How to Fix Sticky Keys and Double-Click on MacBook Keyboard
You press a key on your MacBook and nothing happens. You press another key and she enters that letter twice. The third key seems to be sticking. You are not alone, as this is a common problem with certain type of Apple keyboard. If you have friends who bought a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro in the past year or two, they may not be able to sympathize with your troubles. And while there aren’t many headlines about it these days – Apple has pretty much fixed the problem and moved on – many of us haven’t gotten over it yet.
What’s the problem with Apple’s butterfly keyboard?
No keyboard is perfect, but Apple’s butterfly keyboard is especially perfect for them . Apple began producing these keyboards in 2015 with an updated “MacBook,” which the company boasted of its thinness and portability. Part of this thinness is due to the new keyboards that have been developed with a butterfly mechanism, which significantly shortened keyboard travel. That meant a smaller form factor, but typing wasn’t for everyone (personally, I’ve always liked typing on mine, but that’s a polarizing question).
Still, you can get used to everything. If the only problem with these keyboards was the lack of travel, the story would likely end there. But the new butterfly design was fundamentally flawed and allowed dust and dirt to get under the switches, causing an unpleasant “sticky” feeling in addition to typing errors. You type some keys, and nothing happens; others, you type double letters. You can imagine how annoying this can be.
With the more recent butterfly keyboard, Apple did try to put a bandage over the problem by adding a membrane over the switches, in an attempt to stop debris from getting in. While the new design has helped, it cannot stop the inevitable, as iFixit discovered during its testing . These keyboards are inadvertently designed not to work.
How do I know if I have a butterfly keyboard?
Knowledgeable people can instantly recognize the butterfly keyboard, but it’s also easy to miss. There are different types of butterfly keyboards and it doesn’t seem like Apple’s redesigned MacBook keyboard, dubbed the Magic Keyboard, has tons of key movements. You will not be accused of not being able to determine which version you have.
Your best bet is to check your laptop model. To do this, click Apple in the upper-left corner of your screen and choose About This Mac. If your MacBook model name matches one of the following, you have a butterfly keyboard:
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016)
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017)
- MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018)
- MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Dual Thunderbolt 3)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Dual Thunderbolt 3)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Dual Thunderbolt 3)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
How do I fix my keyboard?
Before we proceed, you should remember when your laptop was purchased from Apple. Was it less than four years ago? Then congratulations: your keyboard can be repaired for free.
About Butterfly Keyboard Repair Program
Due to the multitude of complaints from victims of the butterfly keyboard (and an impending lawsuit alleging that Apple knowingly sold defective keyboards), Apple has implemented a repair program; if your MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro with a butterfly keyboard was purchased less than four years ago, Apple will cover the repair costs.
While this is certainly good news – and a course of action you should definitely take if one is available to you – not all is rosy. After all, you still get the same faulty keyboard, so there is no guarantee that it won’t let you down in the future.
By the way, this is really the same keyboard. If your computer didn’t come with a slightly better membrane keyboard, you won’t get it in repair. And while the program lasts longer than Apple’s three-year AppleCare + coverage, once you step outside that four-year window, you’re on the hook for any costs associated with repairing your keyboard.
What if I am not in the Butterfly Keyboard Repair Program?
For the rest of us whose butterfly keyboards are over four years old, we have a variety of DIY options. You can replace the keyboard, but this can be costly. Rossman Repair Group, for example, estimates this repair at $ 350 and warns against asking them to “fix this lemon.” Instead, you might want to consider some of the workarounds the Apple community has tried to fix for these keys.
One popular option is the condensed air trick: grab a can of compressed air, then lift your MacBook up to a 75˚ angle (that ‘s very specific Apple advice, by the way ). Then spray the condensed air from left to right all over the keyboard, or just over the keys that are causing you problems. Rotate the computer to the right and repeat, then rotate it to the left again and repeat.
You can open the keys yourself, but this is an extremely risky maneuver as keys must be removed carefully and specifically based on their unique latch design, and you could risk breaking either the keys or the components underneath. If you try to remove the space in the same way as deleting the “G” key, you might break it.
How to prevent the keyboard from double tapping letters
If you are not comfortable using the hardware route, you can try to hack the software. Our own Pranay Parab was able to stop its spacebar from being horribly double-tapped by setting text replacement to replace the double space with a single space.
There are downloads that can help as well. Consider Unshaky , for example: the program analyzes your typing and blocks repeated key presses if it is too fast, which should not affect the time when you are about to press the key twice.
Of course, try to keep debris out of your laptop. Remove as much dust from your workplace as possible, avoid eating near your keyboard, and above all, try to shake off those thoughts of just giving up and buying a computer with a keyboard that’s not doomed to fail.