Wireless Keyboard 1-2 day battery life!

You might try posting a notice here, Feedback - iMac - Apple, to tell Apple about the keyboard eating batteries after an update. Hopefully you have a wired keyboard you can use when the batteries are completely dead. I have an old wired PC keyboard that I used for a brief time when I was having battery life problems. Also, you do know about how people have been putting in tin foil to make their batteries work? If you have been dropping the batteries into the keyboard, perhaps the space has extended due to wear and tear on the connections. You might be getting close to the time when the space is becoming too extended, and the connections are not as close as they were at the purchase time.

That was my problem back in 2016 after an update to the OS. I went through a 20 pack of non-rechargeable Duracell batteries in 7 days. Apple replaced my almost new wireless keyboard, and I switched to rechargeable batteries. I haven't had any new problems since the last update. The engineers don't know why the updates make the keyboards eat batteries. Good Luck. You do know that system preferences can't always be trusted to report the accurate battery life. Have you tried using the battery until the device won't operate? Hopefully you will have wired devices to use while you are replacing the batteries. I'm very happy with my new Magic keyboard. No more battery problems.

I have left the batteries to "die" one time. This is the third time this summer the batteries are low. Keyboard is a few years old though so don't think they'll replace it for me. Will cross my fingers and see how long I can go with this latest warning before I put new batteries in.

I have 5 apple keyboard all using duracell or the other blue powerful ones, and all keyboards and mice are down from 100% to 16% in 3 to 4 days every time

Gettiing ready to buy an alternative

The wired apple keyboard is useless because the command button does not work as intended.

Maybe ill try one of the rechargable apple keyboards and mice they now have with no batteries, because im getting sick of these popups warning me 2 days after installing new batteries, that my keyboard batteries are low

Since mavericks and iOS7, i find Apple products to have slowly deteriorated, and even startup of my device has gone from about 20 seconds which was faster than windows pcs at the time (2013), to taking 5 minutes before the desktop icons load (2017). Which considering a windows device now starts up to homescreen in about ten seconds, and a Mac takes about 5 minutes, i would say the old Mac advert which made fun of how Windos pc took so long to start up, is backfiring on Apple.

Since Steve Jobs left, Apple is getting richer, but is also losing touch with the world.

I made the mitsake of upgrading my iPhone 5s to a iPhone 7 Plus and that also was a serious mistake, because the camera is a piece of rubbish, and wont make a clear picture of anything zoomed in above x2 magnification.

Anyway, its not your batteries. I use duracell and they last 3 to 5 days

its Apple product that is the cause, not your batteries

1. I'm relieved that you and 46 other people (just the ones who clicked "I have this question too" have the same problem as I do. I thought I got a bad keyboard - Amazon is selling refurb's for under $30 (they actually look new, so who knows their provenance).

2. I used a Mac Mini for 5 years before switching back to Windows with an Intel NUC. I got the refurb keyboard for the NUC because it is compact and honestly after returning to the Apple keyboard I have to say the keyboard feel is SO much better than the Windows wireless keyboard I first used on the NUC. I miss the Delete key (forward delete, the one marked "delete" on the Apple keyboard is what win-worlders call "backspace" and I miss the media keys (work on MacOS but not on Win) but other than that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

3. This is the best Bluetooth keyboard I've ever used, whether on Mac, Windows, or iPad, or Windows tablet, or Android tablet. There is never ANY delay with keystrokes, and even in the morning on my Windows desktop I only have to hit a single key once to wake it from sleep, versus hitting several times for the Windows wireless keyboard to wake up.

4. The downside is that my first set of batteries only lasted 4-5 days. I am wondering if the instant, never delayed keystrokes, is a result of the desktop/keyboard "polling" each other to keep the keyboard awake. The biggest problem with most BT keyboards is that they go to sleep to fast and wake up to slow. On my Mac Mini, there was a slight hesitation for the first keystroke but none there after, at least not unless I went to lunch and came back. So I'm not sure whether the keyboard is defective - won't go to sleep - or if the Windows desktop is not letting the keyboard go to sleep. I'm glad this issue is hitting regular Mac users and not just on-the-fringe users like me, because it tells me my keyboard is likely not defective but instead the interaction between keyboard and computer is a little off - no sleep time to save the battery, is my best guess.

5. I'm going to try a different Apple Wireless Keyboard with the desktop computer and see how battery life is on that one. I will shift the questionable unit to iPad use, since iPad use is much more "structured" - everything off until my occasional cafe visit, iPad and keyboard on only during the visit then back in their satchel. Under that scenario, constant "on" is what I want out of the keyboard anyway, for sheer responsiveness. At my desktop, I DO want the keyboard to "sleep" after 5 minutes of inactivity. If, on the other hand, the different AWK works fine - for more than a week without killing its batteries - I'll get a replacement for the battery-eating one.

