Some 2016 MacBook Pro Owners Experiencing Keyboard Problems

[mi7chy]

2016 MB and MBP keyboards with narrow travel remind me a lot of how awful membrane keyboards were back in the 1980s like the Atari 400, Timex Sinclair 1000, Magnavox Odyssey2, etc. Wouldn't be surprised if 2016 MB and MBP keyboards end up on worst keyboard of all time lists.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/139100/the_10_worst_pc_keyboards_of_all_time.html

 

[Phineasgage1848]

Whole new laptop.

The keyboard issue is definitely something I've dealt with. I'm on my 3rd (!) 15in tMBP.

The first one had the "L" key become unresponsive on Day 1 of owning the machine. No amount of pressing the key ever brought it back to functionality, so I asked Apple to swap out the machine the next day.

My second one had the top half of the "J" key become flush with the keyboard and permanently stuck down after roughly 2-3 weeks of ownership. Also, the TouchBar was having issues where it wouldn't display the "buttons" but they would accept touch response and re-appear. Apple swapped the machine out with a brand new one as well. The Genius told me it was generally easier to do that because with the new keyboard they have to remove the entire top half of the laptop. It's a much more difficult fix than it used to be and they would have to send it out to repair...

Here's hoping my third one is OK...

 

[lec0rsaire]

Was the battery life issues hardware? As far as I know, software updates fixed almost all the battery life issues. Is it that you just got the hardware replaced in a middle of the OS updates?

Unfortunately I will never know. The first one came with 10.12.1 and never was updated to 10.12.2. The second also came with 10.12.1 but I noticed the scratches as soon as I took the plastic off and took it back. Was not in my possession long enough but the battery life was very similar to the first. The third came with 10.12.2 and I updated to 10.12.3 the day it was released. Honestly I didn't notice much difference between .2 and .3 on this one. The battery life was already good enough so it's possible that the problems were for the most part software, although I did notice different fully charged maH values on each. My current one has 6915 maH and the other two about 100 less. I did not do any sort of migration or set up from backup if that makes a difference. I set up and installed everything manually. Also reset the SMC just for the hell of it before upgrading to 10.12.3.

 

[thomas_g]

Article Link: Some 2016 MacBook Pro Owners Experiencing Keyboard Problems

Don’t listen to these trolls and Apple hater jealousy idiots about the new MBP. I actually use the new MBP all day, every day and can tell you it’s fantastic.

By far the best Mac I’ve ever had. It’s super fast, lightweight, the keyboard is a joy to type on, the touch bar is completely intuitive and you get hooked on it fast, not having to constantly enter my password due to Touch ID saves a lot of time. Battery life is as advertised (I get around 9-12 hours depending on activities). I work full time (programer) on my MBP, so it’s my work environment.

The light weight and thinness is important to me, because I always have it with me. Now my previous MBP 2014 seems clunky and less refined in comparison.

The adoption of USB-C ports was a very good and necessary move by Apple. Any one of these 4 USB-C ports can be anything you want it to be. Now days, I don’t need to hook up much stuff to my MBP, but for people who have a lot of legacy equipment, scanners or whatever to hook up, they can do all they want, and Apple did not have to clutter up the machine trying to second guess which of the multitude of ports people actually need, not to mention most of the legacy ports are way too huge for these modern machines. This is far more flexible.

 

[Ethosik]

I have never found a laptop keyboard I like. I did not like the 2013 rMBP keyboard. And I do not like the 2016 MacBook Pro keyboard. I like it a bit more than the 2013 keyboard. However, the worst keyboard I have ever used was the Surface Pro 3 cover keyboard. That was SO BAD.

 

[niploteksi]

That video sounds like an old typewriter. I kind of like it.

 

[ballyhoos]

You wouldn't believe my luck, the left command key just broke! [2016 13" nTB] Unresponsive in the top right corner, seems jammed. The computer is only 6 weeks old. Just waiting on a response from Apple support, on the phone with them now. Super annoying to say the least.

 

[audiobear]

Don’t listen to these trolls and Apple hater jealousy idiots about the new MBP. I actually use the new MBP all day, every day and can tell you it’s fantastic.

By far the best Mac I’ve ever had. It’s super fast, lightweight, the keyboard is a joy to type on, the touch bar is completely intuitive and you get hooked on it fast, not having to constantly enter my password due to Touch ID saves a lot of time. Battery life is as advertised (I get around 9-12 hours depending on activities). I work full time (programer) on my MBP, so it’s my work environment.

The light weight and thinness is important to me, because I always have it with me. Now my previous MBP 2014 seems clunky and less refined in comparison.

