Totally bizarre Magic Mouse 2 issue

[usagora]

I've been using this mouse since I bought it new in 2016. Model A1657 Magic Mouse 2. So I return to the office today where the mouse is paired to my Mac Mini M1 and all of a sudden neither left nor right clicking works. But tracking and scrolling work fine. I turned the mouse off, waited a few seconds, and turned it back on again - still clicking doesn't work.

So I restarted the Mac using the keyboard shortcut. Logged back in and was able to left click once and then that left click seemed to permanently register - I got that highlighted rectangle "lasso" on the screen like you'd use to select multiple files/folders and no amount of further left or right clicking did anything. All I could do was drag/resize this "lasso" rectangle around the screen. Confirming the fact that the mouse is somehow registering a left click (even though I'm not even touching it) is the fact that when I connected a wired mouse to the Mac, I could only right-click with the wired mouse. As soon as I disconnected the Magic Mouse, the wired mouse worked normally.

So finally I tried completely removing the Magic Mouse from Bluetooth and re-pairing it. No luck. Tracking and scrolling still work but neither left nor right clicking do (not even a single left click registers this time).

I'm guessing my Magic Mouse is defective and needs to be replaced, but before spending $100 on a new one, I want to be sure no one here has any other ideas to try. It just seems so weird how the mouse could be working perfectly fine on Saturday when I left the office and over the weekend becomes defective literally just sitting there. I noticed absolutely no oddities in the mouse's behavior before this time that suggested it was starting to act up. It worked flawlessly all these years.

Has this happened to any of you before? Any ideas of something else I can try? I'm going to take it home with me tonight and see if it behaves the same way with my other two Macs.

 

[Boyd01]

Never saw anything like that myself. I'd agree that trying it on another Mac in another location is a good way to troubleshoot. Maybe the problem is caused by a bad click-switch that is stuck on?

 

[usagora]

Never saw anything like that myself. I'd agree that trying it on another Mac in another location is a good way to troubleshoot. Maybe the problem is caused by a bad click-switch that is stuck on?

Yes, it was the same behavior with the other Macs. I took the mouse apart and didn't see anything out of the ordinary on the inside. Cleaned it out with a brush and compressed air and reassembled, but no change. Ordered a replacement from Apple yesterday. I did find several others with the exact problem posting on Apple's help forums and no one really had a solution other than "buy a new one". Oh well!

 

[Juanra1]

I'm having a similar problem, if not the same. When my iMac wakes up, my Magic Mouse moves the cursor in all directions, as if normal. However, I am unable to click open apps, select any menus (they won't drop down), and the mouse is basically useless for anything having to do with a right or left click. For a few days (I'm only in my first week of owning my iMac), I thought my computer was freezing and I didn't suspect the mouse was failing. But, on one occasion, I noticed my cursor in the Notes app was active, movable, and I could use the keyboard to edit the note. The mouse was still unusable. I turned the on/off switch on the mouse to off and the display showed it was disconnected. Then I turned it back on, waited a few moments, the display showed connected, and my problem was solved. It began to work normally. The problem has continued to happen, almost every time I wake up my iMac, and each time it's resolved by turning my mouse off and then on. My next move is to contact Apple by phone and at least open up a case on this.

 

[usagora]

I'm having a similar problem, if not the same. When my iMac wakes up, my Magic Mouse moves the cursor in all directions, as if normal. However, I am unable to click open apps, select any menus (they won't drop down), and the mouse is basically useless for anything having to do with a right or left click. For a few days (I'm only in my first week of owning my iMac), I thought my computer was freezing and I didn't suspect the mouse was failing. But, on one occasion, I noticed my cursor in the Notes app was active, movable, and I could use the keyboard to edit the note. The mouse was still unusable. I turned the on/off switch on the mouse to off and the display showed it was disconnected. Then I turned it back on, waited a few moments, the display showed connected, and my problem was solved. It began to work normally. The problem has continued to happen, almost every time I wake up my iMac, and each time it's resolved by turning my mouse off and then on. My next move is to contact Apple by phone and at least open up a case on this.

Interesting. But nothing solved my issue, not even temporarily. It simply wouldn't work at all (left or right clicking, that is), even briefly, no matter what I did. The new Magic Mouse arrived today and is working fine. Apple should definitely replace yours if it's only 1 week old (I'm assuming this is the one that came with your iMac and that you bought the iMac new or refurbished).

 

[Juanra1]

Interesting. But nothing solved my issue, not even temporarily. It simply wouldn't work at all (left or right clicking, that is), even briefly, no matter what I did. The new Magic Mouse arrived today and is working fine. Apple should definitely replace yours if it's only 1 week old (I'm assuming this is the one that came with your iMac and that you bought the iMac new or refurbished).

My mouse and computer are brand new. Yes, they should replace it but I don't know how to get the ball rolling on that. Any advice is appreciated. I'm happy that I've found exactly what the problem is but having to turn it off and on gets old quickly.

 

[usagora]

My mouse and computer are brand new. Yes, they should replace it but I don't know how to get the ball rolling on that. Any advice is appreciated. I'm happy that I've found exactly what the problem is but having to turn it off and on gets old quickly.

You can go to

Apple Support

getsupport.apple.com

And after signing in and selecting your iMac, you can request a call from Apple support.

 

[Boyd01]

all of a sudden neither left nor right clicking works. But tracking and scrolling work fine.

I just experienced something similar this morning with the space grey Magic Mouse on my 2014 Mini media server, none of my clicks were registering. Finally had to do a forced reboot by holding the power button on the Mini. Happily, that fixed it.

Pretty sure this had nothing to do with the mouse and was caused by the cats laying on the keyboard, which they have recently started doing! 😹

 

[usagora]

I just experienced something similar this morning with the space grey Magic Mouse on my 2014 Mini media server, none of my clicks were registering. Finally had to do a forced reboot by holding the power button on the Mini. Happily, that fixed it.

Pretty sure this had nothing to do with the mouse and was caused by the cats laying on the keyboard, which they have recently started doing! 😹

Wish that were true in my case, but the mouse didn't work with 3 different Macs - had to replace it. Glad your issue was solvable!

 

[Arctic Moose]

I had a similar issue, clicking and scrolling worked fine, but tracking didn’t work at all.

I did all the unpairing and resetting. The mouse behaved the same on other Macs, and a different Magic Mouse worked fine. It was still under warranty, so in the end I just returned it. I was hesitant though, since I couldn’t get a replacement space grey.