MacBook Pro Keys Suddenly Stopped Working (Y, U, I and O)
Well this was a fun morning.
Deadlines to meet, busy busy busy, and what should be the stumbling block?
Tricky PHP code? No.
Gnarly CSS tweaks? No.
No, no, no. It’s just a simple case of my beloved MacBook Pro keys not working.
Say what.
Yup. Keys. Not working.
Crazy, I know.
So off to the Apple forums I electronically trundle.
This marvellous article (http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1381) keeps popping up, so I follow it all the way through, down to every last drop of detail.
Any luck?
No.
So I go off-piste.
And here’s the fix that worked for me:
- Go to System Preferences (you can get there from Mission Control, or the top left Apple icon on your screen, and then click System Preferences.
- Go to Keyboard.
- Go to the Input Sources tab.
- Click the + button (bottom left of window).
- Add a new keyboard (preferably of a similar language). We had British running originally, so we added U.S. below it (i.e. you should now have 2 keyboards in the list).
- Your “broken” keys should now be working again (try with glee in an open text edit window, or similar).
- Feel free to remove your newly added keyboard (i.e. you should just be left with your original keyboard), as the fix should still work. You can do this by selecting the newly added keyboard and clicking the – button to remove.
So why does this happen?
No idea. But it seems to be a software hiccup that’s tenderly reminded of all it’s appropriate keys when a new keyboard is added.
All I know is I can now get back to work. 🙂
Have we saved you some grey hair? Or made you smile?
We’d love to know about it in the comments below, or, if you’re unable to contain your happiness, we wouldn’t say no to a cup of coffee 🙂
Aaronp2k
wow, you are a genius man. I been looking everywhere for a fix and you are the only one who managed to figure it out.
Narf
Sara is a “man”? 🙂
Huh What
not a man, nice assumption tho
Vaidas Zilionis
One of stupid solution which actually worked. In my case d,f,g,h,j,k,l stoped working (after like 20 clicks they responded). after removing U.S, and adding again it fixed. I believe this bug caused because of the latest apple update (somehow i not installed it for long time 10.10.1).
Sara Thornton
Glad it helped Vaidas!
leomar
hahaist why is it now working in my macbook. all my keys are not working anymore and a screen keyboard pop out.
Sara Thornton
Hi leomar,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
LJ
Sadl, hs hasn’ wrked fr me, as can see!
Sara Thornton
Hi LJ,
Maybe try one of these links:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Thanks,
Sara
Heather
This is such a bizarre problem, but thank you very much for a quick fix! (Look at all those functioning u’s and i’s!)
Steve
Mine is a little different problem: every /time /I /press /space /key, /slash /automatically /appears. /So /many /deadlines /and /I /can’t /just /delete /them /all /the /time. /Not /sure /what /to /do. /This /doesn’t /work /too . :/
Sara Thornton
Hi Steve,
Maybe try one of these links:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Thanks,
Sara
Paul DiCrescenzo
You truly are a genius! I’ve been suddenly having the problem with the exact same keys. This fix worked perfectly for me after trying several of the other ones in various threads. Was just getting ready to take my MBP apart to try the lifted cable fix I found on one of them. No need now, many thanks!
Sara Thornton
Glad to help!
(And always nice to be called a genius) 🙂
mike O
amazing! thank you! I thought I was doomed to never have a functioning ‘return’ key ever again.
Sara Thornton
Glad to help Mike!
Deepesh
One of the rare remedies that was uncomplicated and actually worked!
ram
same 4 kes n0t w0rkng . bt even ths remed desnt wrk fr me. ! d00meed.. (sr n 0
Sara Thornton
Hi ram,
Maybe try one of these links:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Thanks,
Sara
Ella
Hi Sara,
Thanks for the help.
I cant use my top row of keys (q-o). Your solution didnt work….any other advice?? (am typing using the keyboard view which is taking forever!!)
Ella
Sara Thornton
Hi Ella,
Thanks for your feedback. Maybe try the solutions mentioned here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1381
Please do let me know if any of these work?
Best wishes,
Sara
Mylez Edward
GOD BLESS YOU! nobody else could fix it!
Sara Thornton
Glad it helped Mylez!
Raisa
Hi, this solution didn’t work for me. For me, the keys 6789 don’t work and I’ve tried doing everything. Its driving me nuts because i use numbers a lot. Please help me!
Sara Thornton
Hi Raisa,
Did you try any of the solutions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1381 ?
Rushil
Oh my god. I was totally freaking out about how much it would cost to fix my keyboard. Thank you so much!! Genius!!!!
Sara Thornton
Glad it helped Rushil!
Joanna
My “A” key stopped working suddenly out of the blue. Went into a panic, then searched and found this. Voila! Problem solved. I’m floored. Computers are weird. People are good. Thank you!
Sara Thornton
Glad it helped Joanna!
Kathleen Mikitka
Have an older MacBook Pro (Mac OSX 10.5.8). Some letters are not working as of last night. My mouse/keyboard tab/box does not have an “input Sources” or language selection that I can find.
Sara Thornton
Hi Kathleen,
Thanks for your post.
When you go into System Preferences, do you have a Keyboard area? If so, can you tell me what options are available to you?
Also, did you try this forum link http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1381 to see if any of the solutions there help?
Shaun
Thanks Sara, I was almost ready to flight test my beloved MacBook Pro from the 5th floor window! This fix worked first time, no doubt it will happen again so I’ll remember next time 🙂
Sara Thornton
Glad to have played a small part in saving a Mac from a rather messy end 🙂
Justin Chan
Oh my god, thank you so much!!! This helped me a lot, thank you! :DDD
Sara Thornton
Glad it helped Justin!
Alex
Thank you so much!! My “O” and “I” wasn’t working , and I searched through the Apple Support site and couldn’t find anything. Ran across this page, and BOOM, problem solved. Thanks for sharing this fix!! You need to work for Apple! lol
Sara Thornton
You’re so very welcome Alex! Comments like yours brighten our day, especially on a rainy English afternoon like today.
Will float the suggestion to Apple 😉
Elle
My A,S,D keys suddenly stopped working when I was in college. It took me hours to write my papers because I had to stop and click on the keyboard viewer. After I graduated college, my keys decided to work again. I was aggravated but joyous at the same time. Then a couple of months later it stopped again. I stumbled onto your blog and did what you did but I added British instead. Did not work. I deleted U.S, again did not work. Added U.S. back and deleted British and voila!! It works! You’re amazing!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for sharing your experience Elle – glad to hear our article was helpful!
joHn
Thanks for ths . . . am still having the problem to some degree as you can see here, but repeating the procedure did get the keys responding far bette. Doing it once did nothing.
Sara Thornton
That’s great to know – thanks John!
Jaime Iniesta
Thanks a lot, Sara.
This fix worked for me, but after I restarted my Macbook Air, the problem is back. And the fix doesn’t work anymore. So I will try other solutions, will post here if I find anything.
BTW I’m writing this with an external keyboard, it works fine.
Sara Thornton
Thanks so much for your feedback Jaime.
Please do post again here to let me (and any others reading this post) know how you get on.
Also, very interesting to know about the external keyboard – thanks for raising this point.
Bryan
Thank you so much for posting this. I restarted to fix and had the horrible realization that my password contained some of the broken keys. Logged in to guest and added keyboard and it worked. Was able to log out of guest and then back into my user. Thank you thank you thank you.
Sara Thornton
Glad you found this post Bryan, and I’m happy to hear it helped!
Thanks for your lovely feedback.
Iciar
I have the same problem, but I don’t have set guest log in, any other tip, even I can’t go to Recover mode to change password because R is one of the failed keys 🙁
Any idea”
Sara Thornton
Hi Iciar, if you don’t have a guest account, an external keyboard should do the trick.
Iciar
I went to a repair shop and asked to borrow a USB keyboard to type the password 🙂 I changed the password to one with letters working, I’ve tried your trick Sara, but sadly didn’t work for me. At least I can keep investigating.
Thanks
Sara Thornton
Hi Iciar, thanks for your feedback, and sorry to hear that our solution didn’t work for you.
Maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Best of luck!
mohammad
hi,
it doesn`t work for me,
I was cleaning my keys and then keys: m , k j i u 8 8 ‘ ; and left and right button stop working.
what should I have to do?
thanks
Sara Thornton
Hi Mohammad,
Thanks for your post. Have you tried any of the solutions mentioned here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1381 ?
