MacBook Air 2019 sticky key!

[Seanm87]

Ive had my MacBook Air since December and today had my first butterfly keyboard scare. The ? key seemed to get stuck and sounded different to the other keys. I opened a pages doc and started typing on the key continuously. It seemed to be working ok but sounded different, hard to explain less mushy feeling and more tacky I guess. However it now seems to feel and sound ok.

Should I be worried?

 

[smirking]

If it does it again, give it a firm press, hold it down and jiggle it clockwise and counterclockwise. That usually works for me.

 

[cmaier]

Sounds like a crumb or dust got in there. Compress air it and see if that helps.

 

[AustinIllini]

Compressed air should help. if it doesn't, go to Apple. If it's 1 key, they might be able to fix it more quickly.

 

[fs454]

The butterfly keyboards are known for this. The firm press and jiggle should help dislodge whatever's stuck in there. My go-to fix with mine was to almost repeatedly smack the key or flick it with the pad of your finger very firmly 10-15 times, harder than you would just normally typing. I had a Late 2016 MBP that I used this method probably hundreds of times over the course of the 4 years I owned it and it always got the key working as usual again. If the same key continues to have issues over and over again take it to Apple.

 

[smirking]

I had a Late 2016 MBP that I used this method probably hundreds of times over the course of the 4 years I owned it and it always got the key working as usual again. If the same key continues to have issues over and over again take it to Apple.

I had a 2016 MBP that responded to this same fix. Interestingly enough, I had a glitchy keyboard from about 3 months to 12 months of ownership. I owned that laptop for another 15 months before selling it and in those 15 months, I didn't have a single issue with the keyboard again. For most of the first year, I'd get a random jam or repeating key every few weeks with decreasing frequency as it got toward the one year mark.

Even more interesting is that I was pretty hard on it for most of the last 15 months of ownership. The battery was going south and I knew I'd have to get a new battery so I decided to stress test the keyboard by typing harder than I normally do and being a slob around my computer.

At the end of my ownership, I took it in to get the battery (and topcase) replaced before selling it. I couldn't sit around for a week without a computer so I upgraded to a 2018 MBP while my 2016 was in repair. I had zero problems for the first 9 months of this 2018 and some intermittent minor repeats in the last three months that stop if I just jiggle and press on it.