Apple Wireless Keyboard Eating Batteries

Ok, I have done as ZexX_pt has done and just manually installed the Magic Mouse driver for Snow Leopard. My keyboard batteries are currently at 76% and if the manual update didn't make a difference, the keyboard batteries should be dead by the end of the week.

We'll see what happens.

Hi everyone!

After re-installing the WirelessMouseSoftware, I didn't saw any improvements on the battery life. However, I noticed something that was not right. In my case, if I went to Preferences Panel>Bluetooth and clicked on top of the mouse, I would get:
Type Unknown
Services Apple Wireless Mouse
Paired Yes
Connected Yes

If I cliked on keyboard, I would get: Type Keyboard (instead of unknown). I disconnect both my mouse and keyboard. Turned bluetooth off. Run the WirelessMouseSoftware again and restarted (had to use a usb mouse). Then I went to Preferences Panel>Bluetooth and clicked on the plus ➕ and turned the mouse on. After it was paired, I did the same thing with the keyboard.
Now my mouse displays Type Mouse (and not unknown). Even the name now changed and says "user's" mouse like it says "user's" keyboard (note that the name "user's" is different from user to user, that's why I used commas).
It is soon to say that this fixed anything, I will post my findings after 24hours.
By the way, my keyboard is currently with 66% and my magic mouse with 75%.

Message was edited by: ZexX_pt

Experiencing the same problem as everyone here. On an iMac 20 about a year old. After getting the mouse started seeing our keyboard batteries not lasting at all. Apple gave us a "new" 3-battery keyboard replacement. Has not helped. Currently switched to wired keyboard until they sort things out. Call Applecare to report it... not sure it registered with the fellow. Where else can we let Apple know what is happening?

Same problem here. Had no idea it had to do with Magic Mouse until I found this thread! I'm running a second gen MacPro, first gen (3 battery) wireless keyboard and am still on Leopard. Since getting Magic Mouse about a week after introduction, battery life in my keyboard has gone from 2-3 months to about 10 days tops. I was going to swap my keyboard at the Apple Store, but sounds like that won't help and I'd rather avoid going in there during the holiday shopping season. Guess I will revert back to the Mighty Mouse until they fix the problem.

Well, It has passed aproximatly a day and 6 hours and my keyboard is currently with 57% and my magic mouse with 73%.
It is a 2% loss on the mouse and 9% on the keyboard so re-installing and pairing the devices again didn't seem to fix the problem. It appears that the problem is in drivers itself or that a new firmware for the keyboard is necessary. Apple could at least say something about this.

It seems to me after reading several posts that it is the Magic Mouse interfering with the sleep mode on the keyboard- I also have to change batteries weekly on the new 2-battery keyboard.
I'm going to talk to some guys at my local Apple Store to see if they've heard of anything. They have a few iMacs out- they should've noticed by now.
I've heard taking the batteries out or just turning it off (hold down the power button) does indeed extend the life tremendously. Has anyone tried turning off the mouse instead of the keyboard? If that increases the life of the keyboard, then it is definitely the mouse's fault. Just an idea- unfortunately, it will take some time to be able to tell. I'll try as well.

Yes, when I either turn off my magic mouse, or disconnect it altogether and go back to my mighty mouse, the battery drain stops. I believe a couple of other people on the thread have also switched back to old mice with the same results.

I have the newest 2 battery 'small' keyboard and the magic mouse and my keyboard has gone through three sets of batteries since I installed both the mouse and keyboard on the same day!

The bluetooth menu shows the mouse is at 62% with the original batteries while the batteries (duracell ultra) I put in 1 1/2 weeks ago are at 17%.

Now I don't want to have wasted $70.00 on the keyboard by going back to a wired one and I really, really don't want to replace the mouse with a wired one.

If I call apple will I actually get help or just put off?

I'm having the same problem. A set of 3 AA's about every 7 - 10 days. Seemed to happen about the time I upgraded to Snow Leopard, or the (same) time I got the new magic mouse.

Hi everyone.
I'm making readings everyday now since I re-installed the drivers and re-paired the peripherals and my keyboard is currently with 55% and my magic mouse with 72%.
It is a 2% loss on the keyboard and 1% loss on the mouse when comparing to the readings made aproximatly 24hours ago.
When compraing to the loss two days ago (a 2% loss on the mouse and 9% on the keyboard) it is a good improvement.
I strongly suggest that everyone try and do what I did (described in my first post on the 8th page) and report here their findings.

Everyone should call and make sure they understand you want to report this problem. When I called I was very forceful in saying I wanted to make sure this got reported.

Add me too. Config is iMac9.1, OS10.6.2, Apple Wireless Keyboard (3 batteries) 320, Mighty Mouse 512. Already bought 2 sets of batteries in last 10 days. Hello APPLE ...

-JJ-

Hi everyone.
It as passed a litle more than a day from my previous reading and my keyboard is currently with 52% and my magic mouse with 68%.
It is a 3% loss on the keyboard and 4% loss on the mouse when comparing to the readings made aproximatly 24hours ago.
It is consistent with the losses from the previous 24hours although the mouse loss a little bit more, but the keyboard appears to be fine.
I will have to run the test down for at least a week to confirm the consistency of the readings but it appears that my keyboard is back to normal. Or at least is on par with the magic mouse.
I seems the problems is with the instalation of the drivers and with pairing.

unfortunately didn't work for me. tried the suggestion of deleting the current BT pairing for wireless keyboard (Al 3- battery) & Magic Mouse, re-installing the new drivers, new batteries. overnight the keyboard dropped reserve power by 10% and the mouse by 9%. If I turn the keyboard off over night, the power drop is a more reasonable 1-2% for the keyboard. In my case with the new Magic Muse & drivers, the mouse power drop did accelerate, but not significantly. However, the keyboard power drop rate increased by 10X.

correction - overnight the keyboard dropped 19% from 100% to 81%.