Apple Still Hasn’t Fixed Their Keyboard Problems

Joseph Flynt
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Many avid Apple fans have been hoping that the company has fixed the widely reported on problem with Macbook Pro keyboards in the most recent 2018 refresh. Unfortunately, we have experienced a problem with the keyboard after just two weeks of owning our brand new computer.

The keyboard on our 2 week old computer has a problem where the spacebar will often stick. It will leave random periods in text. We have changed the settings to remove the period (since it is triggered by the spacebar being pressed twice), but we are now left with random extra spaces while typing. This problem seems to come and go and sometimes blowing air into the key seems to help.

Apple has had major problems with their keyboards since the 2016 refresh of their Macbook Pro laptops. They moved from a standard keyboard mechanism to their proprietary ‘Butterfly’ design during the refresh. The purpose of the design was to make the computer thinner, but it has resulted in a slew of problems.

Besides reducing the amount of travel that the keys have, the design has serious flaws that cause it to break down. Thousands of Macbook Pro users have experienced big problems with their keyboards, which include random spaces and letters being added while typing.

Since the failure of a single key requires the replacement of the entire top part of the laptop and sometimes even the battery, Apple was known to charge customers $600 or more to fix the problem. Apple has agreed to repair the computer for free for the 2016 and 2017 models after the company was sued in a class action lawsuit. There’s no word on whether they will continue to make the fix for the 2018 computer after the 1 year warranty expires.

Apple’s fix for the keyboard problems in the 2018 model was to add a thin plastic film on top of the keys to block out dust. This had the added benefit of reducing the sounds that typing makes. Unfortunately, it seems like this wasn’t enough to fix the problem.

It’s hard to overstate how frustrating it is to have a malfunctioning keyboard, especially after you spent thousands of dollars on a high-end machine. This problem should give you serious pause if you are considering buying this machine, especially if you don’t want to spend hours at an Apple Store and potentially a week without your computer while it’s being repaired.