Best wishes,
Sara
Leila
Wow! that was great advice. Some of the keys on my keyboard were printing two letters at the same time. This totally fixed it. Thanks a lot!
Sara Thornton
That’s great to hear!
Thanks for sharing Leila 🙂
Sean Offord
Good lord it worked!!! My ‘y’ key was only working intermittently and now I can write YAYYYYYYY!!!
Thanks so much!
Sean
Sara Thornton
Glad it helped!
Thanks for your post Sean 🙂
Michael
Hi Sara,
Your clever solution has worked for me in the past, but now unfortunately it’s not. (I’m using the stupid keyboard viewer to write this comment.) The y-u-i-o keys on my MacBook Pro simply will not respond at all, no matter what I do. Totally frustrating!!
Any other ideas, short of taking the laptop in for service?
Sara Thornton
Hi Michael, sorry to hear that the magical fix is not working in this instance. Maybe give some of the suggestions here a try and see if you have any luck? http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1381
Fingers crossed for you!
Sara
John
Thank you so much that worked perfectly, please add it to apple forum with the solution.
Walter Baer
it works!
Sara Thornton
Glad we could help!
Leyla
This was so, so, SO helpful, thank you so much, you are truly a lifesaver!!!
Sara Thornton
You’re so very welcome 🙂
Glad we could help!
Ginni
Actually all of sudden g h j k l buttons stops working. Can you help me to sort it out
Sara Thornton
Hi Ginni,
Did you try the solution in the article above?
Ginni
Yeah
Sara Thornton
Hi Ginny,
If you followed the above solution and it didn’t work, then maybe try all the possible solutions listed here http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1381 to see if you have any luck.
Fingers crossed that you find a solution that works for you.
Amjad
Hi Sara,
My keyboard stopped working. I can’t type “j”,”k”,”l”. I tried all above methods but cant get it working. I pressed jkl at a time it works for 5-10 seconds and I face same issue again. Can you please suggest a solution for this.
Sara Thornton
Hi Amjad,
If no luck with the fix in the article above, maybe try the suggestions here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096 and here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917.
Hope these help,
Sara
Whit Porter
Would buy you a MAGNUM of the very best champagne if I could for this fix. Thanks from the bottom of my heart (and glass)!
Sara Thornton
You are very welcome and thanks for such a lovely post 🙂
kirstin
Hi I also have an older MacBook Pro (Mac OSX 10.5.8) with the i and u keys not working .
When I go to system preferences there is a keyboard section but no “input Sources” tab.
There are Keyboard and keyboard shortcuts tabs at the top and these options in a side list : Dashboard & Dock
Expose & Spaces
Front Row
Keyboard &Text input
Screen shots
Services
Spotlight
universal Access
Applications Shortcuts
I’ve gone through them all to see if they offered another keyboard.
I’ve also tried the link you suggested but no joy!
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1381
Be great if yo cold help!
Sara Thornton
Hi Kirstin,
Thanks for your post. I’m afraid I don’t have a Mac OS X 10.5.8 install handy, so I’m working a little blind here, however under System Preferences do you have a “Language & Region” (or something similar) option? If so, maybe try digging into the options and see if there’s anything keyboard related that will allow you to add (look for a “+” sign) a new keyboard language.
Hope this helps!
Sara
Anthony
Thanks this was the 1st google result and worked like a charm 😉
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Anthony! Glad to hear it worked 🙂
Laurie Payne
Just wanted to let you know that I had this problem, with the same exact keys, and the “add a keyboard” fix seemed to work for me, too.
Thanks!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Laurie!
Guy Venables
Brilliant! Followed your work around and It’s fixed! So much time has beeb wasted these last 4 weeks , tapping an intermittent ‘return’ key endlessly until it ‘returns’ – its amazing how one little key can stuff up your work life, Jill you are a legend, thank you! 🙂
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Guy, and glad our solution fixed the problem for you!
Best wishes,
Sara
Sam
I initially did not remove the Italian keyboard while I added and removed the new British keyboard (I was following a different thred than yours unfortunately). Then today, Rubino (thanks) found your post and following exactly your steps solved the problem. Thanks Sara (and Rubino too) 🙂
Sam
Sara Thornton
You’re most welcome Sam. Thanks for your feedback and glad our fix worked for you 🙂
Bartley
Sara,
I could kiss you, thank you! I was ready to shoot my computer with a shot gun!
Cheers!!
Sara Thornton
Glad we could help Bartley! Enjoy your bullet-free Mac 🙂
Kate
This is awesome. You are awesome. Everything is awesome.
Now, can you make the light work on my keyboard again?
Also, I have a loose faucet in my house. I mean, you’re basically magic….
Sara Thornton
Always a lovely start to the day to be referred to as awesome 🙂
Maybe check here for your keyboard backlight: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5075082?start=0
…and here for your faucet: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/repair-loose-kitchen-faucet-37904.html ?
And yes, as Lego Movie has so eloquently put: https://youtu.be/vx5n21zHPm8
Have a beautiful day 🙂
Michael
Hey this worked..thank you…
Sara Thornton
Glad it helped Michael.
Best wishes,
Sara
aj
it’s definitely a keyboard language thing. for example if i have this problem typing in english i change language to spanish and the problem vanishes.
aj
for clarification, you can still type in english using another language keyboard but it solves the problem in my experience.
Sara Thornton
Great to know – thanks aj!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback aj.
Tim
Awesome, simple fix. Worked for me. Thanks.
Sara Thornton
Glad it helped Tim. Thanks for your feedback!
maria
How you figured that one out is beyond me. But thank you it worked for me as I was just about to take my macbook pro apart to see if it was dirty. Thank you!
Sara Thornton
You are most welcome – happy that this article helped 🙂
Syed Sarfraz Ali
Genius……Genius……Genius……Genius……Genius……Genius……Genius……Genius……
Sara Thornton
Glad we could help Syed 🙂
MD
This saves me a few bucks! I almost bought a Keyboard replacement! 🙂
Thanks Sara!
Sara Thornton
My pleasure! Glad this article helped 🙂
Diana Archangeli
Hello. I’ve got a similar problem, but it is causing me major problems because I can’t use any of the suggestions given here because one of the numbers that doesn’t work is IN MY PASSWORD!!! I can’t get into the computer to try any of these solutions. Any ideas???
Sara Thornton
Hi Diana, maybe try logging in as a guest account to apply the fix and then log out and log back in with your normal account?
Max
Hey Sara,
My 5tgb keys are not working on my USB external keyboard
Any ideas??
Cheers
Max
Sara Thornton
Hi Max,
Did you have any luck with the fix in the article above? If not, maybe try the suggestions here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096 and here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917.
Hope these help,
Sara
Ilana
BRILLIANT! It worked. Thank you. I was afraid it was a hardware problem and I would have to get a new laptop.
Sara Thornton
Glad we could help Ilana 🙂
MIchael
Way to go SARA!!! It worked. Strange, but true.
Sara Thornton
Glad it helped 🙂
Thanks for your feedback Michael!
Wagner
My g h j k l keys doesnt work and i dont know what to do here i did what you said but no luck.
Sara Thornton
Hi Wagner,
Maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Thanks,
Sara
G
It seems to work now 😀 thanks thanks thanks!!
Do you know by chance, the root cause of his issue? maybe some update?
Sara Thornton
Hi G,
Glad it worked for you! It seems like an odd software bug, but no idea as yet what causes the issue. Since we stumbled across this fix the problem hasn’t surfaced again for us, so maybe it’s just a re-alignment of your keyboard preferences after a particular software update?
Best wishes,
Sara
Lisa
This is the only thing that has worked – I wasn’t able to work!
I had to put several keyboards in and it was finally the Irish one that did it!
Many many thanks
PS do you have a cure for repeating letters? 🙂
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Lisa, and glad our fix worked for you!
For the repeating letters, it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Best of luck!
Sara
Virendra
Awesome dear hats of to u
Thanks for this info
Thanks very very much again
Sara Thornton
Glad this solution worked for you Virendra!
lora stock
Doesn’t work – tho spilt water on keyboard so prob. irreversibly damaged?
Sara Thornton
Hi Lora,
If you’ve got particular keys that have stopped working, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
Melly
Hi Sara
I have no idea if you’re still looking at this but this doesnt work for me. Keys ‘W’ to ‘O’ do not respond anymore and so I now use an onscreen keyboard. Help?