The adoption of USB-C ports was a very good and necessary move by Apple. Any one of these 4 USB-C ports can be anything you want it to be. Now days, I don’t need to hook up much stuff to my MBP, but for people who have a lot of legacy equipment, scanners or whatever to hook up, they can do all they want, and Apple did not have to clutter up the machine trying to second guess which of the multitude of ports people actually need, not to mention most of the legacy ports are way too huge for these modern machines. This is far more flexible.

I couldn't disagree more on the keyboard but maybe that's because I struggled with a bad keyboard for 3 months until I finally went in for service today. They sent it back and said I would probably get a new one. I suffered from dead keys, stuck keys, repeating keys, and none of the keys felt the same. Worst keyboard I ever used. Don't know why I didn't send it right back. While I was there I tried the same machine in the store and the keyboard felt much better than the lemon I received.

I think the touch bar sucks big time. Too small and crowded for openers. I can't comment on the poor functionality of mine because the Apple tech I was working with said the keyboard problems and touch bar strip problems were interconnected. So again I tried the store machines and darn, the touch bar worked much better. But perfect it is not.

Where I do agree is that performance is great. Battery life is excellent. And it was time to move on to one connector like USB-C for everything. I have the new 27" monitor and a lot of adaptors and I like the system. But even here Apple, once vaunted for its ergonomics, screwed up big time. The ports are a few mm too close together. If you try to place two USB-C memory sticks or USB-A to USB-C adaptors on adjacent ports they don't fit. Nor two of some cable brands fit. I was astounded at how close the ports are. Somebody dropped the ball on this one.

As far as I can tell the new model was released as beta version for consumer testing. It will be a good computer when Apple fixes all the bugs and gets a reliable keyboard. As of now it's the first Apple product I have regretted buying. Apply is slipping slowly downward under Tim Cook. No doubt about it in my mind. Too bad. I wish i had waited for the Kaby Lake version....

 

[R3k]

My recent space bar squishyness went away after a few days- its back to 'snappy' again. Cancelled another Genius Bar appointment.

Honestly, I'd go for swapping the laptop out for another if I was sure the new one wouldn't have the same issues. Judging by how widespread this is, it sounds like a gamble. There is also the risk that it could be worse even.

My return key went to squishy after a week of ownership, then settled back to about 70% of its original firmness where it's been for months. It doesn't weird me out when typing anymore so ok I guess.

 

[audiobear]

My recent space bar squishyness went away after a few days- its back to 'snappy' again. Cancelled another Genius Bar appointment.

Honestly, I'd go for swapping the laptop out for another if I was sure the new one wouldn't have the same issues. Judging by how widespread this is, it sounds like a gamble. There is also the risk that it could be worse even.

My return key went to squishy after a week of ownership, then settled back to about 70% of its original firmness where it's been for months. It doesn't weird me out when typing anymore so ok I guess.

Mine had all sorts of other strange behavior that I didn't mention. It has been launching half-written e-mails, the screen and keyboard brightness controls worked when the felt like it (the tech said they were all wrong), caps lock and Seri came on spontaneously. It was like having a ghost in there. I like you thought it would work its way out and a new one wouldn't be any better.

The oddest experience was when the space bar got stuck on repeat. I couldn't get it to stop. Cleaned the key with a high pressure argon blast, worked it up and down hundreds of times, and in desperation I shut it down. I rebooted and when it asked for my password it was rejected. Then I noticed the spacebar was still stuck and it was inserting spaces which invalidated my password. I shut it down and went back to my Macbook Air. The next day I booted it up and it just worked. No sticky space bar. Many more stories to tell.

The tech was very careful about what he said today but did note that mine was a very early production run. Said nothing more. The ones on display in the store had a very different keyboard and touch bar response. I hope that means they have solved this problem.

 

[kyykesko]

Keep complaining and the next Macbook "Pro" will come with no keys at all and six rows of touchbar.

Our complaints will have no effect on that. Actually I think they'll just go with one huge touchbar that can display any kind of keyboard. It'll look cool and you can have the whole "keyboard" full of emojis. Who cares if it's horrible to use? It may allow them to make it 0,0001mm thinner!

