I have been happily using the wired Apple Mouse despite the tendency of the scroll wheel to become clogged and non-functional. I have usually been able to clean it with a lint-free cloth and alcohol, but after several years, this has stopped working. AFIK, Apple no longer makes this item and I don't want the Magic Mouse because I neither want to change batteries nor have to keep it plugged into a charger (and risk having it non-functional if the batteries run down and need to be recharged).

I have looked at Macally and iHome mice at Amazon that seem to fill the bill. Does anyone have experience with them (or others) that might be suitable for me? I don't use right-click and have both buttons set for left-click. I do like the scroll wheel functionality, however.

Any and all advice will be appreciated.

I've personally never had any issues with any of the MacAlly USB wired mice that I've used over the past 35 years......

FWIW, your wonky Apple mouse might respond positively to a good bath / flooding of the scroll wheel mechanism with denatured alcohol followed by a good blow-dry using canned air....if it fails to respond positively, you're not actually out anything but your time and effort, and if it does resurrect you're back in business with an old and trusted friend.

EDIT: Note that denatured alcohol is far preferable to isopropyl alcohol for many reasons, primarily in that it leaves no residue.....

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I assume that you mean ethanol?

ADDENDUM: I just bought a brand new Apple Mouse (in a factory-sealed box) on eBay. I'll still try denatured alcohol and see what happens.

In contradiction of MacManiac's caveat, I found Can I Use Isopropyl Alcohol Instead of Denatured Alcohol?; scroll down to "Electronics".

There's consistency on the subject in the few articles at which I looked, but additional research may be in order.

Ethanol is drinkable alcohol...different from both of the others, and can be obtained only with a prescription or your own still.

Thanks for posting that informative article, Artie. Rubbing alcohol is available both as isopropyl alcohol and ethanol that has been denatured. I prefer IPA as a rubbing alcohol because goes on more smoothly. In any event, I will probably use IPA in MacManiac's method because of the caveat about denatured alcohol causing damage to plastics and its propensity to leave residue.

I appreciate MacManiac's post for having prompted me to go looking.

I've been aware of methanol, isopropyl alcohol, and denatured alcohol all my life without ever having know how they differed...or even THAT they differed.

I've got a can of aerosol contact cleaner I bought from an auto parts store. Dunno what it is - it just says solvent-based cleaner on the can. It works on electrical contacts, but it also works well cleaning off the dirt on my keyboard. I spray it on a cloth, not directly on the keyboard.

Re: mice. I never got on with the Apple magic mouse, using a wired Logitech mouse for years. Recently (because it was cheap) I tried a "Wireless Mouse Rechargeable, Silent Click Nosiness Ultra Slim 2.4G Cordless Mice,USB Optical Portable Mouse With Nano Receiver For Windows Mac Linux Vista Macbook Laptop PC And Computer-Silver" from Amazon/China.

It's terrific. Runs for a month on its rechargable battery, then you can still use it when you plug in the USB cable for recharging. The "nano receiver" plugs into my keyboard, so it's inches away from the mouse, but I also had the receiver as far away as three feet and it still worked. Cost a tenner.

I've been using the Logitech M500 corded mouse with a scroll wheel that also tilts. There's a contour that makes it more comfortable.

When I first bought it, I got some lemons. One was DOA. The other lasted four days before it quit working. The third was just right.

Re: " . . . then you can still use it when you plug in the USB cable for recharging."

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I have the re-chargeable Apple Magic Mouse II which I really DO like. Pet Peeve, though: The USB cord for recharging is placed on the bottom which does not allow the mouse to be used while recharging. Bummers. Any chance that the next generation design will be changed, I wonder?

That's the main reason why I don't want the Magic Mouse.

But, isn't that just a matter of planning. The amount of charge you have left is displayed in the System Preferences>Mouse, so, when you're getting low, you charge it when you're sure not to need it....like overnight while you sleep.

My Mac came with that mouse but I've never tried it (was using a trackball that gave me a scroll function) and, just looking at the mouse, didn't think it scrolled . However, with this thread I pulled it out and, lo and behold, it scrolls quite elegantly, even having a lateral scroll which my trackball didn't have.

But....I'm finding the right-click function a bit of a pain. I chose it in the system preferences but now find I'm allways having to goof around to find the right spot for a single click. I thought that the right-click could be accomplished with a single-click-command combination but I have yet to achieve that. Was I just dreaming? or is it possible?

I gave up on right click with my Apple Mouse (wired) because I constantly use the right side when I want to left click. I turned it off in System Preferences and use control-click exclusively. Personally, I find that more convenient.

