Fixing Magic Mouse 2 which stopped working on some normal surfaces

If you look at the bottom of the mouse you'll see a small window in the shell and inside you'll see two lenses. The smaller one is an IR light source and the larger is the photo detector array. Basically, a grid of light is projected onto the surface and as the light is disturbed the sensor is able to tell which way you are moving the mouse (some very cool stuff is going on here!)

Anyways... you likely have some dirt on the lenses or you likely have a weak battery. Carefully take a dry cotton swab (Q-Tip) and give it a quick wipe (spinning the swab) see if that solves it. You may need to check your cable and connection that you are in fact charging the mouse.

Hello everyone,

At last, it has worked for me ! The problem on mine came from the optic sensor. There was dust on it.

In 15 min, the problem was solved.

Unfortunately, it has needed to open the mouse, because the dust was directly on the sensor. But don’t panic, it is far more easy than described by ifixit.

Very easily actually.

• 1st of all, don’t try to unglue the alloy case from the plastic case nor the ultragliss black feet. It is complicated, long and totally useless.
• Use a plastic tool as it’s shown on step 6. Put it on both side of the mouse, between the lower case in alloy and the the white upper case of the mouse and it will be removed. There are only 4 clips, 2 by side. (Be kind with the clips, they doesn’t need a lot of torque to be removed)
• After, remove the 2 screw of the rear of the mouse, those with the metal bracket, and remove the connector of the white upper case.

To remove the motherbord :

• Remove the 4 screw of the front (3 + 1 with a metal spring),
• Remove the mother board and unplug the power connector.

To clean the sensor :

• on the motherbord, remove the 2 plastics parts that protect the sensor : one is transparent with 2 lens, the other is in grey with a little hole.

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• Clean both
• Now you can access directly to the sensor. To clean it, prefer air.
  

note : don’t touch it with finger or with cotton, it would be worst.

Now you can reassemble the mouse and try it. I hope it will work also for you.

Slamming the mouse down on a hard surface worked for me. The problem originated after leaving the mouse hooked up to USB for charging overnight while computer was shut down. After booting up in the morning mouse no longer “connected” and would not connect until physicality applied i.e. slamming it down on a hard surface; however, this did nothing to make it work on my mouse pad… only hours later after having read about someone, Rey J, slamming it down again, then it worked. Mind you I had tried all other ways through bluetooth connecting beforehand. It looks like Apple products need to be given a $@$* kicking now that Tim Cook is CEO!

In order to avoid this 'slamming down' situation, and since I have two of them, as soon as I notice that my admin mouse's charge is near depleted, I will recharge it while using the other mouse. I now avoid recharging when the computer is shut down.

My mouse stopped tracking on a mouse pad, and eventually on a black wood desktop. Being wary of damaging my year old mouse, I read further about using compressed air on the lenses. I had already tried wiping them, which did not work. As a photographer, I always try my hand blower

before air on possibly sensitive equipment. It worked.

I removed the administrator’s mouse from the settings and added back and it solved the problem!

I swear of god, my mouse had the exact problem and after i smacked it on the back of my magic keyboard it works on all surfaces again. the most bizarre fix but it works.

Would you believe it?

I had the same problem and it fixed when I dropped it from 3 feet height!

I can’t believe that but it works!!!!

yo uso una carpeta plastificada y el mouse funciona perfectamente

The same trick worked for me. And it still works. Thank you very much

Cool, I'll see if I can find Gen 1 Magic Mouse teardown for my sensor issues.

I used a can of compressed air and put the nozzle at the sides of the “sensor-hole” and blew air into my magic mouse 2 a few times and now it works again!!

A couple of months ago, it stopped working on my fabric mousepad and it was only usable on my wooden desk. After a while, it was not responding to most surfaces and I was slamming it on my desk often to get it to work again. The compressed air fix was the last thing I could think of. I will keep a couple of those cans in stock from now on!

Hello mbenji

You asked for help

Make sure your devices are charged

To check the battery level of these devices, click the Bluetooth icon in your Mac's menu bar, then select your device by name. If the battery level of any device is low, recharge the device. If the device isn't showing, make sure the device is turned on using the steps outlined above.

So strange, I just dropped my magic mouse and now it works again! Thanks for posting this

Some additional thoughts and experiences:

I have two Magic Mouse 2s on my desktop at all times, and another one in my computer bag. I hate my life when I have to use any other pointing device. So, when the MM2s mess up it’s super aggravating, and it happens periodically and for different reasons.

When the pointer gets jittery, or just won’t hardly move, I’ve found there are three or four potential fixes:

1. The dropping the mouse thing does sometimes correct the problem, but probably only because the impact dislodges lint, fuzz, or dirt that was messing with the optical sensors.

# Getting the lens clean is probably the most important fix. I use an actual air compressor and just blow the heck out of the sensor hole. A little puff of canned air may not be enough. I’ve been surprised just how much fuzz accumulates in the sensor hole. Blow it out periodically.

1. The little plastic rails on the bottom of the mouse can build up a layer of waxy stuff. That waxy stuff seems to misalign the IR sensors from the mousepad and causes weird pointer movements. Scrape the waxy stuff off, and clean the rails thoroughly with a microfiber cloth and maybe some rubbing alcohol.
2. The mouse-pad surface (or whatever surface you’re running) can affect the performance of the mouse. MM2 seems to like fairly glossy surfaces. Fabric surfaces tend to contribute to the fuzz effect (the fabric may be turning into fuzz, or the fabric may just attract more fuzz), and glossier surfaces like plastic or leather tend to contribute to the waxy buildup effect (which is mostly just your skin oil and dust).

I haven’t had any software-related MM2 issues, only hardware-related, so if the above items don’t fix your mouse, it’s possible its a software issue, or you may just need a new mouse.