Sara Thornton
Hi Melly,
Maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Thanks,
Sara
Richard
Awesome fix. Thank you 🙂
BTW, keys I lost were 7 u j m
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Richard, and glad our fix helped 🙂
Tim
It still works, Sara. Brilliant!
I had 2 identical keyboards, only one suddenly developed the symptoms. I already had 2 nationalities in preferences input sources: simply deleting the one I didn’t need fixed things instantly. Thank you 🙂
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Tim! Glad to know it fixed your problem 🙂
Miriam Nelson
Fabulous!! Thank you!!!!!!
Sara Thornton
Glad we could help Miriam!
Parvez
Dear Sara
i bought mack book air few months back & today found that keys- y,h & number 6 not working.
How to fix it i am in real trouble.
Regards
Parvez
Sara Thornton
Hi Parvez,
Sorry to hear about your new Macbook. Did you have any luck with the instructions in our article above? If not, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Hope this helps,
Sara
Jeanne Smits
Fantastic. My “u” key was not working and wasting a lot of my precious work time. Your method worked perfectly. Maybe we should all learn to whisper electronic nothings into our macbooks’ microphone. You never know…
Thanks most gratefully !
Sara Thornton
Thanks so much for your feedback Jeanne, and glad to hear that our fix worked. Enjoy having your “u” key back 🙂
Best wishes,
Sara
Corey
Hi Sarah,
I spilled a few drops of water on my macbook pro today. Now keys one-nine don’t work. Any advice?
Corey
Sara Thornton
Hi Corey,
Thanks for your post. If the above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
Curtis
that did not work for me… tried this and up-dated. keys Q,W,E,R,T,Y,U,I,O still do not work, but P does work. All lower keys worked and number keys
Sara Thornton
Hi Curtis,
Thanks for your post. If the above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
Bill Cunliffe
Thank you, Sarah. Worked great for me!!!!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Bill – glad this solution worked for you!
Allison
What do you do if your computer is password protected and some of the non-working letters are required to get into System Preferences??
Sara Thornton
Hi Allison,
Are you able to log in as a guest account and apply the fix in our article above? If so, then you should be able to log out of the guest account and then log back in as your regular user.
Hope this helps!
jean-pierre
same thing hee , i called apple they said it is not a software problem , must ee hadwae (HARWARE) r .c. a, etc no typing ..so i went to apple genius Ba (BAR) in NY , they che (C) ked the keys by pluging a machine where you seen a screen and the keys woking ( R) but you have to go slooooooow very slow and also typing 3 times some keys ..they concluded you have not hardware problem ..Funny guy !! 🙁 below the mail when i contated (C) apple support:
See my problem s ( no A key working) I cannot see my password when I type I tried 5 times ..it is unbelievable
See my comments here: you will understand we already tried twice it still do not work ..I need it to work
mega issue with my keyboad ( see ) i use my mac as a professional consultant and i for example tied ( see) five times to enter my passwod (see) to each (see) you..many issue with some keys ..( i left the mistakes hee (see) just to make you understand my poblem (see) i write to manages (see) in hi ech (see) and banks as a seach (see) executive and they consider i am not a pro as i have so many mistakes in my emails ..i wrie ( see) sixty emails per day . thanks
Sara Thornton
Hi Jean-Pierre,
So sorry to hear that you’re having such a rough time with your keyboard 🙁
If our above article fix doesn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe try an external keyboard to see if that will at least allow you to carry on with your work?
Best of luck!
Phil_LC
same issue, but the ‘fix’ remains erratic.
Sara Thornton
Hi Phil_LC
If our above article fix didn’t permanently work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Best of luck!
Bill Tracy
Ddnt wrk fr me. Keys stll nt wrkng
Sara Thornton
Hi Bill,
Thanks for your post. If the above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
christian
my o key and the keys around are not working …. if i live them press the o key works as enter an the keys around work as cursor.. an the m and period don’t do anything.
Sara Thornton
Hi Christian,
Thanks for your post. If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
John Snook
I had the same issue, but it has been temperamental, first noticed it with the ‘o’, then the others ‘y,u,i and o’ started randomly not working.. this seems to have fixed it.. hopefully it will work from now on..
Thanks for your post as this is the only one I could see on Google about it..
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post John, and glad our solution worked for you.
William Nessen
I have a 2009 17 inch macbook pro. I bought it refurbished a few months ago. All of a sudden three keys stopped working: m, j, u. All in a line. Hmm. Sometimes if I try, for example, to type the letter ‘m’ once, it produces several different letters in a row. . I tried to add other keyboard languages as you said, but that didn’t work. I am typing this with my other computer.
Sara Thornton
Hi William,
Thanks for your post. If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
Gregory
Amazing. Mid-2012 macbook pro (10.8.5) ghjkl keys were flakey, only by tapping multiple keys in succession would they work, then they would work for a minute, then get stuck. Cleaned everything, no better. Reset PRAM, toggled keyboard mouse settings repeatedly, no help. I can’t believe it was this simple and obscure,
but golly jeepers lghjk keyboard switch works!
Gregory
Repeat – the fix is to switch from US to Canada Input sources (and back again). ghjkl forever!
Sara Thornton
Thanks so much for your feedback Gregory – glad our solution was helpful!
Nick
Sarah, you are a genius. manyyy, manyy, tttttthanks!! Yyyiiipppee!
Sara Thornton
Glad we could help Nick! Thanks for your feedback 🙂
Grace
Is there a way to solve this without getting into the laptop? The keys I need to put my password and my Apple ID are unresponsive.
Sara Thornton
Hi Grace,
Are you able to log in as a guest account and apply the fix in our article above? If so, then you should be able to log out of the guest account and then log back in as your regular user.
Hope this helps!
Blup
My e r t y u I o dose not work so that means I can’t log in
Sara Thornton
Hi Blup,
Are you able to log in as a guest account and apply the fix in our article above? If so, then you should be able to log out of the guest account and then log back in as your regular user.
Hope this helps!
fuad
If at all anyone gets this problem. Try opening the laptop, disconnect the keyboard from the motherboard (the connector is always near the battery try), by this I dont mean the whole keyboard, just the connector. Then wipe the connector with a clean piece of cloth then re insert it again and then switch on the laptop. The keys should be working fine. Its the connector that confuses the keys either because there is dirt or loose connection. All the best.
NB PRAM, CMS Reset and all the above keyboard language change will not help. This is a hardware thing. Even reformatting wont help. I have done this and the only thing that helped is cleaning the connector.
Sara Thornton
Hi fuad,
Thanks for your post – it’s helpful to know all the different solutions that have worked for others. Out of curiosity, did you give our solution a try before implementing your solution?
Debbie
Can’t thank you enough for this. It was driving me crazy and I was beyond “irritation” (this last, a word that typed like this—”an”—before your fix. Yay!
Sara Thornton
Glad we could help Debbie, thanks for your feedback!
Jackjack
Hi, my name is a Jack and I’m currently 21 and in College. I have a macbook pro using OSX I have been dealing with an issue for about 2 years now where my e,r,t,y,u,i and o keys suddenly stop working. My only remedy to solve this problem was to open up keyboard viewer and randomly click buttons till the unresponsive keys shortly after start working again. I get a unresponsive keyboard for the letters once every 2-4 minutes or whenever I wake my macbook up from sleep. I had tried using my windows operating system using bootcamp to see if the keys worked but I had the same result. I couldn’t get the keys to work at all on my windows operating system. I use my macbook pro a lot but because of my unresponsive keys I use a exterior keyboard most of the time. I generally would like to use my internal keyboard again without the hassle of spamming my keyboard till my keys work.
I have tried have tried removing my windows operating system on my bootcamp, changed keyboard import sources and tried removing useless programs and clutter on my macbook. But I didn’t find a permanent fix or any improvements. I also tried looking into fixes online and this article is the closes I could find to my issue. I have read multiple tricks on how people have fixed their macbook’s keyboards and was wondering if anyone had a specific trick that might be suitable for my situation before I decide to backup everything and re-install Macintosh on my macbook. I am currently using my internal keyboard and mouse pad for this letter and have ran into the problem of unresponsive keys about 8 times.
If someone could look into my issue I would greatly appreciate it.
Sara Thornton
Hi Jack,
Thanks for your post. If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
Sarah Pollock
This did not work for me unfortunately any other suggestions? My keyboard keys are working in other users on my mac and when I put in my user password and on the keyboard viewer just not in my user account.