 

[dragje]

I put them both on the same level of equal importance. Indeed, "looks" are why many people buy Apple products, and looks have kept me in the Apple fold for decades. As such, when comparing Apple's own Thunderbolt Display to third party options like the LG 5K, the LG 5K can't be considered "comparable" in the looks department, and certainly not compared to my EIZO display either. Let's face it, if LG was serious about Mac users, it should have considered how we think about aesthetics and done a better job designing a QUALITY monitor that LOOKS good. They ended up with a monitor that looks boring and the WIFI interference problems we've been reading about cast doubts on it's "cream of the crop" quality. If Apple came out with its own 5K display, I assure you that most Mac users who don't already own a 5K display would seriously consider that over the LG, for you and I both know how Apple cares for the look of its products. As to quality, well, my poor 2009 27" iMac i7 has had video card problems repeatedly, so I cannot say that Apple emphasized quality. Indeed, they tend to emphasize looks over quality, at least, that's been the case over the last decade.

Hm... I buy Apple computers because I like working with OSX. Looks are nice but for me not very important. I make a living using programs running on OSX not with a good designed computer.

The issues with the LG are highly overrated, almost in an historical fashion. Yes there are wifi issues but those are being fixed. The quality itself is top notch. That being sed, I do consider buying an other type of monitor. 2017 is the year that many many brands will come with state of the art monitors, maybe not in a 5K mode but 4K will do it for me as well. I'm more interested in a monitor with 4K that has good response rate, great picture quality with HDR and good ports on board to connect hardware with. So I'll probably skip the LG 5K monitor.

The only design complain I've got with the LG 5K is that I like to work on two monitors and the bezels of the 5K monitors are so thick that you definitely will see a big split up there.... I hope that one brand will come up with a good quality (at least 60 hz) 4K monitor with HDR and with a 32 inch wide screen, I might not need 2 monitors then since I'm going from HD to 4K to begin with and from a 24 inch monitor to 32 inch.

 

[sundragon]

The article is about keyboards.
The reply was about keyboards.
Dunno what you're on about but it's off topic and silly.

I'm not sure where you got me saying "Blah blah blah blah" - I did a quick search and it's not me you quoted as far as I can tell. My comments are directly related to the keyboard and making the point that Apple does innovate but your comment was short sighted in that they don't.

Keyboard innovation - I remember my first modern mac, a 15" Powerbook in 2004 - No PC had a backlit keyboard. I remember all my friends who work in IT saying it's a great idea... Today, everyone and their mother has one.

No innovation

 

[adriand17]

Update: after taking the computer into the Apple Store, after attempting to clean under the key, they concluded that they did not know what the issue was, and had to send it in for repair.

 

[Duckless In Seattle]

Agreed that the current keyboards are absolute garbage. I'm still nursing along my 2012 15" MBP for precisely that reason. My normal replacement cycle is a new machine every three years but the new machines are a train wreck and I'll keep this machine going until it completely dies.
The new keyboard hurts my fingers & are prime example of Apple trying to solve a problem that never existed in the first place. I occasionally have to use a colleague's 2016 MBP and after five minutes I want to throw it out the window. The keyboard suuuuuuuuckssssss and that trackpad is a joke, too.
It seems to me that the product designers at Apple think they need to keep changing things simply to justify their existence, never mind that the changes are horrible. Too bad that they've made what was a perfectly fine machine into pile of junk.

 

[Rob_2811]

My 15 Inch is going to the genius bar next week due to key strokes not registering and the trackpad rattling when tapped. Not great for a machine that is less than a month old.

 

[DataChris]

Until now (25 years of Apple), I have never HATED an Apple product before. Sure there have been a lot of apps and app changes and half ass design decisions (like the round mouse and many others) over the years that totally sucked but no Apple product was ever hate worthy. Not even my bendy iPhone 6, which totally sucked 'cause apple wouldn't replace it, still worked awesome. But this 2016 MacBook Pro w/Touchbar is such a piece of junk at the most fundamental levels. It crashes daily. Daily. I've spent two months talking to Apple's highest tech support and engineers yet they have no solution and offer no remedy. It's not even three months old and all the issues you all read about are real... touchbar, trackpad and endless KEYBOARD FAILS! Do you know how much it sucks to have a space bar not work, or worse half work? Let alone all the other keys that are half clicking or not clicking or change clicking inconsistently clicking, some letters working without clicking some clicking but requiring double hard pressing. This is the most sub-standard piece of junk ever. Yes the display is glorious and the HD is wicked fast but who give a hell when you can't just type an email? Or worse when you can't even finish that impossible to type email because the whole machine crashes before it's complete. Ohhh PRAM & SMC resets and clean OS installs don't fix ***T. Gahh I'm just done, done. I want a pro machine that actually works. Do you know how many chrome books or windows boxes I could've bought with all this $$ let alone all the $$ lost work due to this this failing garbage. I'm over it.

