Magical greetings, Susan, and welcome back to planDisney! You must be a bonafide Walt Disney World fan if you're still holding on to Disney MagicBands from 2014. I still have mine dating back to their inception, too. I'm happy to share my experience with original MagicBands.
My planDisney pal,
JoAnna, gave you a wealth of information
here on how to tell if it's active within your
My Disney Experience Mobile App. She covered all the bases for you, and I don't have much else I can add on that front. However, I can share with you my experiences.
While JoAnna is absolutely correct that you won't know for sure if they still work until you try, I've had great success with using older bands to scan into the theme parks and
Lightning Lane queues. Beyond that, I haven't had much success past a few years with things like opening the door to my
Disney Resort hotel room, capturing my attraction photos, linking
PhotoPass photos or using it to make purchase to charge to my room. I've also found that they sometimes automatically become deactivated from My Disney Experience after several years, and JoAnna gave you some great tips for checking this.
The nice thing is that, while they are convenient fun to use, they aren't absolutely necessary. You can do all the things you need using the My Disney Experience Mobile App and/or
Disney MagicMobile Service. That being said, have you considered upgrading to the newer
MagicBand+? Not only will they be more reliable than the older ones, they sometimes interact with what's happening in the theme parks. For example, they practically put on their own light show during fireworks and other nighttime spectaculars. Plus, if you ever visit
Disneyland Resort in California or take a voyage on
Disney Cruise Line, your MagicBand+ is the only version that will work there.
Susan, I hope you find that your OG MagicBand still works its magic for you, but if not, rest assured you'll still have options to do anything you need. Have a fantastic trip, and please visit us again with any other questions.
Grab hold of your dreams!
Melanie