My pen-grip mouse is paired over Bluetooth but is not reconnecting.

My pen-grip mouse is paired over Bluetooth but is not reconnecting.

If your mouse is showing in your Bluetooth device list as paired, but is not connecting when you switch it on; one of problems described below could be happening. You should be able to tell which, based on how the light on your mouse responds when you switch it on.

Your mouse may be connecting to another device nearby.

If your mouse is also paired to another device nearby over Bluetooth, or its USB receiver is plugged in nearby; it may be connecting to one of them instead of your intended device.

When this is happening the LED on your mouse will light up green for 3 seconds shortly after you switch it on, then it will stop flashing entirely. As this indicates it has successfully connected to a device.

There are two ways to resolve a case like this: 
  1. If you want your mouse to be paired to the two different devices so you can switch between them easily. You should just follow the steps in this article which describe how to switch between paired devices.
  2. Alternately if you want your mouse to be paired to only one device you should remove the pairings from the other devices Bluetooth list. Or perform a factory reset of your mouse to clear all pairings from its memory, then only re-pair it with the one device you want to use.

Your mouse no longer remembers the pairing.

Sometimes a pairing in the Bluetooth list can become invalid, if the device it is paired to no longer remembers the pairing. With our mice this can happen if you have paired it to three new devices over Bluetooth since last connecting to this one. As the mouse can only maintain three Bluetooth pairings in memory at once.

When this is happening the LED on your mouse will flash in a certain pattern whenever you move it or press a button. Then turn off again after a few seconds if you don't touch it.

The exact pattern of flashes from the LED will vary based on how many pairings it has in memory. But it will always start with a short green flash, followed by one or more orange flashes, and finish with two red flashes.

To resolve this you will need to re-create the Bluetooth pairing, we would also recommend you first remove the invalid pairing to avoid any future confusion.

There is a problem with your computer/devices Bluetooth adapter.

Sometimes when a computer or device has been on for several days and had several Bluetooth devices connecting and disconnecting to it, the Bluetooth adapter can stop working correctly.

If this happens your mouse will respond in the same way as described in the previous case, but it may fail to create a new pairing when you try.

To resolve this you can first try switching Bluetooth off on your computer/device for a few seconds, then switching it back on. If that doesn't help you may also need to restart your computer/device before retrying the connection.

Others steps to reduce the chance of running into problems like this would be to ensure that you have the latest drivers installed for your Bluetooth adapter, and adjusting your Bluetooth power management settings. The steps to do this are covered in the articles below.

Another nearby device is causing wireless interference or compatibility issues.

The most common source of wireless interference on modern systems is USB devices connected to USB 3.0 ports (you can find more details about this issue here if it could be factor on your setup). In addition to external devices, we've also heard of cases where internal components can compromise a mouses Bluetooth connection (for example a fingerprint scanner as discussed in this thread on Microsoft's forum).

The cause for problems like this are very system specific. So often the best approach is to replicate the issue, then make adjustments to your setup (disconnecting/disabling non-essential device) until the problem goes away. Once you know which devices are contributing to the problem you can then make an informed decision on how it would be best to alter your setup to avoid the problem.