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Did anyone figure out how to use magic mouse and keyboard with two macbook pros?

A

AppleUser29912

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 7, 2022
49
8
Hi everyone,
I have an external wide screen monitor, a magic mouse and a magic keyboard.
I also have two macbook pros, one for work and one for personal usage.

When I start my day, I connect the monitor to my work mac, reset bluetooth and connect mouse and keyboard to my work mac.

When I finish the day, I disconnect the monitor and connect it to my personal laptop, reset bluetooth and connect mouse and keyboard to my personal mac.

This process is driving me crazy, I am wondering if there an easy solution to this. Maybe a device that I connect all 3 devices (monitor, keyboard and mouse) and easily press a button or something to switch between laptops?

I know there is an option to share mouse and keyboard but that wont work because:
- my personal laptop is an older macbook pro and doesnt support it
- I can't use my personal iCloud account on work machine

Has anyone had this issue and came up with a solution?
 
If it’s truly irritating, and working home is a permanent situation, then I would look into BT keyboards and mice by Logitech or others that can pair with multiple devices and switch between them. You could treat this an opportunity to use something more ergonomic than what Apple provides, such as mechanical keyboards, etc. I enjoy the flywheel scroll wheel on my Logitech mouse and it has a button on the button where I can select between my work provided windows laptop, my Mac, or the iPad. I’m currently eyeing a full-sized Keychron Q6 but haven’t pulled the trigger yet, so for work I use a $10 wired keyboard that I put away when I’m done.
 
CharlesShaw said:
If it’s truly irritating, and working home is a permanent situation, then I would look into BT keyboards and mice by Logitech or others that can pair with multiple devices and switch between them. You could treat this an opportunity to use something more ergonomic than what Apple provides, such as mechanical keyboards, etc. I enjoy the flywheel scroll wheel on my Logitech mouse and it has a button on the button where I can select between my work provided windows laptop, my Mac, or the iPad. I’m currently eyeing a full-sized Keychron Q6 but haven’t pulled the trigger yet, so for work I use a $10 wired keyboard that I put away when I’m done.
Click to expand...
I have been using magic keyboard and mouse for a long time and not sure how I feel about switching to different devices. I feel like using the apple mouse is very comfortable compared to other mouse, specially when switching between desktops on mac.
 
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There's no great solution. The devices are just designed to work with a single device at a time. For wireless pairing the easiest method IMO is keeping a lightning cable handy and doing pairing that way. Easier than messing around with Bluetooth.

This won't work for the Magic mouse since it's stupid design prevents it from being used wired but if you're okay with cables you can get a USB switch/KVM and hop between the two connected MBPs. I can confirm this works for the magic keyboard. Should also work for the magic trackpad although I can't test that ATM.

EDIT: Thinking about it depending on how your work laptop is setup and if you can install software you might be able to use something like Barrier or Apple's own Universal Control.
 
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AppleUser29912 said:
I have been using magic keyboard and mouse for a long time and not sure how I feel about switching to different devices. I feel like using the apple mouse is very comfortable compared to other mouse, specially when switching between desktops on mac.
Click to expand...
I totally get that. I‘m still working from home and would prefer not to be, so I go through a daily ritual to separate my work and personal life, including carrying my external monitor into the “work” room for work and returning it to my Mac after work.

Your current task of re-pairing is really not that bad compared to what many people do in order to commute to work.
 
AppleUser29912 said:
I have been using magic keyboard and mouse for a long time and not sure how I feel about switching to different devices. I feel like using the apple mouse is very comfortable compared to other mouse, specially when switching between desktops on mac.
Click to expand...
you will feel better once you ditched that badly ergonomic excuse of a mouse made by apple.
 
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Have you tried Universal Control? It lets you continue to use a keyboard and mouse while switching context from one computer to another if they are sitting near each other.

www.macrumors.com

Universal Control: Everything You Need to Know

iOS 15.4 and macOS Monterey 12.3 introduce Universal Control, a long-awaited feature that Apple first previewed at the 2021 Worldwide Developers...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
 
It won't help with the mouse, but if you plug the lightning cable into the Magic Keyboard it actually becomes a USB keyboard. So, you could use bluetooth on one Mac and USB on the other without changing any settings. I use a space grey magic keyboard directly connected to my 2018 Mini this way.
 
