How to connect the Magic Keyboard to your Mac

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

If you buy a new Retina 4K iMac or Retina 5K iMac it'll come with a Magic Keyboard pre-paired and ready to go. If you have an existing Mac, though, it's incredibly easy to pair a new Magic Keyboard to is and get going as well.

How to pair your Magic Keyboard to your Mac

While it's relatively simple to pair your Magic Keyboard over Bluetooth to your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV, Apple's made it so easy to pair with your Mac using the included Lightning cable.

  1. Turn the Magic Keyboard on if it isn't already. Otherwise, switch it off and then on to make it discoverable. (The switch is on the back left.)

  1. Take the Lightning cable that came with your Magic Keyboard and plug the USB end into your Mac.
  2. Plug the Lightning end into your Magic Keyboard.

Seriously. That's it. Your Mac will tell you the Magic Keyboard is connected, and you can unplug it again and start using it wirelessly immediately. You'll only ever need to plug it in again every month or so to recharge it.

How to check the battery charge level for the Magic Keyboard on your Mac

There's no charge indicator on the Magic Keyboard itself, but you can easily check the power level on your Mac.

  1. Click on the Bluetooth icon in the menubar.
  2. Hover over Magic Keyboard in the dropdown menu.
  3. Read the Battery level off the popup to the left.


How to un-pair your Magic Keyboard from your Mac

If you want to stop using the Magic Keyboard, you can simply turn it off. If you want to disconnect it, and have your Mac forget about it entirely, you can do that in Settings.

  1. Click on the Bluetooth icon in the menubar.
  2. Hover over Magic Keyboard in the dropdown menu.
  3. Click on Disconnect.


How to pair your Magic Keyboard with other devices

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Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

5 Comments
  • I have no idea about this Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Doesn't the "ultimate guide" sum all this up?
    Couldn't you have just made one post titled "how to connect your keyboard to all the stuff it can connect to"? Instead of a post for every device. Plus it's a tech blog not something our moms are reading, most everyone knows how to use a Bluetooth device from Apple that comes with instructions.
  • Agree it's just another keyboard with a fancy jazzy name Posted via the iMore App for Android from my iPhone 6s with a cracked screen by 3D Touching too much
  • Lots of people have pointed this out (myself among them), but the comments were deleted, so stop criticizing or it will happen to you! Rene's got a big ban-hammer.
  • Yeah leave a good comment or else you'll be deleted seems like thats limiting comments why would anybody want to leave a comment if they have to leave one that agrees with the imore Sent from the iMore App