Sara Thornton
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for your post. If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
Bill Lewis
fantastic — the local MAc shop said i needed a new key board !! Thank you so much
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Bill! Glad we could help 🙂
Hud Saunders
Wow – after cleaning the keyboard, the O key itself, and then freaking out because it still wasn’t working, I found this – thank you!!
What I have since discovered is that if you hold down any vowel key in notes, it produces an extra set of symbols…. not sure what that means… some kind of driver issue? Or perhaps it’s a corrupt English keyboard? Anyway, thanks again.
Hud Saunders
I sp0ke t00 s00n – it’s st0pped w0rking again 🙁
Sara Thornton
Hi Hud,
Thanks for your post. If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
Abhey Periwal
ASDF KEYS OF MACBOOK AIR NOT WORKING . THE SYSTEM IS PASSWORD ENABLED N IT REQUIRES A ALPHABET. NO ICON OF APPLE ON SCREEN.HOW TO GO TO SYSTEM PREFERENCES. PLZ HELP.
Sara Thornton
Hi Abhey,
Can you try logging in as a guest account, applying the fix in our article above and then see if you can log into your regular account?
If our above article fix doesn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
Stephen Levinson
I had the same problem for the 1st time. This worked perfectly. Thanks
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Stephen! Glad to hear our solution worked for you.
Phil_LC
thanks; omitting and adding keyboards seems to have helped!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Phil, glad our solution worked!
Sean
it’s strange the keys that stop working always seem to appear in rows. this fix worked for me except my comma key. they keys that stopped working for me were i;k; and comma. this fix worked for all but the comma key which i’m guessing is a coding issue. the other people here have also had rows of keys stop working in bunches so it could be a hardware based input problem. gonna have to remap my comma key 🙁
Sara Thornton
Hi Sean,
Thanks for your feedback and interesting observation. For the comma key, have you tried giving your keyboard a spring clean? Check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Best wishes,
Sara
Sean
definitely not a cleanliness problem
Sara Thornton
Have you tried popping the comma key off to see if anything looks out of place behind it? If all looks fine then maybe take it to a Genius bar to see if they can diagnose the issue.
Hope you manage to get to the bottom of the problem, and please do let me know how you get on?
Karl Sebastian
Go into System Preferences and choose Accessibility.
Choose Mouse and Trackpad.
If Enable Mouse Keys is ticked, untick it.
Then choose Options in this same panel and untick Press Option Key five times etc.
In my case I apparently activated this Enable Mouse Keys. It still happens occasionally without my conscious input!
After five frustrating calls to Apple help with no resolution of my problem I came across the exact description of the problem and it’s cure. I cannot remember how I worded my Google request to get there!
All the very best,
Karl Sebastian.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Karl. Glad to know that you found a solution to your issue.
Rory
Awesome, Thanks you!
Sara Thornton
My pleasure!
Paolo Pellizzari
dear Sara, just wanted to let u know that I hugely appreciated your post, thanx! i had the “Y, U, I and O” issue for a while and kept reading pages, blogs, posts… for a long time hoping to get a solution. i was incredibly close to buy another mac given that mine was quite old (but efficiently working as never before). Then i was lucky enough to stumble on your page. Thanx again for sharing your fix, it’s perfectly working. May the force be with you, paolo
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Paolo, and so glad to hear that our fix worked for you!
May the force be with you also 🙂
Felicia
OMG! THANK YOU!!!!! You have no idea how long I’ve been dealing with this problem. I cannot believe how easy it was to fix it. You’re a life saver!!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Felicia!
Glad that our fix has saved the life of another Mac. May your Mac live a long and happy existence 🙂
ctmanic
Almost three three years and this is still relevant. Nice post!
Sara Thornton
Thanks! Glad we’ve been able to help so many people 🙂
Danger
Thank you!! How?????
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback and glad our solution helped! 🙂
Ciara
It is still not working
Sara Thornton
Hi Ciara,
Thanks for your post. If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
If no luck there, then maybe visit a Genius Bar and they’ll be able to let you know if it’s fixable.
Best of luck!
Henry
Thank you for saving my sanity, as well as hundreds of dollars. You are the best! ☺️😘
Sara Thornton
*blush*
Thanks so much for your lovely post Henry, and glad that our article was able to help 🙂
May your keyboard live a long and prosperous life!
Roy Carver
Tried fix above but did not work. Found another answer from another thread that said got System Preferences>Accessibility, then on left column Mouse & Trackpad and uncheck Enable Mouse Keys
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Roy – great to know other solutions that may fix the issue.
Patrick
Sara, Thank you!! This worked perfectly. I have been trying for months to get a solution to this frustrating problem of various keys on my Mac that randomly stop working. Much appreciated!!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Patrick! Glad this solution worked for you!
thomas oliver
Thank you. I wish I’d found you before I purchased a wireless keyboard…. Then even if starting up, which does or doesn’t make sense. But in searching again and again….Thank you. It’s nice having my old key board back, and now for the Huge Project.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Thomas, glad our solution worked for you!
stefan
Hi, I’m curious if this was a permanent fix for you? I have started having the exact same problem and initially it seemed that this was the solution. However, it seems to be getting worse.
Is your keyboard still working?
Thanks!!!!!
Sara Thornton
Hi Stefan, yes this was a permanent fix for me, however it doesn’t seem to be a permanent fix for everyone.
If you notice a pattern with what’s triggering your keyboard to break, please do post it here, so that it might also help others with the same issue.
Thanks!
Sam
Thanks so much! “B” is now working well.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Sam, glad our solution worked for you!
anu
try flipping the setting “Enable Mouse Keys” a couple times in preferences => Accessibility => Mouse and keyboard.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Anu, hopefully this will help others with the same problem.
Marc Harris
This works, but only after hooking up a different keyboard!! I hooked up a Logitech K400 Plus with which the keys on he 400 worked just fine. Suddenly, the dead keys on my the imbedded keyboard of my MBPro started to work correctly again.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Marc – this is great to know and will hopefully help others!
Paul Courtney
Hi Sara,
I’ve had my keys in the center top letters row slowly lose their functionality. It started with “t” and the spread to the right. I did my due diligence of google searching and I came here after I tried resetting the NVRAM, which did not work. I tried adding a British keyboard (I’m in the US) but that did not solve the problem. However, it did get me to use the “keyboard viewer”. When I did so I noticed that the y, u, i and o keys, all of which were no longer working, would pop up their accent keys on the viewer. On a hunch, I disabled this through a terminal command (see http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/04/enable-key-repeat-mac-os-x-lion/) and restarted my mac. The “t” is still a bit wonky but the other keys have all reappeared.
Sara Thornton
Hi Paul, thanks for your feedback – this is great to know and will hopefully help others in the same situation.
If you resolve the issue with the “t”, please do post an update below on how you fixed it.
Best of luck, and thanks again for your feedback!
terry
Hey,,, that solution worked on an email I was typing,, but now that I’m responding here, those keys are not working again,, now using my external keyboard. You guys need to figure this out… please!
WTF is causing this,, obviously a soft ware problem,, yet my local Apple store was suggesting I would need a $250 keyboard replacement,, or perhaps it was a swelling batter,, or, my theory, the vibration of the internal speaker, located under this batch of misfunctioning keys, was the cause…
Can we not figure this out? Operating a 2012 MacBook Pro OS 10.12
Sara Thornton
Hi Terry,
I’m afraid as we don’t actually work for Apple, we’re a bit limited in what we can do to permanently fix this problem.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Blaine Bell
I can’t believe Apple doesn’t know about this problem. Went to the apple store, they checked the hardware and it was fine. They wanted to charge me $375 to send it out to get it fixed. Good job, Apple. Thanks a lot, can’t believe Apple can’t write software (not!) They suck
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Blaine, and glad that our solution worked for you 🙂
J. P.
Wow! Thank you, it worked for me.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback J.P. – glad our solution worked for you!
Sonya
thank you a very quick and helpful fix
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Sonya – glad our solution worked for you!
Barrie
I tried the above and certain keys are still not working
Sara Thornton
Hi Barrie,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Carl
Wow! You are a life-saver. Your solution worked perfectly. Thank you for taking the time to post this. NEVER take it down!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Carl, and glad our solution worked for you!
Mara G
had hgh hpes that ths was gng t wrk fr my keybard that s nable t type three letters that yre nt seeng here… t’s the same three that are gvng many peple prblms. Alas t ddn’t wrk. wnder f maybe need t restart the cmpter?
