2 MK days coming up in March. Last time we were in WDW was 2016, when we got Magic Bands and I decorated them with nail polish and tattoos.
Keep ‘em? Will they work? Thoughts?
Btw this is our last Disney trip for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for advice!
I used a 2017 MagicBand a few weeks ago… It worked for tapping into the park/rides, but ride photos did not work which means the battery is dead. 
Sooooo…how confident are we that the 2016 bands will work for park admission and FP+? 
They will work for park admission, FPP, DDP, & Memory Maker, anything that you need to tap. It’s like a work badge that you tap to open door locks into secure areas. I’ve had my work badge for 5+ years and unfortunately 
, it let’s me into the office every work day! The ride pictures uses a signal that depends on the battery in the Magic Band. That battery has a shelf life. @ryan1 can explain it a lot better than me.
They last forever for anything you tap.
You said it very well yourself.
From a technical standpoint, tapping in uses NFC, which doesn’t require any power on the band itself. NFC works by the tapstyle generating a magnetic field which powers the MB when it is in close range, which in turn uses that power to transmit the MB ID information back to the tapstyle.
Anything that detects the MB remotely (specifically, Photo Pass) uses Bluetooth Low Energy, which requires (very little) on-board power. Typically, this means it can last about 2 years, give or take.
Thank you, one and all! Much appreciated.
One more question! If we use our old magic bands, is there another way to pick up our images from rides (since they won’t be automatically read by the outdated bands)? Someplace we could tap our MB or card/ticket on our way off the ride? We are getting the Memory Maker package.
Most rides have tap points. 7DMT, Haunted Mansion and Pirates don’t, off the top of my head, and you would miss the videos on 7DMT and TOT. I’m sure there are more.
I think Dinosaur lost its tap points recently also.
Ok thanks! I think my Thrifty + Best Results Plan is to get one new MB for DD13 who doesn’t like her old glitter Jasmine MB anyway 
and the rest of us can handle 2016 bands. 
DONE.