I read in an old article that you can restore the magnetic field and make it stronger. Get one of these super strong magnets, like a while back kids were swallowing them and was panic time.
Just stroke the super magnet over the weak magnet in ONLY ONE DIRECTION.
Some of these super magnets are so small you may be able to just leave it attached to either pole or at the bottom of the the u shaped magnet (so experiment). They are available ON LINE.
Hope this helps.
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