why does magic mouse not work with duracel batteries

I bought my iMac 2 years ago, it came with a Magic Mouse, within several months I started having the same battery issues. I looked here, and on the Internet to find out if the problem was already known about, but found only people guessing wrongly at what the problem is. I do hope Apple has fixed this, but unfortunately many of got stuck with a junk Magic Mouse. As an Engineer with 25+ years of experience in the design of electrical contacts & connectors which includes over 2 dozen patents ... believe me when I say the problem here is that the recessed positive contacts (at the on/off switch end) are too deeply recessed to make contact with the industry allowed variation in AA batteries. Those contacts are too deeply recessed because the plastic is too thick (in the hole that forms the recess) and the metal contacts are not tightly up against the backside of that plastic wall, in fact it looks like they are installed with a gap and/or can deform/bend away further opening that gap even larger. As mentioned above many industry AA battery standards define the positive button contact height as being 1.0mm or larger ... however that plastic wall is about 1mm thick, add the gap for the metal contacts and you have no electrical contact no matter how much contact spring force there is at the negative end. Unfortunately, there is no simple good fix for the average person to perform, the recessed contacts can't be accessed to bend them to remove that gap and the pastic is too thick anyway .. leaving us with a "duct tape" fix, like wadding some tin foil into that positive terminal recess and swearing when it falls out during battery changes. A nice elegent fix, would involve disassembling the mouse, machining plastic, backing up those terminals... absurd right?... would be easier if Apple sent us a new mouse that works.

This problem has nothing to do with overall battery length, battery diameter, or inadequate spring contact force from the negative mouse contacts. Also I doubt the brand or type of battery is the issue for anyone, the positive button heights vary among brands/types, but probably are 1.0mm or larger per the industry specs, Apple just didn't design this mouse to that industry spec, or they did not control their manufacturing quality to yield what they designed. This iMac was my FIRST Apple purchase after decades of avoiding and dismissing Apple, ironically they won me over with their progress and high quality products ... I'm rather disappointed.

I've just had this exact problem!

I measured the duracell against the ones the mouse was supplied with (energizer) and they have different measurements. So the replacement batteries weren't making contact properly.

See if you can measure the old ones against your replacements to see if they're the same - and see if that works. I haven't finished testing this theory yet as I'm waiting for my rechargeables to charge up (they measure the same).

I've posted in a similar thread with my thought process as to why I came up with this theory.

HTH

Hello:

Blond or not 😉 Duracells should work just like any other battery. I use rechargeables (both Duracell and Energiizer). I would guess that one or both of the batteries were bad. The device is definitely not vendor-specific.

Barry

China has counterfeit everything, from Rollexes to iPhones. I would not be surprised if we got a boatload of counterfeit Duracells too. China even makes counterfeit air-liner parts, despite this is highly ilegal.

As you may have guessed, these parts are never up to specs to the originals.

In fact, there was discussions over here as to Apple Retail stores that are opening up over-seas, which are entirely counterfeit and non-licensed.

I would try some regular, fresh alkaline Energizer AAs, as I'm not sure that all batteries really are the exact same size. I only say Energizer because I think more people have had success with that brand than Duracell (with that particular problem, I mean) Could be just a poor contact thing.

OK so I've just put my rechargeables in and it's fine. The rechargeables are bigger and make better contact.

I did some searching, and yes there is a standard for batteries, but it is variable:

Battery sizes are standardised using the IEC 60086-2 and IEC 60086-3 standards.

What most people call AA batteries are actually defined as xR6 batteries by IEC (where x represents a single letter code designating the chemical composition of the cell).

xR6 battery dimensions as per IEC 60086-2 are:

Diameter: 13.5mm – 14.5mm
Overall Height (including protruding +ve contact): 50.5mm (maximum)
+ve Contact Height: 1mm (minimum)
+ve Contact Diameter: 5.5mm (maximum)
etc, etc.

It seems that the higher the capacity of the AA battery, the slightly bigger they are. So rechargeables, or very high capacity AA batteries are bigger. The less capacity they are, they are slightly smaller. So if the mouse is designed really for rechargeables or high capacity cells, that's why those ones fit and the smaller ones don't.

