I love the scroll wheel on top of the Apple mighty mouse, but after use the sweat and oil on your finger combined with grit and dust clogs the whole thing up. This manifests itself in the scroll wheel not scrolling down, or up, or in worst cases, not scrolling all. Here’s how to fix the problem.
I rang Apple and said my scroll wheel was not working and they gave me this simple but effective solution over the phone. It was not broken but just dirty. It’s funny that I could not find it anywhere on Google or on the Apple webpage, it has worked for me numerous times.
Simply take a sheet of clean white paper, put it on top of the mouse, and press down on the scroll wheel with your finger, but with the paper between your finger and the scroll wheel. Press quite hard with it and at the same time scroll around – moving it up and down and round and round. Move to a different area of the paper and give it another go.
The paper seems to absorb all the oil and gunk off the scroll wheel, and the scroll wheel in turn when it is clean must absorb the gunk off the sensors or whatever is underneath it.
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WOW.
Prompted by your entry I dug out my old mighty mouse, dusted it off, gave it a “paper clean” and now it works again!!! I have happily disconnected my clunky-looking but functional Microsoft mouse and reconnected my sleek-looking (and now) functional mighty mouse. All is right in the world again.
Excellent!!
You are a genius
Thank you! Now I have solved the problem once and for all.
Thanks Heaps. i bought a new mouse as I could not get the other scrolling, Have just taken my old one and did above, and “voila .’ it works perfectly.
Thank you so much for this tip! I was ready to take my mouse apart because the scroll was completely unresponsive. I tried rubbing wet tissue paper, microfiber clothes, to no avail.
This paper thing really works! I just turned my mouse upside down and rubbed hard out on blank pages on my diary. Then bit by bit all the scrolling came to life!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Amazing! Your a massive dude! Thanks
Thank you!!! I have been putting up with only an upward scroll for a couple of years. I tried with the paper on top first and it didn’t work, but after reading Yan’s post, I turned it upside down and rubbed very hard for a long time and little bits of dirt kept coming out. Now I have a downward scroll too!!
yup it works. Hallelujah.
Tried it… :( sadly my mouse wheel wouldn’t go up before trying this trick, but now it won’t go down either. Time for a new one I guess!! lol I’d still try this if I was someone looking for a quick fix. 1 fail out of 10 is good odds!
It didn’t work for me. I accidently popped off the rim, and I am cleaning out the whole thing before I seal it again. I only did this so I wouldn’t have to risk breaking it unscrewing the little screws that hold it.
I turned it upside down and rubbed very hard for a long time and little bits of dirt kept coming out. Now I have a downward scroll too!!
thanks
UNBELIEVABLE!! This works brilliantly…. having spent days looking up settings trying to fix an unresponsive mouse wheel this finally solved my dilemma!
Found it works best if you turn the mouse upside down and rub frimly and rapidly on the clean pages of a notebook for a minute or two a single sheet of paper on top didn’t work for me!!
Much thanks for this help- absolute Gold
Worked. Thank you!