Reusing Old Magic Bands

[CarolynFH]

They're been sitting and gathering dust since 2019. Surely the battery must be dead by now.

As per the posts above, the tap functions like park entry, Genie+LL, and unlocking resort room door don’t need the battery in the MB. Those functions use power from the tapstyle or door lock. Only the long range functions like linking ride photos need the internal battery.

 

[blistex]

They're been sitting and gathering dust since 2019. Surely the battery must be dead by now.

We just used MBs from 2018 and 2019 last week for room key, LL tapstiles and park admission with no problem whatsoever.

 

[clonetopia]

We also just used our 2018 MagicBands on a 2023 "Food and Wine" 3-day trip. As the previous post said, we used them for room key, Lightning Lane, and park admission tapstiles. We also used them to pay at all the Food and Wine booths as well as shopping purchases.

Also mentioned earlier, they did not pick up on ride photos. My wife rode a Tron cycle and left her cell phone in a locker while I rode in the "plus size" car in the back with my phone in my pocket. The ride photos caught me (due to my phone) but did not "see" her and her old MagicBand.

We verified before we left home that the MagicBands were still associated and active in the MyDisneyExperience app. We had a late flight and arrived at All-Star Movies at 2am. We didn't even go to the front desk to check-in. Just went straight to the room, tapped the 5-year-old MagicBand on the sensor and it worked. I couldn't have been happier.

 

[sheilafri]

They're been sitting and gathering dust since 2019. Surely the battery must be dead by now.

They use RFID technology for areas where you touch your band to a reader—hotel doors, park entrances or LLs, for example. The battery is used for the (relatively) long distance of the photo readers. So if photos don’t matter to you, don’t worry about upgrading. Also, only one member of your party needs to have access to the photos for all friends and family linked in MDE. So only buy one new one, or one for each person you anticipate getting a photo taken separately on a ride, if photos matter to you.

 

[undertheseas]

Last year we used our 2016 bands and this week we successfully used our 2017 bands.

 

[Apiary]

They're been sitting and gathering dust since 2019. Surely the battery must be dead by now.

The tap function of the magic band doesn’t require a battery.

 

[jimim]

In my MDE account if a ticket and an active MB are under the same profile they have always been ready to go.

Not always for everything. Room doors are hit and miss. Once you hit a certain number of bands for 1 person things get wonky. I have prob 40 or so. A few trips ago they removed a bunch cause random ones weren’t working. I’m down to like 10 now and even this trip as I stand here one of my linked plus bands work for charging and park entrance but it won’t open my room door like my other plus. It gets wonky. My kids each have 10 plus and some of theirs don’t open the room door. Seems like it’s usually room door issues vs park entrance.

 

[jimim]

If I have multiple old MBs, is it possible to get one of those linked with a different person in my party? Or you can only use old MBs that were previously linked to your own profile?

No switching users unless you get some wicked pixie dust from what I know. I did get the Olaf one switched from me to my daughter bitcthet was back when it came out in like 2015/16 ish. No idea how I pulled it off.

 

[JJsmama]

Do the batteries die? I have a bunch listed as active, and I just found several of them. Since there are no dates listed, the ones i have could be from around 2008. I am afaid to attach tickets to ones that might he dead. I would rather link them at home, but Should i wait until we arrive at resort? i don’t want to wait for park guest services because we have a tour leaving first thing that morning.

 

[Ensusieasm]

Take two or three per person active ones with you. Deactivate the rest and Leave them at home. You cannot use a band that was ever assigned to someone else.
The bands have a multi digit code on the back so you can be sure that the ones you take with you are active.
They don’t need batteries to do the important stuff like get in your room, get in the park, get in Lightning lanes, or purchase things. If ride photos are important to you, then you need bands with good batteries.

 

[gharter]

Do the batteries die? I have a bunch listed as active, and I just found several of them. Since there are no dates listed, the ones i have could be from around 2008. I am afaid to attach tickets to ones that might he dead. I would rather link them at home, but Should i wait until we arrive at resort? i don’t want to wait for park guest services because we have a tour leaving first thing that morning.

Yes and no. For on ride photos, the batteries die and won't be picked up by the sensors (usually about 2-3 years). The RFID doesn't die, so they will continue to work for room keys, park tap in, ride tap ins and paying.

 

[lanejudy]

I am afraid to attach tickets to ones that might he dead.

Tickets are linked to the person in MDE.
MagicBands are linked to the person in MDE.
Nothing is linked TO the MB.

As PPs state, any MagicBand should work indefinitely for "tap" needs -- such as entering the parks, LL queues, purchases/dining charged to your resort account, open resort door, etc. The "long range" battery may be dead (there weren't MBs back in 2008, only since 2013 ) but that would really only impact ride photos, but I think if you have bluetooth turned on for your phone you should be ok for those anyway.

