Magic Mouse stopped working on certain normal surfaces ... even a mousepad!

Had the same issue with Logitech M510 wireless mouse. Logitech fix that worked was to:

1. Put/leave the mouse on/off switch on the bottom to "ON" position.
2. Remove old batteries.
3. Rapidly click left mouse switch for 20 seconds (no batteries and mouse on/off switch "ON" position).
4. Move on/off switch on bottom to "OFF"
5. Reinstall new fresh alkaline batteries.
6. Move on/off switch on the bottom to "ON".

The mouse should now work normally on almost any surface.

I know I'm a bit late to this party, but I had a similar problem where my mouse just stopped working on my black mousepad. I was able to fix it by deleting a few corrupt preference files quick. In finder, click on the GO menu and select "Go to folder". Put ~/Library/Preferences/ in the address bar and hit enter. Find the following 2 files and delete them:

com.apple.AppleMultitouchMouse.plist

com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist

mouse should work fine again!

I hope this works as easily for all of you as it did for me.

Thanks for the tip. My mouse has gradually been tracking more and more poorly and appears now only to work on a white surface -- not a new black mousepad. I trashed the 2 files you've kindly mentioned but no change. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Jim.

You're tagging onto a thread that is four years old. The mouse has added a generation since then and the OS is probably 4 generations out.

Start a new thread. Tell us your full machine details, the age of the mouse, what operating system you are using and what the symptoms are.

My magic mouse sometimes behaves erratically too. My MacBook Pro is on a table behind where I sit, and my Logictech wireless keyboard (not bluetooth), mouse and screen are in front of me.

It occurred to me that the problem could be related to blue tooth transmission, because when i turn around and use the magic mouse right next to the MacBook, it works fine. So when my mouse starts behaving erratically, I now roll my desk chair (and me) out of line of sight between my mouse and my MacBook until the connection is reestablished.

Further, it occurred to me that if the blue tooth signal could somehow be directed to send more signal to the MacBook, that might improve the situation. So I replaced my mousepad with a small metal Altoids box, and that seemed to help a bit. I would love if some graduate student in an EE lab could investigate if this is somehow improving the blue tooth signal.

If it was me, I would replace it. Since another mouse works well, it is not in your software.

Barry

I have this very same issue. I was using my mouse on my bare desktop and noticed it started getting less responsive. So I would move it to another area on my desk and it seemed better. I thought that I was "shining" up the desk using it in the same spot. So I got the great idea to buy a mouse pad for optical mice. Guess what... doesn't work at all on the mouse pad!! So I borrowed my sons magic mouse and it works everywhere!! What the heck gives? They are the same model. They both appear clean where the IR sensors are. They both have fresh batteries. I would really like to know what the deal is here.

My mouse were the same symptoms, I tried everything:

switch it on of for many times, warmed it with a hair dryer, wash lenses, and other vodoo methods.

I finally got mad and let it fall to the floor and afther that works perfectly.

I also experienced the same problem.

My mouse now only works on black surface like the back of mouse pad or the book with dark color warped with plastic. I think I have to find a new "black" mouse pad but I still wonder why the same old mouse pad that works every day stop working. The last time that I used the mouse before the problem happened was when I used a mouse on a magazine with purple color. Does the mouse censor got calibrated or something?

I tried cleaning the censor and it didn't help.

This post is old but I have the same problem.

I found that it works on the metal black surface of my music keyboard, and on a gray book plastic laminated.

I do not want to spend 70 € for a mouse that perhaps may not work.

OH MY GOD I've been having this issue for about two years now. Mine only works on black faux leather surfaces.

It's almost as if it only recognises black as a surface..

This worked for me! Saved me from buying a new mouse/pad. Thanks so much!

Just tried this and it seems much more stable.

Thanks for the help

Just happened to me, and driving me mad, none of the solutions advised are working for me 😟

Me too's, without machine and mouse details cannot reasonably be responded to. See my reply to Jimvictoria above.