‘ve tred many dfferent keybards nw and nthng wrks. 🙁 Thanks anyway!
Sara Thornton
Hi Mara,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Erin
Thank you so much!!
Sara Thornton
Happy to help 🙂
Steve
Sarah, I just upgraded to the latest version of Sierra last night that was available, I believe version 10.5.5 On my 2013 MacBook Pro 15 inch . I was working fine prior to the upgrade as far as the keyboard etc. now the keys U, I, O, K, and M, will not function . I do notice that by depressing the K and M for a period of time, the cursor seems to move up and down very slowly as though I had the mouse keys enabled but I do not .
I have read your thread above dating back to years and I have tried other options I have read such as, hitting it off and key five times in a row, enabling an additional keyboard and then removing it later, holding down all non-functioning kets, and and still I’m cursed with the same problem after this upgrade . I don’t use an external keyboard or mouse does have to rely on the internal keyboard and touchpad. Have you any additional ideas as to what I can try? Again, this works perfectly yesterday and only stopped working after I did the upgrade on the OS.
Sara Thornton
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your post, and for mentioning that this issue only started occurring for you after upgrading to the latest version of Sierra – that’s really interesting to know.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Hope this helps.
dick
hello,
Had the same problem for a while and have given various things a go. For me, it was t,y,u,i,o keys. tried cold start, PRM, keyboard settings by country, nothing. I finally fixed it, there were a few hairs under my e key.
Pull it out and get at it with the tweezers (and others if you can be bothered) works like a charm. Ive been using an external keyboard for months, I cant believe it.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Dick – that’s great to know!
Glad you’ve got your keyboard back 🙂
suresh kansujiya
@sara my I, O, P, J, K, L keys not working please suggest sara.
Thanks
Sara Thornton
Hi Suresh,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
L Hall
Sara,
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!
I was about to replace my MacBook Pro as I was told by Apple that the key are broke but it’s all working again thanks to you. My Mac is from 2011 but still a fast computer which should last me a few more years!
You’ve just saved me at least $1300 and can still go on vacation this year as I don’t have to buy a new Mac!!!!!
Just 1 tip from me. My Mac was purchased in Australia, I first tried changing the keyboard to US English but it didn’t work. I then changed to French and then to British English and then it’s been perfect ever since!
Utterly random solutions, but so glad it works
Sara Thornton
Hi Luke,
So glad to hear that our solution worked for you!
Thanks for sharing your tip – we’ll make a note of that, and hopefully it will help others.
Thanks for your post and hope you have a great vacation 🙂
Yiannis
It dosn’t works…
Sara Thornton
Hi Yiannis,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
TerryM
Sara,
This solution worked!!! Thank you
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post TerryM. Glad our solution worked for you!
Hannah
Sadly this didn’t fix my issue of my period suddenly not working but when I went into the keyboard settings to try it I noticed a handy tick box of “add period with double space” which I clicked and it at least allows me to use periods for now while I try to figure out how to get my period button working again.
Sara Thornton
Hi Hannah,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Bill
Thanks Sarah. Great fix. Have been conditioned to buy a new keyboard!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Bill! Glad to hear our solution worked for you.
Jeff Thomas
IT WORKED!!!! Whew, I thought that was going to cost me something! Thank you so much Sara!!!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Jeff, glad to hear our solution worked for you!
Chas
Brilliant. That worked! And I was about to follow some guy’s YouTube video to remove and clean keys. Phew.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Chas, glad our solution worked for you 🙂
Michael Forrest
Wow, nice one. This issue was freaking me out!
Sara Thornton
Glad to help, Michael! Thanks for your post 🙂
Destiny
Firstly, I just want to say that its pretty shocking that this is an ongoing issue for iOS users since 20 4 (I cant type the number one, doh!)
So Ive been having issues for a few months: first it was my Shift L (so I downloaded Karabiner Elements which has been a God send!) but yesterday the A key stopped working and now its the number one. Its like a disease thats spreading on my laptop!!! Im currently using a wireless keyboard just to be able to function/write this message but its rather annoying!
So unfortunately your original post hasnt worked for me 🙁 I added the U.S. keyboard, then I added a few others (Irish etc) – deleted, readded – still not working. I see that you have been responding to everyone on here and posted quite a few links to alternative solutions, but theres quite a few links to go through so Id be really grateful if you could respond and send me the best link that you think will work for me. I have a macook air so the keyboards built into the laptop. Thanking you in advance Sara!
Sara Thornton
Hi Destiny,
Thanks for your post.
Because the problem is spreading for you, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Destiny
I wonder if contact cleaner would work also?
Sara Thornton
Hi Destiny,
Not sure on the contact cleaner – we’d recommend checking out some trusted online resources for cleaning your keyboard first, and see what they say about contact cleaner.
Best of luck!
Destiny
So I cleaned the keys and ‘1’ is now working!!! But ‘a’ is still not working 🙁
So I cleaned it again – I even took a hoover to it LOL – but its still not working and my patience is thin so Im just using Karabiner Elements to remap ‘a’ to another key. Heres a vid of what it is if your not familiar with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-bvmPYqZkM
Sara Thornton
Hi Destiny,
Glad to hear you got your “1” key back! If cleaning didn’t fix the “a” key, you might want to take it into a Genius Bar and see if there’s anything they can do. Thanks for the Karabiner Elements video – hopefully that might help other readers who find this page.
Best of luck!
Habib
I had a similar problem, it drove me nuts. I finally solved it by doing the following: Go to: Settings -> Accessibility -> in the left pane scroll down to Trackpad & Mouse -> remove the check next to the option “Enable Mouse keys”.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Habib, and glad you found a solution that worked for you.
Richard
this worked for me for about 8hours then the keys stopped working again
Sara Thornton
Hi Richard,
Are you able to figure out the trigger that causes the problem to occur again? Perhaps rebooting, or opening a certain program?
Michael Barberry
This did not work for me. The links that you’ve provided to others below are also not helpful.
Sara Thornton
Hi Michael, thanks for your feedback. Did you check out the keyboard cleaning link? Sometimes the issue can be caused by a physical obstruction rather than a software issue.
HK
Nice! My Macbook with a Finnish keyboard has had weird issues with the I, O and P keys. Thanks to this page, I checked the keyboard settings. The keyboard was defined as “Finnish”. I added “Finnish – advanced” and selected that keyboard setting. And… the problematic keys work – at least for now. 🙂
Makes me wonder how many Macs are rushed to expensive repairs because of this software bug!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback HK, and glad our solution worked for you!
Adam Gussow
It worked! Thanks! You have saved my day, week, and month.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Adam, glad our solution worked for you!
Kim
Wow. I was thinking it was my toddler destroying my computer or the time I was cooking and looking at a recipe online with wet hands! This saved me going to the Apple Store and worrying they would tell me I needed a whole new computer!!!
I switched to a British keyboard, got my letters back, then deleted the US keyboard, then re-added the US keyboard. And it works! Thank you!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Kim, glad our solution worked for you!
Brandon
Words cannot express how much I appreciate this.
Letters, however, can:
T E T E T E T E T E and on and on! They’re back!
Thank you!!!!!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Brandon, and glad our solution worked for you 🙂
Morgan
My “Y” key still does not want to work after trying this method, it is a brand new laptop (I do have apple care). I have to press very hard a couple times to get the “Y” to work…..
Sara Thornton
Hi Morgan, thanks for your post.
If it’s a brand new machine, you might want to take it into an Genius Bar for them to resolve.
If it was an old machine, I’d recommend giving your keyboard a spring clean, however it’s not worth risking your warranty, so going to a Genius Bar would be the best first port of call.
Richard
Im sorry but I have tried EVERY english verison and this still does not work for me. I have tried all the other links in the forum posts and still not working. This is on a Macbook Pro laptop keyboard not a wireless or a wired keyboard. This has to be a motherboard issue since my wired keyboard works fine
Sara Thornton
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your feedback, and sorry to hear that none of the suggested solutions have worked for you.
If the keyboard cleaning link (please see the link in the comments above if you haven’t already tried cleaning your keyboard) doesn’t fix the problem, then you may need to visit a Genius Bar and see what they say.
