Old Magic Bands

[mbh106]

My daughter wants to take her old pink magic band with her to the park this summer and order a purple one for this trip, so she can have an additional color to match her outfits. It will be over a year old at the time. Will it still work on everything, or should she order another pink one if that's the color she wants? I have read that the battery inside dies.

 

[MichelleWDWfan]

They are usable as long as you keep them activated in My Disney Experience.
They work for a long time. I used 1 of my Magic bands for 2 years.
I'm not sure exactly how long the battery life is.

When you don't plan to use a certain magic band anymore, you can de-activate it in your my disney experience tab online.
You click on "My Magic bands and cards". All of your Magic bands will show up in there.

 

[bumbershoot]

I have 13. Only one, from a trip extremely early in in MB-land, wouldn't open the door last month.

It's possible that trip was oct 2013?

But my second band from that trip works just fine.

 

[mbh106]

Thanks. Ours are showing in our MDE account as active. My daughter has one from spring 2015, and the rest of us from spring 2014. We will bring them, but I just didn't want one of them to suddenly stop working one day. So when the battery dies, does it stop working completely, or just certain features become inactive?

 

[msmama]

The battery is only used for the long range sensors (so getting the ride photos and videos automatically). The battery isn't used for any of the "up close" things like opening doors.

A MB from a year ago shouldn't have any problems at all with anything. Batteries were originally guessed to last 2-3 years (which I would guess they would've underestimated battery life, but maybe not).

 

[mbh106]

The battery is only used for the long range sensors (so getting the ride photos and videos automatically). The battery isn't used for any of the "up close" things like opening doors.

A MB from a year ago shouldn't have any problems at all with anything. Batteries were originally guessed to last 2-3 years (which I would guess they would've underestimated battery life, but maybe not).

Thanks! If for some reason the battery does die, could she still manually add a ride photo?

 

[Robo]

Thanks! If for some reason the battery does die, could she still manually add a ride photo?

Yes, on most attractions (not 7DMT,) but...
if some ELSE in her group does have a MB without a dead battery, THAT band will activate the photos for everyone in the group.

 

[mbh106]

Yes, on most attractions (not 7DMT,) but...
if some ELSE in her group does have a MB without a dead battery, THAT band will activate the photos for everyone in the group.

Ok great! Thanks for the help!

 

[Toffeewoffy]

I was told by a CM last month that they like you to use bands under 6 months old. That said, I've used 18-month old bands before and they worked fine. The batteries DO need to work in order to open doors etc - how else do you think they'll activate? That's what she told me, but of course the cards didn't have batteries in them did they?!

She also told me that you can take old bands with you as hand them in for recycling, so I may do that with our 2014 and March 2015 bands as we ended up with 2 bands each for the March trip (we changed resorts last minute).

 

[123SA]

Do your fastpasses show up on both bands?

 

[Robo]

The batteries DO need to work in order to open doors etc - how else do you think they'll activate? That's what she told me, but of course the cards didn't have batteries in them did they?!

MB batteries are NOT needed to open doors, enter parks, charge items to your room, enter FP+ queues, and other functions where the MB is held against a touch-pad.
Those are all "near-field RFID" functions and the chips inside the MBs are activated by the touch-pads to which they are held.

 

[Robo]

Do your fastpasses show up on both bands?

FPs do not "show up on" MagicBands.

Just to keep things as clear as possible-

There is no reservation info, or ticket info, or credit card info,
or FP+ info "put onto" a MagicBand.

A MagicBand just contains (and weakly "transmits") a unique serial number that is used to access the information that is stored in your MyDisneyExperience computer file.

So, even if you were to lose a MagicBand, the info stays locked in your file.
Disney can just set up a new band (different serial number)
to access the info in your MDE file.

The MagicBand works like the combination to a locked safe, or a key to a locked door.
The MB, itself, is not the file of info or the container of the info.

The MB just unlocks the file of info, allowing it to be accessed from your MDE account when needed.

 

[123SA]

I think I need it even more spelled out.

So Susan has a yellow band from 2015 and a green band for 2016 linked to the same MDE account. When she taps either the yellow band or the green band against whatever that the thing at the fastpass ride entrance with the light up mickey head is called, it accesses her MDE account - -the MDE account contains her FP info and will either grant or deny access according to the plans in the account.

Meaning, I can switch bands at will unless I remove the bands from my account?

 

[siskaren]

I think I need it even more spelled out.

So Susan has a yellow band from 2015 and a green band for 2016 linked to the same MDE account. When she taps either the yellow band or the green band against whatever that the thing at the fastpass ride entrance with the light up mickey head is called, it accesses her MDE account - -the MDE account contains her FP info and will either grant or deny access according to the plans in the account.

Meaning, I can switch bands at will unless I remove the bands from my account?

Yes to both.

 

[bumbershoot]

The battery isn't used for any of the "up close" things like opening doors.

Which is why it's bizarre that my one band isn't doing that. We had a no park trip so I didn't ask it to do more. It had one job, lol.