Bluetooth mouse has to pair everytime for different device

Background:

I am using Windows 10, I have a Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse, I am using this mouse for my personal laptop(PC-A) and business laptop(PC-B).

Situation:

When I pair it with PC-A at home, it works. However, after I have paired it with PC-B at work and when I get back to home, it is no longer working with PC-A and I have to remove the device and pair it again. And after I have paired it again with PC-A at home then I get to work on the next day, it is no longer working with PC-B so I have to pair it again, which is very unconvinced. Besides, I dont have such problem with another bluetooth device such as speaker and rs232 bluetooth dongle, when I pair it once, and it will work when it is in bluetooth range.

Question:

This is my first bluetooth mouse, I don't know if this Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse issue or every brand bluetooth mouse issue, is there any solution?

Bilo

Posted 2016-03-01T01:49:56.443

Reputation: 1 326

Answers

Your mouse supports pairing with only one device at a time. When you pair it with PC-A, your mouse stores a link key which is shared with PC-A and is used to establish an encrypted connection. When you are trying to use the mouse with PC-B, the link key stored inside the mouse doesn't match with the one on PC-B, so you're required to pair your mouse again, generating a new link key. This breaks the pairing with PC-A, and so on.

However, it is possible to pair your mouse with both PC-A and PC-B if you use the same link key on both. In order to do this, you'll need to fulfill two conditions:

PC-A and PC-B should have the same Bluetooth MAC address
PC-A, PC-B and your mouse should share the same link key

The first condition can be achieved by buying a USB Bluetooth dongle you'll carry along with your mouse and plug into PC-A and PC-B when necessary. Plug this dongle into PC-A and pair your mouse with it.

The second condition will require you to export and import the link key. To export the link key from PC-A, start regedit and navigate to the following registry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTHPORT\Parameters\Keys

The location will most probably be empty, because by default only SYSTEM user has the right to read it. Right-click on the entry, select Permissions... and give your user full access to Keys.

Under Keys, you'll find entries corresponding to Bluetooth interfaces your computer has. Identify the one corresponding to the USB dongle (it will have a single link key corresponding to your mouse, provided you didn't pair anything else yet). Export that entry to a file.

Then, you'll need to import the registry export on PC-B, which is usually done by double-clicking the .reg file. Then restart the computer and the mouse should connect to it without pairing.

You'll need administrator rights on both computers to do this, and both computers should be using Microsoft Bluetooth stack.

I have tested this solution using hardware and software at my disposal, which is substantially different from yours:

PC-A: an x86 laptop running Windows XP
PC-B: a Banana Pi Pro running Debian 8 and BlueZ 5.23
Dongle: Logilink BT0015

Dmitry Grigoryev

Posted 2016-03-01T01:49:56.443

Reputation: 7 505

Have you tried it personally? I 'found this method on the Internet before but it is not working. – Bilo – 2016-03-03T15:10:32.917

No, I don't have Windows 10. Could you describe what exactly is not working? Can you find the link key from your mouse? Can you export/import it? What happens then? – Dmitry Grigoryev – 2016-03-03T16:13:00.427

1Also, you could have mentioned things you have tried in your question. That would save everyone's time. – Dmitry Grigoryev – 2016-03-03T16:27:30.367

I just found out why it is not working, when I go through again some material on the Internet, this method is supposed to work on the same machine with different OS only, but not for different machine. – Bilo – 2016-03-04T02:04:26.807

I don't see why different machines should matter, this diagram suggests it shouldn't. I will test it this weekend though.

– Dmitry Grigoryev – 2016-03-04T06:59:05.803

This is because after Keys there still some random sub key, I have tried to rename the subkey but it is still not working, I didn't mention it on the question because I found this method was done in Windows 7, I think this may be obsoleted. – Bilo – 2016-03-04T10:46:45.013

Have you tried it yet? I am looking for your finding, thanks. – Bilo – 2016-03-08T05:51:16.687

I went through the procedure and updated my answer accordingly. It worked with two different computers (armv7 running debian 8 and x86 running windows XP) which shared the same USB BT dongle. That's the bad news: you'll have to buy a dongle for this to work. – Dmitry Grigoryev – 2016-03-08T23:07:54.330

An authoritative answer by Microsoft engineer in the post Pairing Sculpt Comfort Mouse to Multiple Computers :

Using the inbuilt feature in Windows, it is not possible to pair the mouse with multiple computers.

As I can see it, you need another mouse, with the following choices :

Get a Bluetooth mouse advertised as having multi-pairing capabilities
Get a second Bluetooth mouse for using specifically at the second computer's site
Get a Bluetooth mouse that uses a USB dongle that one can unplug and replug in multiple computers
Get a wired USB mouse that one can also unplug and replug in multiple computers (this old-fashioned solution will wipe out the need for pairing and battery life-time worries, and will also work for an infinite number of computers).

harrymc

Posted 2016-03-01T01:49:56.443

Reputation: 306 093

PS: Just noticed that the report I've found is in fact your answer. I'd be grateful if you explain why do you think this case is different. – Dmitry Grigoryev – 2016-03-03T16:51:08.270

@DmitryGrigoryev: There is no overlap between our answers. If yours works and the poster likes it, then best wishes for you. If not, then mine is an alternative. So what's the problem? – harrymc – 2016-03-03T17:20:19.737

It really depends on whether or not the device supports multi-pairing. Usually with devices such as Bluetooth mice, this is an advertised feature. For example, Logitech has a trademarked feature called "Easy-Switch" on some of their devices that performs the function in question here.

As for the Bluetooth speaker and RS-232 dongle working, I would bet that the pairing methodology is simpler or older (for example a fixed PIN, rather than some sort of shared secret between the mouse and the PC).

In your case, it looks like you're out of luck - The Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse needs to be paired each time it's connected to a different device.

BrianC

Posted 2016-03-01T01:49:56.443

Reputation: 681

The working principle of Logitech Easy-Switch technology is switching to different channel to work with multiple devices within bluetooth range. This situation is different from which I am experiencing. Besides, if this is PIN issue, I think there should be a workaround to copy the key once it had paired with the device to let the mouse think it is connecting to the same device then it will work. – Bilo – 2016-03-03T06:14:11.973

Right, and it maintains that pairing relationship on each channel, so a device like that would work. I didn't see the bounty disclaimer on your post when I wrote this, try what Dmitry Grigoryev said. – BrianC – 2016-03-03T15:12:31.377