps they never will...........


The logitec mouse sounds good - is it Apple compatible? I have a Belkin WiFi mouse that I use with an old Windows Laptop (Vista OS!!!) and that works perfectly - no loss of functionality.

Jan 23, 2016 11:58 AM in response to rozettj

Have/Had the same problem on BOTH my MacBook Pro 13 Retina and 15 Retina. Yes, loose batteries are an issue and yes, the many many suggestions in the thread help address that problem (I use the a double-thick business card stock between the batteries myself). What I also discovered was a BT SIGNAL/PROXIMITY problem.


I use a Henge Horizontal Dock for both machines and noticed intermittent connections/Jitter/Sticking when using the mouse a ~45 degree angle to the lower left corner of both MacBooks when the screen was down. Move the mouse to another angle, and all is well! To fix, I simply opened the screen. If I had to guess, the antenna for the BT is in the screen....get too close to the corner and at the wrong angle, and mouse response "jitters" and "sticks". Attached pictures show what I mean.


Hope this helps.


User uploaded file

User uploaded file

User uploaded file

May 30, 2016 5:59 AM in response to gioros

I had some success putting a piece of rolled-up paper between the batteries, which seems to hold then in place more tightly. Using non-rechargeables also helped (1.5V vs 1.2V for rechargeable batteries). But rechargeables used to work fine with this mouse when it was new. It all suggested a poor connection, and a close inspection of the recessed positive terminals showed that one was slightly grimy. As Gioros suggests, wiping the terminals clean can help—especially the recessed positive terminals. I just used a piece of tissue held with tweezers to polish the metal. It seems to have fixed the dropout problems and rechargeable batteries now work fine, without the need for anything extra jammed into the battery compartment. I suspect that frequent small dropouts sometimes lead to frequent disconnects. Perhaps that sometimes confuses the computer. I ran into some situations where the mouse wouldn't work at all until I'd deleted and reinstalled the Bluetooth device. But in my case, at least, a marginal battery connection seems to have been the root of the problem.

Magic Mouse Loses Connection

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