Skip to main content

Modder tries to fix Apple’s unfixable Magic Mouse

There’s no way to fix the Magic Mouse, as Matty Benedetto from Unnecessary Inventions recently discovered. The YouTuber has made all kinds of interesting (if impractical) accessories and devices. The amount of creativity on display in his videos is something to behold, but not even he can work around the fatal flaw of Apple’s Magic Mouse.

For those unfamiliar, the Magic Mouse is Apple’s premier mouse solution for the Mac. It includes a glass top, supports swipe gestures, and has a rechargeable battery. The downside? The Lightning port to charge it is on the bottom of the device. That means users have to flip the mouse to the side and plug it in, making it functionally useless while it’s charging.

Recommended Videos

Apple says a few minutes on the charger is all you need to get you through the day, but it’s still an annoying — and frankly, dumb — design choice. And it has been a gripe from Apple fans for years, but something the company has refused to change.

Unnecessary Inventions decided to take a crack at solving it. Combining a 3D-printed lift, a pair of metal ball bearings, and a right-angled Lightning connector, they created a working sleeve that would allow the Magic Mouse to move and charge simultaneously.

Except, when the Magic Mouse is plugged into a power source, it loses all other functionality. As Matt told Gizmodo: “The problem they immediately discovered was a simple but baffling one: when the Mighty Mouse 2 is connected to a power source, it stops working. It recharges just fine, but the rest of it just shuts down until the Lightning charging cable is disconnected.”

The Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad work fine when plugged in, but not the Magic Mouse. Apple perhaps knew that no one would be able to use it with the charger on the bottom and installed some sort of shutoff to stop accidental clicks while the mouse charged.

It’s still disappointing, and it seems Apple fans will have to rely on Apple to properly fix the Magic Mouse in the future, or find a better mouse alternative.

Caleb Clark
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Caleb Clark is a full-time writer that primarily covers consumer tech and gaming. He also writes frequently on Medium about…
Apple October Mac launch: everything we expect to be announced next week
Apple's Craig Federighi introduces window tiling in macOS Sequoia at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in 2024.

It's official. After an entire month of waiting, Apple has revealed that some Mac-related announcements are coming just next week. The exact timing of the announcements, along with what devices will be launched, however, are still yet to be confirmed.

That being said, the leaks and reporting on this launch have been fairly robust, so we have a fairly good idea of what could be in the works. Refreshing Macs with the M4 chip will be the focus of the event, but there may be a few more surprises too.
When will Apple launch its new devices?
https://twitter.com/gregjoz/status/1849484363165213148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1849484363165213148%7Ctwgr%5E6e69ea2b057a7d389444839b9bc3c6940ddc52e7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitaltrends.com%2Fcomputing%2Fapple-announcements-are-coming-on-monday%2F

Read more
Is Apple’s upcoming M4 Mac event still happening? I’m skeptical
Russian YouTuber Romancev768 with what is claimed to be a real M4 MacBook Pro unit.

Over the last few weeks, the endless stream of M4 MacBook Pro leaks has been almost inescapable. We’ve seen photos, unboxing videos, even M4 laptops reportedly going up for sale way ahead of time. Ye.t despite all that, there’s been one thing that has stopped me from fully believing that these leaks are legitimate -- despite a well-known reporter claiming that they’re authentic.

That’s because in all the leaks we’ve seen, the box of the M4 MacBook Pro has come with the same black-and-gray wallpaper that Apple used for its M3 line of MacBook Pros. It’s something that has bugged me ever since I first noticed it. But what if the use of an old wallpaper isn't proof that these leaks are fakes, but is actually a clue about what Apple is about to do next?
The wallpaper of it all

Read more
I’m worried Apple will skip its October event – here’s what that means for the M4 MacBook Pro
Apple CEO Tim Cook looks at a display of brand new redesigned MacBook Air laptop during the WWDC22

For months now, we’ve been hearing that Apple is set to announce a boatload of new products -- including the M4 MacBook Pro range, fresh iPads, and more -- at an event this October. Yet a new report suggests that things might not be quite so simple after all.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman says that Apple is set to reveal these new products “around the end of October,” with the devices going on sale on Friday, November 1. So far, so expected.

Read more