 

[Rob_2811]

My 15 inch is now experiencing big performance issues in system apps, currently taking 15 seconds or so to load a page in Safari, not seeing any kind of poor performance in Chrome. Wondering if this is a problem with Touchbar supported apps.

Will see what the genius bar have to say on Wednesday.

 

[elmaco]

The left CAPS key doesn't work properly on my MBP 2016, I need push it really hard or repeatedly until it works. I also frequently hit Siri on the touchbar when I use backspace.

Very frustrating.

When I typed the above sentences I had to redo all my capital I:s and the V in "Very frustrating."

 

[dmelgar]

I originally didn't think I had this problem, but suddenly over the weekend, my space bar stopped working when pressed on the right side.

It consistently didn't work.

I mashed it some and blew on it in case something was trapped and that seemed to help. I haven't noticed it failing. But now i'm worried. Whats the fix? Does Apple replace the Macbook Pro? Replace the keyboard? This is my second Macbook Pro to make sure I got a good battery. I'd rather not swap it for a different machine.

 

[Elijen]

Just started having problems with the "H" key. Sometimes it works fine, some times it does not type the letter, sometimes it's delayed and sometimes it types the letter twice:

Test:
this thhis this this thhis thhis this this this this thihs this this this this this thhis this this thhis this this this this this this

 

[cmaier]

Just started having problems with the "H" key. Sometimes it works fine, some times it does not type the letter, sometimes it's delayed and sometimes it types the letter twice:

Test:
this thhis this this thhis thhis this this this this thihs this this this this this thhis this this thhis this this this this this this

My "b" key intermittently has that problem.

b bb bbb bbbbb

Sometimes no "b" appears, sometimes multiple.

 

[ns5]

My backspace went numb after one month of using my MBP 2016, 13''. What irritates me even more than that happening is the posts in this thread (and others) where people praise their new MBPs without having had this problem with the keyboard. It is ridiculous.
I do think the machine deserves the suffix "pro": I mainly do programming and numerical work, and OSX is the decisive factor for me to stay with Mac -linux would be the only serious alternative. What you get is a solid OS in a very smooth package. The battery life, the low weight and the compact form makes it a joy to carry around; it is an excellent compromise between portability and being a serious machine for professional use. I was hesitant to the keyboard but I quickly learned to appreciate it too; it is snappy and trustable.
But when one key suddenly goes numb, out of the blue, nothing of the above matters any more: the machine becomes a pain to use.
I think I resolved the problem (for the time being) by "cleaning" around the key with a folded paper. It didn't work immediately, but rather recovered in half a day or so. Thanks to all of you that have proposed different solutions, and I will consider getting a silicon cover for the keyboard.
And let me add, this is a showstopper. If you are considering buying: don't.

 

[sundragon]

I've got the 15" 2016 and I've tried the 13" 2016 - It takes a little getting used to but I type faster on the Apple keyboard than the other 4 systems I have. I used typingtest.com to see how much and it's like 15wpm faster on average. The other computers are a gigabyte and a Lenovo X1.

A lot of people don't like the keyboards on first pass - I was one of them but once you get used to the switch like keys, you may find that you're mileage gets better. It's just a lot more accurate for me now.

 

[Playfoot]

Well, was not a fan of the keyboard, or for that matter the laptop, have a tMBP 2.9gHz, 1TB etc.

As t relates to the keyboard, can type on anything and while I did not like it, I knew would get used to it. However, constantly experienced more mistakes, errors, etc. After sticking it out for 90 days, I finally surrendered and went to the Genius Bar. Yes. Need to replace the entire "top sheet with the keyboard".

The kicker? Out of stock due to high demand. . . .

So, almost $4,000 buys one a defective machine. Combined with the, for me, useless TB (I want my function keys), the need to press keys twice when once would suffice (volume, brightness, etc), poor palm rejection, massive track pad, etc., the keyboard and delay in repair has ruined the experience.

For the first time in more than two decades, now reconsidering my loyalty to Apple.
[doublepost=1489384870][/doublepost]

I've got the 15" 2016 and I've tried the 13" 2016 - It takes a little getting used to but I type faster on the Apple keyboard than the other 4 systems I have. I used typingtest.com to see how much and it's like 15wpm faster on average. The other computers are a gigabyte and a Lenovo X1.

A lot of people don't like the keyboards on first pass - I was one of them but once you get used to the switch like keys, you may find that you're mileage gets better. It's just a lot more accurate for me now.

In the end, I must agree with your assessment. There are many good things about the machine. However, the negatives outweigh the positive. I too can not recommend.