Spaces stuck as a result need to kill Dock.app

delete the file homedirectory/library/preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and log out/in. your dock, spaces and exposé will be reset to the defaults.

Just found that pressing any arrow key kill the stuck spaces switch panel.

However, as the dock relaunch technique, this doesn't kill the bug itself and the arrow key have to be pressed each time switching space (only when some applications are active though...). Unfortunately, when this bug is on, Reboot seems necessary to get a normal behavior, until... Who supposedly knows better than apple!?!

This bug appeared with the very first Snow Leopard release. I've been fighting it since! It was reported under ticket #77440885 -- BUG: Spaces prevents keyboard input. in August 2009. Please feel free to file a report and reference this number.

I sometimes get the same problem, but what I do is I enabled Spaces to show up in the menu bar, and when it gets stuck, I select the same space under the icon, which makes the Spaces menu go away.

I have got exactly the same problem. At the Beginning the Bug was minor. The Spaces window just did not disappear, but it did not disturb me, as I could either use my keyboard or let it disappear by switching between Spaces. But today it was different. Suddenly there was nothing that could help. So I rebooted It took me ages, getting my work to a saveable condition just by using the mouse.
But after rebooting and working for some minutes this happened again.
It is no help to me to select the same Space again in the menu bar, the Spaces window disappears but still my keyboard is not reacting. Killing the Dock helps, until I switch a space again (via using ^ + number or ^ + arrow key). When the System switches the Space when I use ⌘ + ⇥ nothing similar happens, then my keyboard will still react. Otherwise, if I wait long enough after killing the Dock, I can switch Spaces again without reoccurrence of the bug.
Interesting as well is that changing the brightness of my screen is working when the keyboard does not react, but only with the integrated keyboard of my MacBook Pro. Switching spaces is working as well (both keyboards).

I hope that this will be fixed soon it lowers Productivity by about 5 to 10 percent. I need Spaces I use it without even thinking about it.

I have the exact same issue and have had it ever since using this Mac Pro with Snow Leopard. I think I kill the Dock 20 times a day, it drives me insane!

I am desperately looking for a fix, if anyone knows of one I hope you will post it.

Thanks.

I have the exact same problem on my Macbook Pro. It is very very very annoying and something Apple really needs to fix. I'm going to file a support query referring to this forum post.

Posted under tracking number for this issue is Bug ID# 7836498.

I am having this exact same issue. Just started up once I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Total productivity killer.

I'm kind of new at this. How do I set up or activate a kill Dock program to resolve this issue? It was also suggested to create a kill Dock application through Automator, and put it on your Dock so you can activate it using your mouse when the keyboard freezes. I'm not clear how to do that either. Any help would be appreciated, since my Macbook usually finds the most inconvenient time to do this.

On a side note, I've noticed that in my Mail application, one of the rules that I set for sorting incoming mail, gets unchecked, each time this happens. I'm not sure if there is a connection.

I have the exact same issue too, it is really annoying and I can find no solution to this except log out and then log in.

This is a horrible bug and needs to be fixed. It's been happening to me every now and then over the past couple months since I upgraded to snow leopard. It now happens to me about 4 or 5 times per day. Extremely annoying as I use spaces constantly.

Originally I would just restart as I didn't know what the issue was, then I figured out I could just log out and back in and that would work.

Now I know it has to do with using spaces and it can be fixed by killing the dock. Since only the keyboard is affected and not the mouse, you can create this kill process in automator, drag it to your dock and simply click it when your keyboard stops working. Here's how:

Go to Applications > Automator

Create a new Application.

On the left hand side, using the search bar, search for "Run Shell Script". Double click and it will open up a script window on the right hand side.

Erase the "cat" that is prepopulated and replace it with "killall -9 Dock"

This command will kill the Dock process, restart it and fix your issue.

Go to File > Save As and save it to your applications folder as whatever you want, perhaps KILL_DOCK.

You can then drag this app to your dock and click on it whenever this issue happens.

APPLE, please fix this bug, it is extremely annoying to someone who uses spaces constantly in their workflow. Thank you.

Message was edited by: 22 & Sunny

I've been experiencing this same issue, BUT...

...only when I've first run Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) and have connected to a remote machine to do work.

If I never run ARD this bug does not come up.

Killing Dock.app helps for a bit until Spaces decides to wig out again.

Hope this helps someone discover what's really going on here.


- tim

same bug

I hope it will be fixed in the next release. I noticed moving a window makes the spaces panel disappear (but the keyboard stay mute). Thanks for the kill the dock tip (erm... quitting isn't enough ?).