 

[Bound4DisneyWorld]

Do the batteries die? I have a bunch listed as active, and I just found several of them. Since there are no dates listed, the ones i have could be from around 2008. I am afaid to attach tickets to ones that might he dead. I would rather link them at home, but Should i wait until we arrive at resort? i don’t want to wait for park guest services because we have a tour leaving first thing that morning.

If you look at MagicBands associated to your My Disney Experience account, it will tell you when the band was initially linked to your account. That will give you an idea when they were from. If you’re not sure which is which, the blacked out bar beneath the band is the serial number. You can match the serial number on My Disney Experience to the back of the band.

In terms of attaching tickets, you link the tickets to your account. The MagicBand is what pulls up the account.

As long as you see your admission in your account, and you’ve matched the serial number on the back of the band to the serial number in your account, you’re good to go.

Hope that helps!

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

Silly question, but if you use an old band, do you need to scan the same finger for re-entry? Asking, as I used to use my finger for my kids when they were little. I just want to minimize any issues getting into the parks! Wasn't sure if a new ticket prompts a new fingerprint.

 

[sheilafri]

Silly question, but if you use an old band, do you need to scan the same finger for re-entry? Asking, as I used to use my finger for my kids when they were little. I just want to minimize any issues getting into the parks! Wasn't sure if a new ticket prompts a new fingerprint.

My understanding is that they don’t keep fingerprints indefinitely, pretty much only for the current ticket/trip plus a little while. DH and I accidentally switched bands on the last trip. CM caught it because I don’t look like a male-named person and he doesn’t look like a female-named person—this was with an AP so ticket was good for a year. I believe the fingerprint was still tied to the ticket as it did pull up a name. We switched bands, showed our IDs, reset our fingerprints and were good to go.

I believe a new ticket would trigger the need for a new fingerprint. This makes the most sense as I believe Disney doesn’t want people sharing tickets and getting that financial benefit. It would require a huge data base to save years of fingerprints so I believe they are likely to limit print retention to ticket duration and use names for the more basic data bases. I also base this off the fact that we have very old non-expiring tickets that they told me they were unable to pair with a particular member of our group. We need to exchange those and then tie to a fingerprint/name.

CMs have pretty much seen it all. Don’t stress over an extra minute or two at the gate. But do scan the same finger for the duration of a current trip/ticket.

 

[JJsmama]

If you look at MagicBands associated to your My Disney Experience account, it will tell you when the band was initially linked to your account. That will give you an idea when they were from. If you’re not sure which is which, the blacked out bar beneath the band is the serial number. You can match the serial number on My Disney Experience to the back of the band.

Thanks, that is helpful, except in my MDE, there are no dates or additional info. I can see the numbers, the family member which goes with each, and active or not, but no indication of time period. I was trying to take the newest, but between the “active“ status and the ones we have actually kept, there is only a couple options anyway.

Ok, now i realize that i need more help than i thought: i have not “linked“ anything yet for this trip, but in MDE, i can see my resort res, my PH ticket and my special AH ticket with our names. There are several “Active” bands in each of our account. Do I need to link those tickets? I don’t see a button to do that on those tickets. or are they already on any ‘Active‘ band, in which case, i need to do nothing?

 

[erionm]

Thanks, that is helpful, except in my MDE, there are no dates or additional info. I can see the numbers, the family member which goes with each, and active or not, but no indication of time period. I was trying to take the newest, but between the “active“ status and the ones we have actually kept, there is only a couple options anyway.

The MDE website doesn't show the date added, you need to look in the MDE mobile app. In the app, touch the menu icon (3 bars) and then select "MagicBands and More". To the right of each persons name will be 3 dots, touch that and then select manage for the type of band (MB+ or regular MB).

Ok, now i realize that i need more help than i thought: i have not “linked“ anything yet for this trip, but in MDE, i can see my resort res, my PH ticket and my special AH ticket with our names. There are several “Active” bands in each of our account. Do I need to link those tickets? I don’t see a button to do that on those tickets. or are they already on any ‘Active‘ band, in which case, i need to do nothing?

Tickets that are linked to an individual in MDE can be access using any active MagicBand that is linked to the same individual.

 

[deansreef1]

yes, no issue unless the band is inactive. we had this happen to one of the old bands that we had not used in a few trips. we used to get new bands with the purchase of a WDW vacation package, but of course new bands are no longer included :-(

 

[JJsmama]

The MDE website doesn't show the date added, you need to look in the MDE mobile app. In the app, touch the menu icon (3 bars) and then select "MagicBands and More". To the right of each persons name will be 3 dots, touch that and then select manage for the type of band (MB+ or regular MB).

Very helpful!

 

[Kyhome]

Just to clarify-if I have 5 active magic bands per person (some since 2015)-as long as they all say active and we all have our tickets in MDE app, there is nothing else we need to do to use the old magic bands to get into the parks. Ie, I do not have to link the new park tickets to a band (yes, I read through this thread but wanted to confirm) and can take any active magic band (as long as they match up to the correct person?). Thank you!