I found people on the Net who've had the opposite problem - that is high capacity batteries getting stuck in appliances because they are too big!

when my new batteries were slightly shorter, i fixed the problem using a rather "adventurous" method. i took a metal paper clip (those kind without the insulation) and broke off a short bit (around half an inch), bent it in half again (forming an elongated "U" shape) and stuck it between the negative end of the battery and the mouse metal contacts. they work just fine!

strong fingers or a precision plier helps!

Odd but Duracell batteries don't seem to work in the mouse.

The size or rather the shape of the Duracell battery is very slightly different to the Energizer battery. When both are placed standing up on a desk there is no discernible difference but when held next to each other with the bases of the battery case parallel - not the nub at the end of the battery - you can see that the Energizer design is very, very slightly bigger than the Duracell battery.

This does seem to be a design problem for the Magic Mouse - it can't, surely, be acceptable that the mouse does not work with the best selling brand of AA battery? It is simply poor design.

The Magic Mouse does not use a coiled spring mechanism. The coiled spring is used by most battery operated devices to ensure good connection and secure fit. It does tend to break and misbehave with use (the springs tend to coil outwards) but at least it works. The retractable springed contacts used in the Magic Mouse don't seem to exert enough pressure on the battery which then moves slightly away from the positive connection.

I've found that cheaper brands of batteries (in the UK Maplin branded batteries) work well with the mouse. Unfortunately, they don't come with a leakage damage warranty.

Energizer is also good but tends not to be sold on special offer whereas Duracell is often heavily promoted.

I hate using batteries in any case - feels like vandalism.

Your expertise is far ahead of mine. I did guess that the problem was with the positive connection contact - surely, if this is the case, more pressure towards the contact would be a solution because then the batteries would be less likely to lose contact? The batteries do make intermittent contact because the connection does work occasionally.

Still, this is a crazy problem if the most popular and best value for money brand of battery does not work in the mouse. Surely Apple tested the mouse with Duracell batteries.

It's at the extreme end of poor product design - the sort of thing you would expect from a mouse bought from the two dollar store.

I remember hearing that AAA batteries could be made to work in AA ports with a bit of extra aluminum foil.

Im wondering, would a small square of folded metal between the contact points, be a safe low tech workaround to maintain constant connection presssure?

I have recently discovered that some rechargeable batteries are not working in one Magic Mouse but are fine in a newer one. It is the higher powered batteries that cause the problem, anything over 2000 mah seem to have a slightly sorter positive terminal. Examining the mice there seems to be no differences but the positive contacts are behind two 'holes'. Stripping back the plastic at the positive end of the batteries makes them work in both mice. I imagine that in the mouse they didn't work with, the contacts were made a fraction further in and the battery's plastic casing is giving enough length to the battery's terminal to fit.

I have used various batteries in my Magic Mouse for three years--never paid any attention to what I used. Recently I had to swap out my Energizer batteries (they died in the Mouse). I have a fresh pack of six Duracel Quantums--and NONE of them worked in the mouse. I tried them in other devices and they worked fine; then tested them in a battery tester--nothing wrong with the batteries. Tried another set of half-used Duracel regular alkaline batteries from my son's mouse--they won't work either.

Finally installed a pair of cheap Rayovac batteries (my husband buys them at Big Lots by the dozens)--and they work fine.

I have to agree with other posters here--Duracels definitely not working in my MM. Ridiculous. I love my Macbook, iphone, and other prior Apple products but find their persnickityness pretty annoying. Steve Jobs is laughing at us from heaven (or wherever people like him spend eternity).

Am I in a different world? The magic mouse that came with my Mac Mini has a built-in rechargeable battery and there seemingly is no way to replace it with ordinary replaceable batteries. I wish I could, as it is very inconvenient to have it suddenly die without warning and the only option is to plug it in and wait an hour or two for it to charge. I've switched back to my 5-year-old Logitech wired mouse; it is 100% reliable!

Hello Jenna,

Yes you are. Don't know if you have noticed but you are tagging onto a thread that is nearly 5 years old. It's always better to start a new thread as answers can get out of date. The mouse you have didn't exist then.

It appears you have a Magic Mouse 2 that is recharged via a charging cable. That being so a mere two or three minutes will give you enough charge for an average days work. The two hour plug in you mention should give you more than a months usage. It doesn't just die without warning unless it is damaged. You should get a notification when the power level gets to 10% or so.

If you are not getting this much power and it is dying without notification and it is less than 12 months old get it back to an Apple store for the genius bar to check it out.