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Boyd01 said:
It won't help with the mouse, but if you plug the lightning cable into the Magic Keyboard it actually becomes a USB keyboard. So, you could use bluetooth on one Mac and USB on the other without changing any settings. I use a space grey magic keyboard directly connected to my 2018 Mini this way.
Click to expand...
Not only does it become the USB keyboard, but it also pairs the Bluetooth to the mac.

So to switch between computers just plug the cable into the keyboard for a few seconds and then plug it out to keep the wireless connection.

It’s the same for the trackpad. Not sure about the mouse.
 
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Kimcha said:
Not only does it become the USB keyboard, but it also pairs the Bluetooth to the mac.

So to switch between computers just plug the cable into the keyboard for a few seconds and then plug it out to keep the wireless connection.

It’s the same for the trackpad. Not sure about the mouse.
Click to expand...
As I mentioned in my post it will pair the mouse too.

And OP you should give universal control, barrier or synergy a try to see if that's good enough.
 
AppleUser29912 said:
Hi everyone,
I have an external wide screen monitor, a magic mouse and a magic keyboard.
I also have two macbook pros, one for work and one for personal usage.

When I start my day, I connect the monitor to my work mac, reset bluetooth and connect mouse and keyboard to my work mac.

When I finish the day, I disconnect the monitor and connect it to my personal laptop, reset bluetooth and connect mouse and keyboard to my personal mac.

This process is driving me crazy, I am wondering if there an easy solution to this. Maybe a device that I connect all 3 devices (monitor, keyboard and mouse) and easily press a button or something to switch between laptops?

I know there is an option to share mouse and keyboard but that wont work because:
- my personal laptop is an older macbook pro and doesnt support it
- I can't use my personal iCloud account on work machine

Has anyone had this issue and came up with a solution?
Click to expand...
Just use Find My. its possible to set notifications in case you forget a device since iOS 15
 
Tagbert said:
Have you tried Universal Control? It lets you continue to use a keyboard and mouse while switching context from one computer to another if they are sitting near each other.
Click to expand...

Universal control wouldn’t work because he said he can’t use his personal iCloud on the work Mac, and you need to be on the same account for both macs for universal control to work.
 
AppleUser29912 said:
Hi everyone,
I have an external wide screen monitor, a magic mouse and a magic keyboard.
I also have two macbook pros, one for work and one for personal usage.

When I start my day, I connect the monitor to my work mac, reset bluetooth and connect mouse and keyboard to my work mac.

When I finish the day, I disconnect the monitor and connect it to my personal laptop, reset bluetooth and connect mouse and keyboard to my personal mac.

This process is driving me crazy, I am wondering if there an easy solution to this. Maybe a device that I connect all 3 devices (monitor, keyboard and mouse) and easily press a button or something to switch between laptops?

I know there is an option to share mouse and keyboard but that wont work because:
- my personal laptop is an older macbook pro and doesnt support it
- I can't use my personal iCloud account on work machine

Has anyone had this issue and came up with a solution?
Click to expand...
As long as you are willing to use wired devices, there have always been KVM switches which can switch Keyboard-Video-Mouse between two or more devices. Amazon has one with HDMI for $36 (KVM Switch HDMI 2 Port Box,ABLEWE USB and HDMI Switch for 2 Computers Share Keyboard Mouse Printer and one HD Monitor,Support UHD 4K@60Hz,with 2 USB Cable and 2 HDMI Cable) and there are other devices with other video ports. I use them at work and they are great for tight spaces. But you are limited to wired (USB) mouse+keyboard.
Optionally, you can use this KVM switch with Logitech wireless devices which use their proprietary connection or some other wireless (non BT) solution (e.g., I have MS wireless mouse with usb dongle).
For BT devices I would simply buy and use second pair of devices.
 
