Keyboard stops working in Snow Leopard when using Spaces

I had the same exact problem on my MBP. I ran Onyx on that user profile and that fixed it right up.

http://www.macupdate.com/download.php/11582/OnyX.dmg

Hope it works for you too.

Like everyone else here, I've had this problem with the keyboard shortcuts in Spaces ever since I "upgraded" to 10.6.x. Over the holidays I was on travel and was using the my MBP without the external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The keyboard shortcuts worked just fine. As soon as I put the external keyboard back in, the problem returned. An Apple rep suggested it was a problem with my keyboard, but I tried three different keyboards and the problem is consistent.

When I went to the Apple store, and tried to use Spaces and keyboard shortcuts on the keyboards for the iMac's they didn't seem to have the problem.

Other than just assigning a key (F5) to activate spaces and then clicking in the space I want, I can't use Spaces. The keyboard shortcuts are MUCH MORE convenient, but it causes a lock-up just about every time.

My "solution" is to make sure I've got the activity monitor running so I can "quit" the dock when I forget and inadvertently try to use keyboard shortcuts for Spaces.

I was extremely disappointed when 10.6.2 came out and this wasn't fixed. I moved from Windows to a Mac to get a better experience.

Between the issues with the printers/scanners and this with Spaces, I really regret "upgrading" to 10.6.x from 10.5.8.

Wake up Apple.

I am having this exact same problem and I'm glad I'm not the only one. I cannot believe Apple has not found a solution to this. (Especially that it seems widespread).

OK - here's my story:

1. I've been noticing for some time that the Spaces 'indicator window' often stayed on screen after I used the Ctrl-num shortcut. A keypress would always dismiss it though.

2. I recently started using MagicPrefs as an enhancement to my Magic Mouse and one of the features that was introduced in a recent release was '2 finger swipes' which I set to manage Spaces - a 2 finger right swipe moved one space right etc...

3. This needs to have the shortcut key for switching between spaces enabled (a modifier plus an arrow key) - I only had the 'switch directly to a space' shortcut set, so I set the shortcut to Ctrl-arrow.

4. As soon as I did this, I started noticing the full keyboard locking as described in this thread when moving between spaces (whether by shortcut key or the swipe gestures) and duly set up the killall dock automator app to regain the keyboard.

5. However, I was also running Typinator and saw some references to this in the various posts here.

6. I've now closed Typinator (I was never a big user of the app so it's no great loss to me) and I haven't had a lock since.

Therefore, for me at least, it seems that the problem is caused by a combination of enabling the 'switch between spaces' shortcut and having Typinator running.

If anyone else can confirm this, maybe it will give Apple something to work on...??

Cheers

I submitted a bug report to Apple about this: ID # 7505334. No reply yet.

@enkaytee Yes, I can confirm that Typinator makes this problem happen. I've emailed Typinator support about this and they (along with USB Overdrive support and TextExpander support) all believe this is a bug in the OS and there's not much they can do about it. (I think they all have open tickets with Apple as well.)

I've moved back to TextExpander from Typinator, which causes different problems (depending on the keyboard shortcut to switch spaces; it switches twice when the shortcut is ctrl+arrows, unless it kills the keyboard). But yes, both those apps seem to cause problems, as does invoking the spaces switching keyboard shortcut via a USB Overdrive.

Usually turning off TextExpander or Typinator will completely avoid the issue, but not always. At least, not always in my experience. Right now I have neither running but it's still happening when I switch spaces.

Like others in this thread, I wish I was still on 10.5.

Well - I suppose there's at least a bit of a common thread, though it does seem like individual experiences are slightly different!
With all the reports logged with Apple hopefully we'll seem some action in the near future...

So, FWIW, I took my MacBook Pro to the Apple store to let them look at it. They couldn't replicate the issue (of course) but replaced the keyboard since I'm under extended warranty. So far, I've seen some dropped keystrokes, and my son says "its still doing it". really didn't think the keyboard itself was the culprit - too random and intermittent to be that, but at least that's perhaps been removed as a consideration.
Just to be clear - not using Spaces, external keyboard or keyboard shortcuts or anything special really, but when typing in a Word doc, for example, keystrokes are missed (thought it was my poor typing for a while) or repeat (my son lost a whole book report early on when backspace repeated) until another key is pressed. At worst, keyboard stops working completely - only trackpad or mouse function.

Wow! Nic Heuser you solved it for me! I feel like a total moron now...
but I too was inadvertently turning on "Mouse Keys"
If anyone else seems to be having this trouble, Go to...
System Preferences-Universal Access-Mouse & TrackPad
and un-check the box that says "Press the Option key five times to turn Mouse Keys on or off."

Well, I'm still having this problem. It stopped for awhile, but now it's started again. No changes to my system in that time. It's very frustrating. I tried deleted the dock preferences file com.apple.dock.plist and com.apple.dock.db to reset my dock, and it fixed it for about a day. I've just setup a service for any application that gets no input and runs an applescript to restart my dock. When it happens, I just go into the application menu, services, restart dock and its good until the next time. I hate that I have to do that, though.

I have the same problem occuring really often, many times a day.

Nic, Thats what i wrote earlier. It seems that you can pretty easily turn mousekeys on when using shortcut keys.

I’v created an Applescript too.

It first only locked up like this once a week or less, but now like many others I have it occurring many times a day 😟

It’s really annoying, especially since it relaunches the Dashboard too!

Just wish Apple would hurry up and get a fix out!
10.6.3 is way overdue if you ask me.

Message was edited by: sleeth

I started having this problem when I upgraded to Snow Leopard on my older 17" macBook Pro core duo. I was also using the program xGestures that lets you use mouse strokes to issue keyboard commands to operate programs including the finder. I also use VMware a lot and thought the issue was related to that. What I found was that the xGestures program was causing the issue with spaces. I upgraded to the newest version of xGestures and the problems with Spaces went away.

I have not had the Spaces issue in several weeks now.

Just my 2 cents 🙂

I submitted a bug report as soon as Snow Leopard came out. I'm still having the problem and the bug report is still open, so it hasn't been fixed.