6. Let me sing the virtues of the AWK with an iPad. I was previously using an Amazon Basics Bluetooth keyboard - sized the same as the AWK but obviously not built to the same quality. Keys felt nice, but I had problems selecting text with the cursor. The cursor moved too slowly on the iPad 4 I was using, and something buffered keystrokes so it would keep selecting text long after I took my finger off the arrow key. With the AWK, the cursor moved a LITTLE faster but more importantly it wouldn't overshoot the text I was selecting, eliminating my big headache. Strange, huh? Apple is good in several ways: attention to details like this, and an enormous "pool" of hardware and users, with Apple tightly controlling both hardware and software, usually means when problems like this pop up, they get fixed sooner or later, generally pretty fast, compared to Win World where the varieties in hardware are insane.

I never knew about this issue until now. Previously my two energizer batteries were working well and I hardly remember changing them. Yesterday I arrived South America to work on a 2-month job. The keyboard light lit two seconds then off. So I went out to buy two new Duracell battery and used it. It was working fine as of last night. Less than 24 hours I’m back to the iPad and the keyboard lit for few second then die again!!!! What’s going on? I couldn’t believe it. Less than 24 hours??? How can I buy battery every day for this???? I didn’t bring any chargeable battery as who would know!!! What a terrible situation to be in!

I too experienced the problem of my Apple Bluetooth keyboard going through batteries like they were water. Apple finally sent me a new keyboard, and that solved the problem. There was something wrong with the wiring of the original keyboards they sent to me. Now I have the Apple Keyboard that doesn't take batteries, and it hold a charge for 6 months. My mouse is still using rechargeable batteries. This is the third mouse because the other two drank batteries like water also. Now my battery lasts at least 30 days and sometimes longer.

Try non-rechargeable batteries....

Battery life is a function of usage. I do not know of anything the software update would have done to cause the problem.

Barry

I don't know why Barry Hemphill-level 8 would say to use non-rechargeable batteries. Since upgrading to El Capitan 10.11.4 on March 9, 2016 I too have had difficulties with the battery life of Duracell brand new non-rechargeable batteries. I didn't have this problem with Yosemite either. I would stick with your rechargeable batteries. You will spend more than $40 a month for non-rechargeable batteries in your Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and KeyPad. My mouse and keyboard are Apple's. My KeyPad although purchased from Apple, isn't theirs. I have had to replace brand new out of the package Duracell non-rechargeable batteries every day since purchase on March 9, 2016. I like the added security of El Capitan, but it has created issues with my Magic Mouse battery life and my mouse's sensitivity that didn't occur under Yosemite. While Apple is figuring this out, you will waste too much money with non-rechargeable batteries. I have Apple wireless keyboard purchased 9.9.15 and I have only had to replace my Duracell non-rechargeable batteries once, but the mouse and the keypad are a different story. I'm confident Apple will figure out why El Capitan is draining our batteries and fix the problem. It is a software issue!

Do you understand the meaning of the word, try?

Barry

Be polite. Everyone should feel comfortable reading Submissions and participating in discussions. Apple will not tolerate flames or other inappropriate statements, material, or links. Most often, a "flame" is simply a statement that is taunting and thus arbitrarily inflammatory. However, this also includes those which are libelous, defamatory, indecent, harmful, harassing, intimidating, threatening, hateful, objectionable, discriminatory, abusive, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, or offensive in a sexual, racial, cultural, or ethnic context.

I have exactly the same problem with my keyboard since upgrading to OS X El Capitan (10.11.4) on 14 April! My mouse is unaffected.

I have tried Duracell ultra power alkaline and rechargeable batteries - with no improvement on 8 hours - despite shutting down all notifications etc that could cause battery drain! This is getting ridiculous - have you managed to resolve your issue?

thanks for any advice 🙂

I had the issue with my mouse eating batteries. Did you read the conversation "Re: Apple Wireless Keyboard Eating Batteries"? This conversation shows up on the page below this discussion. I have typed the words exactly for you. If you enter those words without the quotes in a search (this area appears at the top of this page to the right of the words Apple Support Communities), you should be able to read how those Apple users solved their battery problems. Although their conversation is from 2009, they did have some useful to me suggestions. Best of luck. I wasn't surprised to learn that although the user had reported their issue to Apple Support at least three different times, Apple Support claimed they had no reports of this issue. I have experienced the same situation. Apple has replaced my Magic Mouse 1 three times due to issues with the mouse (inappropriate scrolling and eating battery life). This final mouse finally behaves appropriately. Best of luck. Stick with your rechargeable batteries. I wasted bunches of money on non-rechargeable batteries while Apple solved my problem with my keypad and Magic Mouse 1. 😉

Thanks so much!

Will check out that conversation now, fingers crossed..

Good Luck.