Does unlicensed Apple hardware damage a late 2015 iMac?

I've been looking for a mouse for a late 2015 iMac for roughly 4 hours now because my mother told me that only some mice work and others will damage and possibly break the computer.

I've been looking all over the internet like a madman and eventually decided to reach out to an Apple Administrator about my issue and she sent me a link to the certified hardware built for the iMac.

The only mouse that was certified was the only mouse I wasn't looking for (Magic Mouse), so by that logic there is no mouse built for the iMac that isn't the one that doesn't have any scroll wheel or left and right clicks.

I was wondering if any old mouse might destroy the computer like my mother said since she could have gotten that info from anywhere.

Solution 1:

Mice are mice. Any USB mouse will be fine. If that mouse has more than two buttons and a scrollwheel, you may need software to use all of its features, so look for a manufacturer that provides support for the Mac.

Solution 2:

While it is certainly possible to hook up hardware that can damage a computer, that's nothing specific to Macs, it's specific to that hardware.

And usually that's because you're hooking up something that's broken bad and causes overvoltage on the USB socket for example. A mouse, being a device without an external power source, isn't going to do that.

I've been using 3rd party rodents and keyboards with all my Macs for years and years, never had a problem apart from the occasional wonky driver that caused buttons to be mapped in strange ways, and even that is very rare these days.

The only advantage of "certified" externals is that if something goes wrong using the combination, Apple is going to cover it under warranty. But with a mouse, nothing's going to go wrong unless you deliberately do something like yanking out the connecting cable at a very steep angle.

Solution 3:

First, any mouse that connects via Bluetooth cannot do physical damage to your computer.

Second, any mouse connected through a USB hub, even if it managed to damage the USB port in the hub, it would have trouble damaging your computer.

Third, any competently built mouse by a reputable vendor should be harmless. If anything, this is an admonishment not to buy no-name cheap Cheese junk.