Aaah...it's Control-Click, not Command-Click. That works much better, thanks.

Like you, that's what I'll stick with. The problem I encountered is that I had to be very particular where I placed my finger to get a single click, otherwise the click results were inconsistent.

Re: " . . . you charge it when you're sure not to need it....like overnight while you sleep."

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Fair enough. However, I use it with my MBPRo which I shut down when not in use. The MMII will not recharge unless the computer is on OR in sleep mode.

So, if the mouse needs to be re-charged while I am on the MBPro, I plug in the USB cable to the MBPro and then use the built-in trackpad until the mouse is recharged again. It just would be nice to use the MMII as a "wired" mouse while it is recharging.

Got it....I was thinking of a wall charger, which is clearly not the case.

Duh! It just occurred to me that perhaps an iPAD charger could be used to do "wall socket" charging.

I will give that a try. If it works, then at least I can still turn off the computer at the end of the day and re-charge the mouse overnight in a standard outlet.



UPDATE: Success! And it only took me 4 years to figure that out.

Just a quick chime-in re Magic Mouse ...

I've had same since 2011 and no complaints. It was rough on non-rechargeable batteries — alkalines lasted only 2 weeks.
So I got an Apple Battery Charger (Model A1360 - MC500LL/A) which came with 6 AA NiMH batteries (which show no sign of wearing out).
Over the past 7 years and over 120 charging cycles I've gotten an average of 3 weeks (20.6 days) per charge on same. Not too shabby.

I'm with you, where wire is concerned. I’ve always been “pro wire” and my desktop is connected through an ethernet cable, even though I have wi-fi available. I have also always been pro-trackball and, since the first one came out decades ago, I have never used a mouse.

Given the things revealed in this thread I thought I’d try the wireless Magic Mouse 2 that came with my last desktop purchase…breaking my traditions of both wire and trackballs. However, I am thinking about going back to my old trackball based on the fact that I’m constantly getting it out when the wireless Magic Mouse doesn’t perform. Examples:

• if I go near the screen edge, it locks up
• it may or may not allow me to highlight text by dragging
• it may stop moving the cursor, even in the middle of the screen
• sometimes a spreadsheet will move laterally for no apparent reason
• the single click will take several attempts before it connects

I figure, if I have to keep getting out my old wired trackball to get the wireless Magic Mouse to work, I might as well skip the middleman.

It appears that, even if you do run out of charge at a bad time, it may not be a show-stopper. When I was searching around for some answers to the challenges I’ve encountered (above), I ran across this information:

“Apple has said that the Magic Mouse 2 (along with the Magic Trackpad 2 and the Magic Keyboard) are fast-charging devices; the mouse can get nine hours’ worth of battery life in about two minutes. So, in the time it takes for you to visit the bathroom, stand up because your Apple Watch told you to, or go to the kitchen to grab a beverage, your drained Magic Mouse 2 will have a charge that will last a typical working day.”

This is why I finally gave up on the Magic Mouse.

I used my Logitech LS1 wired mouse for years, until the scroll wheel became notchy. I tried the magic mouse and liked it, especially the smooth scrolling. But, even after resorting to rechargeable batteries, the sudden disappearance of a document after accidentally side-swiping the mouse surface drove me to my current mouse.

I unchecked all the swiping preferences for the Apple mouse, but couldn't find a way around the side-swiping motion. I like my new mouse, but miss the smooth scrolling of the magic mouse.

Please tell us which mouse you are now using. Did you replace the Logitech with the same one or are you using a different one?

Yup….me too. I even went so far as making sure no other bluetooth devices were activated that might cause the mouse-desktop link to get confused. It made no difference.


I had the same impression. It seemed quite an elegant device, with smooth scrolling absent the need to clean a scroll wheel. It would be an absolutely fabulous device….if only it worked properly. I’ve gone back to the trackball.

For the life of me I can't replicate the negative issues you (et al) have described — screen edge, side-swiping, etc. My Magic Mouse exhibits no bizarre behavior whatsoever.
So, maybe the problems relate more to the applications being used?

Or, it's because we're talking about different devices - you have a Magic Mouse 1 (Model A1360) whereas freelance and I have the Magic Mouse 2 (Model A1657). And, I hasten to add, I've seen reports of these issues on other sites.

This is the Amazon link to my new mouse:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07GR2X6MR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's not nearly as nice to the touch as the magic mouse, but then there's a £60 price difference. The £10 mouse works really well. It is identical in size and shape to the Apple mouse, but built of cheap plastic. Again, works well. A charge lasts three or four weeks, takes a couple hours to charge.