Magic bands suddenly not working

[tjmw2727]

Now - worth noting? This may have nothing to do with "battery's".

EVERY Hotel Keylock system resides on the local HOTEL computer. These have to download your MB data from the Main WDW backend computer system.

...and sometimes? The whole thing screws up.

Now, the RESTAURANTS, SHOPS, etc in the Hotel do what every other WDW System does.... they phone home to the Main WDW MB Computer.
So guess what happens? Your MB works GREAT for everything - except your door lock .

What to do? Rather than have the Front Desk try to "reprogram" all your bands? Ask for a Key Card.

I have asked for a key card at least 10 times and never been successful, no matter the resort or reason even after having our MB "fixed" several times, asking for a manager and spending too much time at the front desk.

 

[ScrapYap]

Some resorts will still give out the cards (especially if a guest is becoming agitated), but they try not to. Acquiring cards will only continue to gum up the works (according to the CMs who blame the problem on too many bands/cards). tjmw2727 is right - it's the backlog of data that's causing the problem. And it's true that you should have no more than 10 MBs active at one time. Fewer than 10 would be better. Guests who are associated with fewer than 10 bands (total - active and inactive) will not usually run into these problems. Over 40 bands, it's almost inevitable.

It's frustrating that the bands can stop working on the room door, mid-trip. And very annoying that there is no discernible rhyme or reason for why one band will work at one resort, but not at the next. Another band will at the next resort (which didn't work the first one). Sometimes it's the lead guest whose band will work. Sometimes it's the ten-year-old. I always bring every band I've got. If you received a new band by virtue of this specific room reservation, that band will almost certainly work. (Which makes you think that you should get a new MB for every resort stay. Which, vicious circle-y, will only gum up the works!)

One thing you can do, short of having your MDE rebuilt, is to call and ask if there are any voided bands or cards associated with your profile (you won't be able to see these yourself on MDE). You can ask that they be permanently removed. This can loosen up the data, as it were. Another good idea is to limit the number of interconnected friends you have on MDE. If you have a 14-year-old with her own MDE, she doesn't need to be friends with every aunt, uncle, cousin, etc. You, the planner, needs to be friends with everyone. But the young ones don't. It's much better if they don't have their own MDE (unless they're helping to plan).

Also - if your band isn't opening your room door, you don't have to go back to the front desk. Just call MDE tech support right from the door. 1 (407) 939-4357. They might be better than the front desk at fixing it - and without the hike or the wait in line.

 

[Dis703]

I don't know about too many but on our last trip there were only two of us and one of the bands didn't work from the start for our room. Got that fixed and on the last day suddenly my band stopped working so we used his instead. It's happened randomly in the past and we are usually not more than 5 or 6 people. But since we are almost always at the rooms with more than one of us there is usually at least one band that works.