Old Magic Bands

#1

Can My Disney Experience be trusted regarding old magic bands?

I was last in The World in August of 2016. According to the MDE site, the bands from that trip are still active and valid.

I’ve bought a two-day admission to the park for Feb 7-8, and MDE tells me that they have been loaded onto my magic bands for that trip.

Are we good?

I wish my local Disney store had a way to test them, but I also have the confirmation email on my phone (Which Disney said to present at the gate) and I’ll also be good to go.

BTW, all my fast passes are made, if I have a dead magic band, how are those supposed to work?

#2

Last week I used a 45th Anniversary Magic Band that I bought at release in July 2017. I found that it worked at all tap points but did not work for any on-ride photos. Which I believe means that the battery is dead.

I believe “active” on MDE just means it’s associated with your account.

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#3

They will work for near-field communication (NFC) such as Tapstyles and opening your room door…but it is likely the battery is dead for the things using Bluetooth, such as on-ride detection for photopass, etc.

Also, technically, nothing is “loaded” to your Magic Band. All your Magic Band does is advertise a unique ID…this ID is communicated to the backend, which is effectively MDE.

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#4

Glad to see someone asked about this. Going to Universal in March but doing DAH at MK one evening and bringing along old magic bands. DHs and mine are from 2019 but DS magicband is from 2018 as he lost his new one when we were there this past summer. I have the confirmation of the DAH tickets on MDE but was wondering if the old magic bands would work to tap in for FPP since we plan to get there at 7pm before park closing.

#5

Yes they will.

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#6

We got brand new bands, picked up at check in, in August and they didn’t work for photos either. One premium and one plain. It was extremely annoying. We did get all our pics in the end by emailing Photopass Support for everything with no tap point, but the bands were obviously very old, which I don’t think is fair.

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#7

Does anyone know of a way to test this? Seems like you should be able to exchange them if they are new with a dead battery. Photos seem the main reason to get a MB over getting a card to tap with.

#8

The only way to test it that I’m aware of is to wait and see if you get your pics.

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#9

Whatever proprietary form of BT LE or similar technology they’re using for the long range functions has made this hard for people to “hack” and withdraw any information about the battery status. Agree that you really won’t know for sure until ride pics and other longer-range interactives either work or don’t work.

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