Magic Mouse bug might cause Apple Bluetooth Keyboards to bleed out power

John Brownlee ()

Magic Mouse bug might cause Apple Bluetooth Keyboards to bleed out power

On November 12th, 2009, dozens of Apple.com Discussion Board users began to notice that they were suddenly experiencing the sort of quick battery loss in their Bluetooth keyboards that usually exhibits itself in arcs of purple electrical plasma shooting off a Tesla coil. Keyboards that once lasted for several months without a recharge now required nearly weekly battery swaps, even when using high-capacity batteries or rechargeables.

So far, there’s been no official word from Apple about the cause of the keyboard power drains, but consensus seems to be that Apple’s new Magic Mouse is the culprit, somehow preventing the Bluetooth keyboard from going into sleep mode. According to one user, swapping a Magic Mouse for a Logitech mouse eliminated the problem entirely.

There’s no official word from Apple when this bug will be squashed, although according to one Discussion Board user, an Apple Tech Support worker said that it’s a known Bluetooth driver issue, and a fix is in the works.

Any of our own Magic Mouse aficionados out there capable of confirming this problem as ubiquitous?

DON'T MISS
Apple updates 2007 Aluminum Keyboard firmware to fix Magic Mouse power issues

[via TUAW]

19 comments »

About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in Hardware, News |

  • http://www.interfunt.com Rodti MacLeary

    I’ve gone through numerous sets of batteries for my aluminium wireless keyboard since I bought my Magic Mouse. I wasn’t sure at first whether the issue was caused by the Magic Mouse software update or 10.6.2, but it seems rather odd for a company as proud of its green credentials as Apple to allow this problem to persist for so long.

  • Zac

    No difference to me for the wireless keyboard (3-batt type) since the addition of the magic mouse and the magic mouse batteries are fine too. Have an early 2009 mac mini with 10.6.2. Actually, no problems at all.

    However the batteries will not last as long as my wireless (non-bluetooth) mouse I used before, I used to get 4-5 months out of them. I didn’t expect them too anyway.

    In very close proximity (<35cm) I have at times on: 2 wi-fi's, 1 wireless (non-bluetooth) mouse, and 2 bluetooth devices, and I have no problems using them simultaneously.

    Problems could occurs because of: technical limitations of bluetooth, bluetooth drivers, interference. Bluetooth technology has been a source of many problems in the past and still is. Waiting for a replacement.

  • Paul Reinerfelt

    Interesting. I wonder if this bug is related to the problems people (including me) have experienced when using the Airlock program on a computer with a Magic Mouse? As far as I figure, that one seems to be related to a massive increase in Bluetooth traffic whenever a Magic Mouse is introduced into the mixture, maybe this is what keeps the keyboard from getting a much required sleep?

  • Rob

    I have one of the new Wireless keyboards (2 batteries intead of 3) and have not had this issue.

  • Chestin

    I’m dealing with the same issue. I bought the three battery keyboard and magic mouse at the same time and within three weeks of use. I had gone thorough two sets of batteries and that was only because I would turn my keyboard off entirely when I wasn’t using it. I noticed drops in battery life of about 20% a day if left on. It’s just horrible.

  • http://www.brandongomez.com Brandon

    So it wasn’t just me! Glad to see this article. I noticed recently that my batteries were draining way to fast on my keyboard. It’s not a mac I use regularly so I just swapped the keyboard with a wired one. Guess I’ll just wait for the fix now.

    I was using the Magic Mouse with the new wireless keyboard when the drain was happening. Prior to that, battery life was normal using it with the Mighty Mouse I had.

  • http://www.toxicspark.com Andrew Macdonald

    I got a Wireless keyboard for Christmas and have used it daily along with my Magic Mouse since receiving it. My keyboard battery rate is still on 100% but im having problems with my Magic Mouse batteries.

    Despite marketing materials saying batteries should last for a few months, im having to change my batteries every 2 weeks. Rather annoying!!!

  • http://www.howiesweb.com Howie Isaacks

    I’ve had this problem too. It started after my receiving a Magic Mouse for my birthday in November. I talked to AppleCare about it, and the techs there acted like they were completely oblivious to this problem. I find that a bit hard to believe. The people at Apple read their own support discussions. They know this is going on. I’m very disappointed that the product made it out the door with this bug intact. I can’t believe that they didn’t fully test the mouse before it shipped. Some people have reported that the problem doesn’t seem to be happening with their newer BT keyboards. If that’s so, then Apple had better not throw me and other customers who have the older aluminum BT keyboards under the bus. That will not be appreciated.

  • Charli

    actually Howie, that board is a USER site. not support. so it is possible that Apple doesn’t read it. Wouldn’t do them any good anyway. anecdotes don’t give them the information they need. testing at genius bars and returned products being tested is what will tell them what is going on.

    and one thing you’ll see if you hang on that board is a lot of folks that gripe and moan but never mention going to have anything checked or tested. and if you ask them they are all ‘why bother, they clearly don’t have a clue cause they haven’t said anything yet. i’ll wait until they figure it out’. so basically it will take longer cause they lack real data.

  • Eric Young

    This is big issue with battery replacement required weekly with older wireless three battery keyboard. It started with Magic Mouse. Need fix ASAP.

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  • McClane

    No problem with the older wireless keyboard (with numeric pad)

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  • AK

    WHAT do I do…   my mouse suddenly had a huge eraser on it and was erasing to gray….  no left or right click or esc would do a thing…  had to abort by shutting down manually….  uuuuggghhh!   what in the world is this????   

  • AK

    WHAT do I do…   my mouse suddenly had a huge eraser on it and was erasing to gray….  no left or right click or esc would do a thing…  had to abort by shutting down manually….  uuuuggghhh!   what in the world is this????