Girlee
I had this problem for over a month on my Macbook pro 13 inches, early 2011. The row q-o just stopped working. I would intermittently work after pressing the “ö” key but it got to the point when I had to use an external keyboard. Apple does not service this model anymore…. so I was resigned to retire my laptop – after putting all the upgrades. After reading this thread, i tried it and it did ease up the problem a bit but I still encounter an intermittent key problem – although way less troublesome than before. Will continue observing. But I am grateful because now at least I am back to using my laptop without the external keyboard. Hopefully, shifting to another internal “keyboard” will permanently solve my problem. Thanks for this!!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Girlee, and glad our solution helped to ease the problem. If you spot any patterns which trigger the issue, please do let us know!
Gerry Sanders
FWIW, I use Typeit4me for keyboard shortcuts. I had two keyboards installed in sys pref, US, and Typeit4me, the latter was selected when opened Sys pref. I followed the suggestion and installed the British keyboard, selected the US , closed sys pref and no dice. Then I returned to Sys pref, reselect Typeit4me and back in business, able to type “q” and “h” again. Hope that helps someone.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for sharing this Gerry!
Thy
THanks dude. It has works. I was frastrasted
Sara Thornton
Glad our solution worked for you! Thanks for your post 🙂
KerryAnn Sanner
Thanks so much, it worked perfectly!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback KerryAnn, and glad our solution worked!
Ben
Keys have been intermittently quitting on my wife’s MacBook Pro for some time.
She was not happy with my interim solution of plugging in a usb keyboard.
Found that it was specifically the yuio keys not working.
So, I searched “yuio keys not working.”
Found this page as the top hit on google.
Did what you said by adding a British keyboard.
Problem immediately solved.
Thank you.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback Ben, and glad to hear our solution worked for you 🙂
Galen Tillery
Sara,
If you were within hugging distance right now, you would have to run from me! 😉
I have no idea where you found this but it just saved my hide.
Many thanks… many thanks…
Sara Thornton
My pleasure Galen! And electronic hugs always appreciated when real ones aren’t possible 🙂
Cdog
Awesome!! Thanks – fixed
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Cdog, glad our solution worked for you!
Natalalalalie
Thank you so much! My g key randomly stopped working with a coding assignment due in 2 hours. Your instructions were a godsend! <3
Sara Thornton
You’re most welcome Natalalalalie! Glad our solution worked for you 🙂
Penny
Thank you!!! You saved me today – so frustrating when the keys don’t type correctly.
Sara Thornton
Our pleasure Penny 🙂 Glad our solution worked for you!
Bob Hogan
Hi Sara:
Thank you sooo much. Working on a client’s computer. All done. Then none of the keys worked!! Your solution worked. I thought maybe I would have to crack the case (again). Many thanks. Bob.
Sara Thornton
Hi Bob,
You’re most welcome 🙂 Thanks for your post, and glad our solution worked for you!
Samuel
This did not work for me
Sara Thornton
Hi Samuel,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Barry
Works for me
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Barry, and glad our solution worked for you!
roger
Wow, It worked! I’ve been chasing a solution for months. Even upgrading the OS didn’t help.
Thanks for something so simple.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post roger, and glad our solution helped!
Brianna
Is there a way to fix this issue when you can’t log in because your password uses one of the keys not working? I REALLY need to log in to the computer but the S key isn’t working. My password has an S in it.
Sara Thornton
Hi Brianna, try logging in as a guest account to apply the fix and then log out and log back in with your normal account?
Usman Farooqi
my macbook keys from “E” to “O” stop working. some time work some time when system heat up that not work. how I fix it?
Sara Thornton
Hi Usman,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Jerry
spilled coffee on my macbook pro now no r or d keys tried above but no luck now using mini bt keyboard but it is for emergencies only and not very useful
Sara Thornton
Hi Jerry,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
muyo
not working. I doubt it works for anyone
Sara Thornton
Hi Muyo,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Lorena
Mine worked for a Sec and then it stopped again
Sara Thornton
Hi Lorena,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
steve
Thanks this did work for me as well.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Steve, glad our solution worked for you!
Grant Neuhold
Where would we be without the ability to jump online and get the answer so quickly, this solved my problem in minutes and I was able to on about my day, just a very annoying 5 minutes is all I served for this one.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Grant, glad our solution worked for you!
Wyatt Verchere
Worked perfectly for me. thank you. had a near heart attack when it stopped working
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Wyatt, glad our solution worked for you!
Jhn Giddens
Nope! Sorry! It did nt wrk. Smetimes prints the , and smetimes nt. Als a, e, i, , u, y are affected.
Sara Thornton
Hi Jhn,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Dean
I know this is a bit of a necropost at this point, but…thank you for trying to address this problem, as I brought my (then still relatively new) macbook to more than one Apple store about this very issue—the Y, U, I, and O keys mysteriously deciding not to work. All they did was shrug and smirk (one of them actually winked at me, which to this day I find baffling). One told me he could install a new keyboard, but the price of that was basically 1/4th of the cost of the machine. So I just started using USB or bluetooth keyboards, which I still do whenever this issue pops up. I tried your method and frustratingly it didn’t work for me—at first it seemed to, but quickly stopped working again. Strangely this problem seems to have a confusing pattern. Some days those keys work fine, but other (most) days they don’t. The only thing I’ve noticed is that if you hold all four of them down for a moment, they start to work again for a few moments. If anyone figures out this bizarre and annoying glitch for certain, I will give them a gold medal. Anyway, happy to know you made it work for you.
Sara Thornton
Hi Dean,
Thanks for your post, and sorry to hear that our fix didn’t work for you. If you do spot a pattern, please do let us know. With so many people commenting on this post we’re keeping all fingers and toes crossed that someone will finally discover what’s causing the glitch and share it with us.
In terms of fixing your issue, maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
PETER METCalf
How on earth did you discover this? It worked! I was ready to take it for repair, or buy an interface which I was to a ooops! Not worin aain.QWERTYUIOP; AS; ZXCVBNM.
BAC TO TE RAWIN BOAR.
PETER METCalf
Staying on the British keyboard for now. Thanks for your tip! asdfghjkl worketh!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Peter, and interesting to know that the issue has only gone away by staying on the British keyboard – how curious? Thanks for your feedback – every little bit of info gets us closer to solving the problem for those who don’t have success with our fix.
Have a great day 🙂
Karl
open up system preferences.
click on accessibility.
locate mouse and track pad on left panel.
then disable/untick (Enable Mouse Keys)
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Karl!
Karl
No Problem just hope this helps others out. had me messed up for over an hour trying to fix it!
Kristen
Oh my god this just saved me!! Spent 20 minutes trying to figure it out with no luck until this! Great tip
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Kristen! Glad our solution did the trick 🙂
garri hendell
Super helpful. Thank you. This was really really bothering me and your solution worked like a charm.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post garri, glad our solution worked for you!
Samrat Ghosh
It worked,I am stunned Apple still didn’t fix this bug
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Samrat, glad our solution worked for you!
Deborah
Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
Sara Thornton
Hi Deborah,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Gay Dust
Thank you very much for the fix for unexplainable mishap that happened also to my sister’s same year
MacBook Pro.
Now if I could only figure out how to turn her suddenly black 12.6.2 iTunes back to white.
Thank you again.
G Dust
Sara Thornton
Hi G Dust,
Thanks for your post, and glad our fix worked for you!
As for the iTunes issue, hopefully this thread might help: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3141736
Best of luck!
Ty Ford
Ha! Well with both keyboards enabled, the tyuio keys still did not work. Removing the newly added British keyboard worked for about 30 strokes then not. Then off again on again.
I have an older Macbook with the same problem. I stopped using it about4 years ago and started using it recently. The problem was no longer there.
What to do!?
Sara Thornton
Hi Ty,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Phoeb Owuor
Hi Sara,
My keys(I,O,U,Y) are casng al f frsrans-nw he are on and now they are off.
This is very frustrating and time consumming. What could be the challenge and what needs to be done to correct this memnance.
Krgds
Phoebe Owuor
Sara Thornton
Hi Phoebe,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Dallas
This is helpful for future reference, however, it didn’t help my scenario… I’m using a wireless keyboard to type this, but for some reason my u,i,o,j,k,l and still won’t work. I know I haven’t spilled on this laptop, as it is my baby and my dad would kill me if I did… But I’m losing my mind, and if you have other ideas how to help, please let me know!! DESPERATE!!
