My wireless keyboard and mouse are draining batteries quickly

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Level 2

248 points

My wireless keyboard and mouse are draining batteries quickly

I have seen other threads on this topic, but all are without resolution.

We have an older iMac. Late 2011.

The Apple wireless keyboard and mouse have worked fine in the past; but, over the past few weeks, I have found the batteries have drained very quickly, often only lasting a day. Since this happens to both the keyboard and mouse, I assume the problem mush be with the system, perhaps Bluetooth?

I have re-set the parameter ram.

Any ideas? As this Mac is quite old, I cannot call Apple without a fee.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Jul 16, 2015 4:56 PM

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Answer 1

seventy one

Level 7

27,424 points

Jul 17, 2015 12:52 AM in response to Bob Faulkner

Hello Bob,

Are you using rechargeable batteries? And are you recharging and then inserting from the same group of batteries?

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Answer 2

Bob Faulkner Author

Level 2

248 points

Jul 17, 2015 9:21 PM in response to seventy one

Hello Seventy One,

I was afraid someone might ask about the batteries. I went out and bought some alkaline batteries today. Put them in at 2 p.m. It is now 9 p.m. as I write this; so, 7 hours. The system says the battery level is at 62%. So, it is not the batteries.

And, as far as I can tell, the keyboard is draining the batteries more than the mouse. (The mouse level is at 33%, and I put those batteries in a few days ago, I think.)

Maybe I should make a Genius Bar appointment.

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Answer 3

seventy one

Level 7

27,424 points

Jul 18, 2015 12:33 AM in response to Bob Faulkner

There have been complaints about the combination of Apple Keyboard and Magic mouse for ages. Being constantly on or Bluetooth usually gets the blame but I have yet to see a convincing answer. As a matter of fact, Alkaline gives better service than recharge but costs much more in the longer run. The brand of battery is important; Duracell, Energiser and Eneloop are the best when bought from a decent retail outlet. Bargain stores could well be selling fakes.

7 hours to reduce new batteries to 62% is indeed not good; what brand of batteries are you using?

And one last question. Having found the batteries to be low in power, have you tried taking them out then reinserting them ... just in case the power monitor is faulty? The read out accuracy is sometimes questionable.

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Answer 4

Bob Faulkner Author

Level 2

248 points

Jul 25, 2015 7:09 PM in response to seventy one

Turns out the problem was with the keyboard itself.

Looks like the previous owner had let some alkaline batteries lean, just a little inside…seems to have taken about a year to cause this type of damage, though…at least, that is what the Apple Genius surmised.

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