Getting the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless to work on iPad!

So I recently got myself a SteelSeries Rival 3 as I wanted something that could pair to two devices (my Mac and iPad), have a great sensor, good shape and most importantly, good battery life.

The Story

After much research, the Rival 3 Wireless was the choice for me and using a Rival 3 at work, having a wireless mouse at home and on the go is very convenient.

When I got my Rival 3 Wireless, it was a pleasant experience on macOS however, the Bluetooth functionality didn’t work on the iPad unfortunately. I spent hours trying to find a solution to this issue but it appears that this is a common issue with folks who have the Rival 3, apparently it is related to the mouse not adhering to certain requirements.

It would pair successfully however, the cursor would not show up.

It was quite sad however, there was hope!

iPadOS 16 Public Beta is currently out and I’ve heard that mice actually work and behave better now. One person on reddit asked to see if anyone has tried it on iPadOS 16 and after one month, there was no reply — until now!

I’ve never installed a beta but thought I’d give it a go on my iPad Air 4 and boom! It works! 😀

My Rival 3 Wireless mouse now works flawlessly in iPadOS 16!

Of course, I hope this stays like this forever as I don’t want a future update to break this compatibility however, I have also reached out to SteelSeries directly and have passed this information to them. 

TLDR

If you are having issues with the Rival 3 working on your iPad, install iPadOS 16 and it should then work!

Hope this helps!

3 responses

  1. Rezz Tinn Avatar
    Rezz Tinn

    I checked my version and the mouse doesn’t work for me. The version is no longer beta. I am using a standard 9th gen iPad. I switch the mouse to Bluetooth the blue light turns on and it pops up as an option but when I try to connect I get a pop up “pairing unsuccessful” saying that the mouse took too long to connect. Does anyone have a solution?

    1. Hi Rezz, for pairing, did you make sure to hold down the CPI button prior to switching it to the BT mode? You will need to hold the CPI button with the switch first in the “OFF” position then you switch it to “BT” while holding it. It should start to flash.

      I have just tested it on my iPad Air 4 running the latest version of iPadOS (16.1+) and it works fine on my end.

      Also, if you notice that multiple “Rival 3 Wireless” entries show up in the “Bluetooth” settings, you will need to tap into another area in Settings and then go back to the “Bluetooth” section, this is because the device sometimes won’t show up correctly.

      I would also recommend checking the mouse firmware via SteelSeries GG app to see if it is on the latest version.

      1. Thank you for the response.. it worked for me!
        If anyone is wondering… I’m using IPad Pro 10.5 (2nd gen)

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