Sara Thornton
Hi Dallas,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Ryan
Wow, this seriously just worked! My ‘z’ and ‘x’ key have only worked if I clicked them like 30 or 40 times, I might finally get on x or z to type. I was having to copy and paste z’s and x’s from other parts of the page.
But I just tried your tip, *and it worked!*
zzzzzzxxxxxzzzzxxxxxx <—— That's a lot of z's and x's suddenly! Would have taken me 10 minutes to get that many before.
Thanks!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Ryan, and glad our fix worked for you!
MarkG
Sara,
Thank you so much for this post. My “J” key randomly stopped working yesterday and this post save me from having to search the entire internet or a trip to the Apple store to resolve the problem. I cannot believe that after 4 years this is still an issue.
The only additional step that I had to take was to switch to the new keyboard once and then I could switch back and the key worked perfectly.
Thanks,
MarkG
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your feedback MarkG, much appreciated and glad our solution worked for you 🙂
MaGyun
Thank you! It works for me!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post MaGyun, glad our solution worked for you 🙂
Rob Ritchie
Yay! It worked!
Brilliant. Many thanks!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Rob, glad our solution worked for you!
Sam
This works great for me and save my Macbook Air. Thank you very much for sharing 😀
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Sam, glad our solution worked for you!
Oriol Cabre Barrera
It worked for me!
Thank you so much!
Oriol
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Oriol, glad our solution worked for you!
Griffen Herrera
Was so hopeful, but this in’t work for me. As you can see from that last sentence. Still no key for the letter after C.
Sara Thornton
Hi Griffen,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Ro
THANK YOU!!!
Two minutes ago that would have been “THAK YOU!!”
I did exactly as you suggested and I am back working normally.
Genius!!!
Ro
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Ro, and glad our fix worked for you 🙂
Joe Garoutte
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Such a quick and easy fix! ❤️
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Joe! Glad our solution helped 🙂
Akudo McGee
You’re a life saver!!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Akudo! Glad our solution helped 🙂
Jane E Mekkelsen
thanks so much for this simple and sensible fix….whew!!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Jane! Glad our solution helped 🙂
Jane E Mekkelsen
I think this worked!!! what a relief….thanks so much for this simple and sensible fix….whew!!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Jane! Glad our solution helped 🙂
Dipawali Sharma
my macbook air keyboard 3 keys (m , and . ) stopped to working. Already changed US/British keyboard but still not worked. Please help!
Sara Thornton
Hi Dipawali,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
TheGoodestBrownie
I don’t care ow oId tis is, but my ghjkl eys stopped worin and tis did NOT ep, i Iooed at oter comments and tried to ind te answer tere, no Iuc, sad!
Sara Thornton
Hi TheGoodestBrownie,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Jen Wilson
Didnt work for me.. 🙁
Sara Thornton
Hi Jen,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
generic human
I think this worked for me! Love my MacBook pro2011 and didn’t want to think about replacing it!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post! Glad our solution helped keep your MacBook Pro in the game a little longer 🙂
Martyn McCormack
Tried what you suggested but unfortunately my keyboard did not magically repair itself. My situation is slightly different from your example. I have a bluetooth and an external keyboard attached to my iMac. All of a sudden, I was unable to input Q, W, E. R, T, Y. .
I put the same bluetooth keyboard onto my Apple Mac Pro and it was fine. Suggests to me that it is likely to be some software glitch with my iMac.
Sara Thornton
Hi Martyn,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Hope this helps!
Nigel
Here’s my problem:
MacBook Pro early 2015
The lowercase ‘y’ doesn’t work on the laptop keyboard or an external keyboard or even on the on-screen keyboard. The uppercase ‘Y’ works on all three. The external keyboard works perfectly on another computer.
I’m typing ‘y’ by using a macro to insert it.
I’ve tried all of the solutions posted here. None have solved the problem.
Sara Thornton
Hi Nigel,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Hope this helps!
Marco Katz Montiel
Thank you for this helpful post! The time you took to explain this fix has helped me – and others, as well – a great deal. Several years have passed since this went up, so I’m not sure if anyone still follows this thread, but I just found it and solved my problems with typing f, g, h, j, k, and l. Hopefully, you will see this expression of my gratitude.
Just in case someone sees this, I also have a couple of questions. The solution posted here works for one day, in my case, making it necessary to follow the instructions again the following day. Given that the fix takes less than a minute, I don’t mind doing it every day, but I wonder if there is a way to solve it permanently. Until I find this, I worry about keeping my computer password protected.
Also, I wonder if this means that no hardware malfunction has caused this problem. On another site, I saw a claim that the wiring to specific keys might have shorted out, a problem that I would want to fix if it exists. Since the fix explained here works, it would seem as though this could not be caused by a physical flaw in the machine, but perhaps I misunderstand this; I would happily see any responses that clear this up.
All the best,
Marco
Sara Thornton
Hi Marco, thank you for your kind post! I’m glad our solution helped, and if you do come across a more permanent solution for your situation please do let me know.
Best wishes,
Sara
Jordan
I tried cleaning my keyboard to no avail and was down to copy & pasting from a document any time I needed a G, H, K or L key! Thank you so much! Enjoy the cup of coffee. 🙂
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your kind post Jordan, and so glad to hear our solution worked for you!
Thank you also for the amazing coffee – it was delicious 🙂
Jeff
Thank you. Turns out the spring cleaning was best for me… did the vowels so far. As soon as I did the y, u, i and o, they started working again. Amazing what a little lint can do.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Jeff, and glad to hear that a spring clean fixed the problem for you.
Joshua A
Didn’t work for me and I have the EXACT same issue, nowhere can I find help, I have a 20 year old dell keyboard plugged into my modern MacBook because of these keys not working, I can’t afflrd the crazy expensive Mac support, and I’m shocked to not be able to find answers online for this issue, here’s someone with exact same issue, even same exact keys, but problem is still there. It’s not the actual keys, it’s a software or hardware issue of some sort.
Sara Thornton
Hi Joshua,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Gary
Didn’t work for me. My number one key is not working.
Sara Thornton
Hi Gary,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Andrew
Yes, this works brilliantly on my 2011 Macbook Pro. Often ‘fixes’ don’t work for particular situations, but this absolutely did the trick. Thank you!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Andrew! Glad our fix worked for you.
Taryne McPherson
Well this hasn’t helped me!
Sara Thornton
Hi Taryne,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Kathleen Brenham
Thank you so very much Sara. I tried all I understood similar to the problem fixes introduced/described in this article. I was ready to replace my keys or buy another keyboard, but thought, since I was able to get them (dfghjkl) to work by hitting multiple keys simultaneously that the keys were not the problem. I turned to System Preference, but forgot about the “input sources” option. I had used it once before for the top keys.. You probably helped with that one too. Bet U have a halo. Enjoy the coffee ;0)
Sara Thornton
Hi Kathleen! Thank you so much for your lovely post, and for the coffee – it was delicious 🙂
I hope your keyboard lives a long and healthy life! 🙂
Rupert Snyman
Thanks so much Sara,
you saved me pulling apart my macbook and probably killing it in the process. I had lost 4 keys”8IK,” in a vertical column. Very glad to have it back! Enjoy the coffee…
Sara Thornton
Thanks so much Rupert for your post and the coffee (it was delicious)!
Glad our solution helped bring your MacBook keyboard back to full health. May it live a long and prosperous life!
Jonathan Singer-Jordan
Thank you!
It worked – and I was so sure it was a hardware (key) problem…
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Jonathan! Glad our fix worked for you.
Liang
Did not work! When logging & booting, those keys worked with password typing. But after booting, keys such as u, i, o, j, k, l, m, etc. stop working. I have tried several suggestions including yours. But it didn’t work! They only worked for password window!
Sara Thornton
Hi Liang,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Em
I could kiss you!! Thank you sooooo much!! You’re truly a lifesaver!!
Sara Thornton
Our pleasure! Glad our solution worked for you 🙂
Michael
Hi I use a 2010 MacBook Pro and currently these letters on my keyboard are not responding Y,U,I,O
Please can someone help
Sara Thornton
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Jodie
My Z jet isn’t working and I can’t get into my settings as I need the Z key to get into my laptop for my password. Any suggestions?
Sara Thornton
Hi Jodie, maybe try logging in as a guest account to apply the fix and then log out and log back in with your normal account?
If you don’t have a guest account, an external keyboard should do the trick.