AppleUser29912 said:
Hi everyone,
I have an external wide screen monitor, a magic mouse and a magic keyboard.
I also have two macbook pros, one for work and one for personal usage.

When I start my day, I connect the monitor to my work mac, reset bluetooth and connect mouse and keyboard to my work mac.

When I finish the day, I disconnect the monitor and connect it to my personal laptop, reset bluetooth and connect mouse and keyboard to my personal mac.

This process is driving me crazy, I am wondering if there an easy solution to this.
Click to expand...

LOL, you don't need to buy a new mouse or keyboard, and you don't need to open the Bluetooth settings on either Mac. You don't need to futz with Universal Control or install any new software. And you certainly don't need to buy a KVM switch like it's 2004.

Here is the easiest way to deal with this:

Take a USB to Lightning cable and plug it into the Magic Keyboard. Yes, it will connect, and yes as others have said you can use it that way. BUT you can also immediately pull out the cable and the keyboard will stay connected via Bluetooth. By just plugging it into a Mac for a moment, that automatically pairs it. Plug, unplug, done. Same goes for the Magic Mouse. It's a very genius bit of design from Apple.
 
Last edited:
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I wasn't aware of the plug/unplug the mac keyboard & mouse trick, so that seems promising, but if you do end up looking at Logitech devices, I can recommend the MX series. I'm in a similar situation, but with a windows laptop for work. I have the MX Keys keyboard & MX Anywhere mouse. Just pushing a button switches between both laptops. There is also a third connection button as well should you want to connect to an iPad or phone or something.
 
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AppleUser29912 said:
I know there is an option to share mouse and keyboard but that wont work because:
- my personal laptop is an older macbook pro and doesnt support it
- I can't use my personal iCloud account on work machine

Has anyone had this issue and came up with a solution?
Click to expand...
There’s an app called Synergy which will let you share mouse and keyboard with any network connection - no iCloud, cross platform (Windows/Linux/Mac) - about 30 bucks for the nice GUI version (if you want to hunt around on Homebrew you might still be able to find the old open source version).

symless.com

Synergy - Share one mouse & keyboard across computers

Synergy is an app that shares one mouse and one keyboard across multiple computers and monitors. Instant download, easy to setup in minutes.
symless.com symless.com
 
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mk313 said:
I wasn't aware of the plug/unplug the mac keyboard & mouse trick, so that seems promising, but if you do end up looking at Logitech devices, I can recommend the MX series. I'm in a similar situation, but with a windows laptop for work. I have the MX Keys keyboard & MX Anywhere mouse. Just pushing a button switches between both laptops. There is also a third connection button as well should you want to connect to an iPad or phone or something.
Click to expand...
That is what I do. I use a KVM switch and MX mouse and a keyboard I built. Makes it easy to switch between my Macbook, Studio, and the tiny computer I am working with.
 
I own a license for Synergy. It works well. As long as they're allowed to install it on their work machine, it should satisfy the OP's requirements.
 
I too use the technique of plugging and unplugging the USB cable from the display into and out of the wireless keyboard and mouse. Works a treat for me - still looking for an easier way though!
 
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I have same issue. But my main pain is the monitor I have a studio display plugged into Mac Studio for personal use and its a pain to keep reaching around to unplug to plug into my MacBook work Air.

Is there a usb hub of some kind that would work as a switcher so I don’t have to keep unplugging?
 
JamesMay82 said:
Is there a usb hub of some kind that would work as a switcher so I don’t have to keep unplugging?
Click to expand...
Search for "USB-C KVM" on Google or Amazon. KVM is common name for these switching hubs (Keyboard-video-mouse = KVM). I found one for 4 devices immediately. Check that they are Mac compatible and support your resolution. I have no experience, but considering the mess USB-C is now, nothing is guaranteed.
But keep in mind those work for wired peripherals only - display surely, but if you have BT mouse and keyboard, those will not switch.
 
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