Sauron Mirkwood Ring confusion
 

I’ve searched around and googled and best I can come up with to my question, why didn’t Sauron sense the ring in Mirkwood, is “Bilbo didn’t use it often. But Bilbo wears it nearly 100% of the time in the King’s halls for a few months. Maybe he was distracted by the Council’s attack on his base in the forest? But I feel like he should’ve noticed something it’s just up the road basically.

And I know he gains strength over time but we’re talking a 60year difference in a span of thousands it can’t be that much difference in power, can it?

Can Sauron sense the Ring? He can if it's used on a site designed to project the user's senses and presence across large distances (Amon Hen), or if it's used in Mordor itself, particularly at Mount Doom (technically Sam uses it for an instant inside Mordor before taking it off, hence the 'particularly'). But he didn't know it still existed until Gollum told him, despite Bilbo and Frodo both using it to hide from Sackville-Bagginses and the like. I think Tolkien wrote that the Nazgul could sense it in use - I remember Khamul being noted as the best at this - but I can't bring to mind any evidence that Sauron can detect it himself.

hS

What Hu said.

Also, when Tolkien wrote The Hobbit it was just a magic invisibility ring with no connection to the unnamed Necromancer at all.

The issue of the Nazgul's sense of the One has always intrigued me. Hence, this shameless plug of an old thread. ;)

To me, the intent of the Bearer is important.
Although someone using the Ring's secondary power of invisibility is revealed to those who can see the "unseen", the use of its primary power of command and domination is what really grabs Sauron's attention. And, of course, going so far as to openly claim it on Sauron's doorstep wouldn't go unnoticed.

Inziladun has the right interpretation, in my view. There is a marked difference between merely carrying the Ring, merely wearing the Ring, and claiming the Ring for one's own.

This is fair, it also is alluded to by Gandalf saying it helped Bilbo started his possession with Pity