OC
I’ve had an issue with my macbook pro where the bottom row of letters (z-m) intermittently worked. I tried this silly fix today and the keys seem to be working! W-T-F
My c key (which has been by far the worst) is still sticky, so it remains to be seen if there isn’t a larger hardware issue at play here. Nonetheless, this settings tweak seems to have broke something loose and now I can type.
Sara Thornton
Glad our solution worked for you 🙂
Ean Aier
Some of my MacBook Pro retina early 2015 13inch keyboard keys have stopped working suddenly.
keys like – 8,I,K, comma/< key and right and left arrow key but the rest are working fine.
please help..
Sara Thornton
Hi Ean,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
herman
does not work for me.
thanks though
Sara Thornton
Hi Herman,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Jay
This solution worked on my Macbook Pro! Thank you. The problem is that it keeps happening, several times a day, so I have to keep adding/removing keyboard inputs to get it to work. Any advice?
Sara Thornton
Hi Jay,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t permanently work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Chris Williams
How many contributors here discovered that they had inadvertently turned Mouse Keys on?
I found this site while searching for answers to the sudden problem of having 10 apparently dead keys. Switching keyboards didn’t resolve the issue.
When Mouse Keys is the culprit, as was the case with me this morning, the simplest solution is to press the Option key five times to turn Mouse Keys off.
That solution points to the most likely cause: having pressed the Option key five times and inadvertently turned Mouse Keys on.
If one isn’t aware this action will cause that to happen, vexation—if not outright panic—will ensue.
P.S. Does your site name refer to addiction, or a holistic approach? There’s quite a difference ‘twixt the two, you know…
Seriously: I appreciate, applaud, share and support your green efforts.
Sara Thornton
Hi Chris, thanks for your post and for sharing your findings! Hopefully your solution will help others too.
P.S. We’re more “holistic web” than “web addiction”, but I’d be lying if I said we weren’t a little addicted 🙂
Antony
Thanks for your solution which alas didn’t work for me, so Apple Support have booked me in for a Genius Bar visit – which I will now cancel.
I’ve just fixed it accidentally.
I was using a USB keyboard to enter data but then unthinkingly reached over to my (ageing) MacBook Pro keyboard to enter opt+u then i for an ï and that worked which was a bit of a surprise since u and i were previously dead. All of the missing keys: y, u, i, o are now working normally as well as accented versions.
Nothing to do with the keyboard then, just summat weird in’t software.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Antony, and glad to hear that your keys are now working again 🙂
David Lambe
That was amazing. I’ve never been so incredibly frustrated and had it alleviated so quickly. THANK YOU!
Sara Thornton
Our pleasure! Glad our solution worked for you, and thanks for your post 🙂
Susan Andrew
Wow. Never would have thought this would be a software issue, and with such an easy fix. Thanks so much!
Sara Thornton
Glad our fix worked for you Susan, and thanks for your post!
Eric
“A” key stopped working here and I managed to fix it following your instructions. Thank you!!!
Sara Thornton
Glad our fix worked for you Eric, and thanks for your post!
Alison
Wow, you’re a life saver! I found myself desperately googling “MacBook Pro keys stop working” and the simple solution you posted 5+ years ago worked! I’d nearly resigned myself into thinking I needed to buy a new computer, because my workaround of copying and pasting from another document every time I had to type an r, t, y, u, i, or o was getting old, fast! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! And no copy/ paste was needed to type that! 🙂
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your lovely post Alison, and glad our fix worked for you 🙂
Timothy
I got all excited when I saw this, and all bummed out when it didn’t work. It seemed like such a sim le (See? I still don’t have the letter that comes after o) solution. Any other ideas?
Sara Thornton
Hi Timothy,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t permanently work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Heidi
Hi Sara! Thanks so much for posting this solution! It’s especially hard for luddites like me to get our heads around technology issues.
My keys A and delete would not work whenever I opened my laptop. I would just tap on the A key until it worked bc it’s part of my pw to log in. So we’ll see if your solution fixes it for good.
Hoping so
Sincerely,
HeidiB
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Heidi, and glad our fix worked for you!
gary
didnt work waste of time
Sara Thornton
Hi Gary,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Daniela
Fantastic – I had 2 keys not responding any more, and now: Beautifully working again! Thanks, Daniela
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Daniela, and glad our fix worked for you!
Jon
I appreciate you so much for this!!! Thank you so much.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Jon, and glad our fix worked for you!
John Moore
This gave me hope but didn’t work. I am now typing with my cursor on the on-screen accessibility keyboard and it is so frustrating. 🙁
Sara Thornton
Hi John,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Dorota
Thank you so much as been tearing my hair out! I sensed it wasn’t a hardware failure because the vowels only were affected, all of a sudden and there were no hardware incidents (plus I use cover to protect keys agains dust, etc).
Would never have thought of this unlikely solution so hugely grateful!
Best wishes to your world.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Dorota, and glad our fix worked for you!
Engelina Broersen
I have a Macbook Pro 9.1 and this suggestion did not work . My L key is still refusing service
Ideas?
Sara Thornton
Hi Engelina,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Russell Bennett
Hi I’ve tried your fix and sadly it doesn’t work for my Mac –
On my main login the keys all work fine but for the 2nd login I use for my kids these keys and a couple of others around that area don’t.
I’ve tried deleting the login and creating a new one I’ve tried different keyboards I’ve tried all the different keyboard format and it just doesn’t work for me on that second login yet the on-screen keyboard will work-it’s driving me batty as anything hoping someone can help
Sara Thornton
Hi Russell,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
Hope this helps!
Kalvin Adams
Hi Sara I’ve tried everything that you’ve mentioned above, on the flip side however, my A Key still doesn’t seem to work. As you can see I’ve used the on screen keyboard to type this message.
Any more solutions? I’d gladly appreciate it!
Sara Thornton
Hi Kalvin,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Abhijeet
cant login as certian keys including delete is not working. cleaned it and reinstalled it but no luck. all the above solutions doesnt really work as i cant login! any help?
Sara Thornton
Hi Abhijeet,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Jen
Did not work for me I downloaded the british keyboard and key still did not work so now everytime i have to use the letter L i have to use the keyboard viewer. Any other suggestions?
Sara Thornton
Hi Jen,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Bristy Shrestha
It didn’t work on mine
Sara Thornton
Hi Bristy,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!
Paula Houghton
I found pressing the option key 5 times did the trick
Sara Thornton
Hi Paula,
Thanks for sharing what worked for you 🙂
Jake
Hey Sara,
Thanks for the helpful post.
Unfortunately, the problem has continued with my MacBook Pro ‘09. I have followed your instructions and the other two links that you shared. Albeit, to no avail.
If anyone else has a solution that might work, I would love to hear it.
Cheers,
Jake
Sara Thornton
Hey Jake,
Thanks for your post, and sorry to hear that our fix hasn’t worked for you.
If you haven’t already tried giving your keyboard a clean, that might be worth giving a go. Alternatively, someone else recently found pressing the option key 5 times did the trick for them.
I hope this helps, and that your keys become fully functional again soon!
oliver sheerin
May God Bless you, Sara…you have a lovely smile, by the way…
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Oliver, and glad our fix worked for you.
Johndavid
Sara, thanks so much. I’ve been beating my head against this issue for two days. You are an angel, sister.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Johndavid, and glad our fix worked for you.
Arthur
Wow, that was great! Actually it works. Sarah, thank you so much!
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Arthur, and glad our fix worked for you!
Rose Knight
thank you thank you thank you!!! very impressed.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Rose, and glad our fix worked for you!
Howard
So much more simple than resetting the NVRAM or SMC 🙂
I just added the ABC-Extended
Thanks.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Howard, and glad our fix worked for you!
Ed
Here is another one althogh it might have been mentioned: The fn (ie function key might be pressed)
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Ed!
Shubhankit Bansal
I also have the same problem but that is solved by simply disable enable mouse key option. You can go through that option by going : System Preferences>Accessability>Mouse and TrackPad. Then just uncheck enable mouse key and may be your keys start working.
Sara Thornton
Thanks for your post Shubhankit!
Richard Winfield
Didn’t wo*k .
Sara Thornton
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your post.
If our above article fix didn’t work for you, then maybe give the solutions here a try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5887096
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3127917
If you’re still having no luck, then it might be that your keyboard needs a little spring clean – check out the solution at the bottom of the page here to see if that fixes the problem, although you may need to find cleaning instructions to fit your particular keyboard: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1333288?tstart=0
Hope this helps!