Keyboard and touchpad lost after sleep

I have the exact same issue and I am POSTIVE it is not a hardware issue because I actually had to return my MacBook THREE times and exchange it for a new one because we though it was a hardware issue. It is not and Apple is IGNORING this issue completely which is honestly VERY ANNOYING. Nothing I tried seemed to work.

Hi servo186,

Thank you for contacting Apple Support Communities. Based on what you stated, it seems like the issue beings when you wake the MacBook from sleep. I would recommend you use this article to help troubleshoot the issue.

"If your Mac doesn't wake when you expect

Your Mac might pause a few seconds before it wakes up. If it doesn't seem to wake at all, check for these possibilities:

• Your screen brightness might be turned down.
• If you're using an external display, your display might be turned off. 
• Your Mac might be in safe sleep. To wake from safe sleep, press the power button.
• Check for a sleep indicator light, if applicable, and make sure that your Mac isn't turned off.

If the previous steps don't work

These additional steps may help identify or resolve the issue: 

• Reset the SMC.
• Reset NVRAM.
• Disconnect external devices other than your Apple keyboard, mouse, and display. If that resolves the issue, gradually reconnect your devices, testing each time, until you find the device that is interfering with sleep. Then check the documentation that came with the device, or contact the device manufacturer.
• Start up in Safe Mode to see if the issue is related to non-Apple startup items, login items, or kernel extensions. 
• Try to isolate the issue by using another user account. 

If you still see the issue, contact Apple Support."

If your Mac doesn't sleep or wake when expected

Please don't hesitate to let us know if the steps resolved your issue or if you need additional assistance.

Cheers.

Hey there,

I also have the same issue after Catalina upgrade. However, I can't seem to find other posts regarding this issue.

After waking up from sleep, the trackpad/keyboard take 10 seconds to turn on, but sometimes they don't and I need to put the MacBook to sleep and wake up again in order to have keyboard/trackpad without rebooting. I did reset SMC and NVRAM but didn't solve it.

Is it recommended to reinstall Mac OS or it might be an hardware issue?

Best Regards,

I have a very similar problem. After waking up my MacBook Pro 13” 2019 (with latest Catalina) the keyboard and trackpad need around 10 seconds to work.

I have noticed that if the WiFi is OFF and I put my Mac to sleep it wakes up without issues. But if WiFi is ON and I close the lid for at least 1 minute - keyboard and trackpad are not responding for around 10 seconds. Tapping ESC key on touchbar has some effect - the light changes on touchbar. But it doesn’t do anything more than that.

I have tried resetting SMC and PRAM. No change.

Another thing - tried Recovery Mode and after closing lid there - keyboard and trackpad work.

One Apple advisor told me it’s probably not a hardware issue and reinstalling macOS will help. But I just spent 2 days reinstalling because of another bug (Apple Music not working) and not willing to lose more days.

@Swederell Did you try this thing with WIFI? For me it freezes when WIFI is ON, but works good with WIFI OFF. If it's the same in your case, this would confirm my assumptions that this is related to some code responsible for WiFi.

I did format my laptop since it was what Apple Support advised me after trying many other things. It didn't solve the problem. My keyboard and trackpad were not lost completely. The were freezing for several seconds after wake up. This is how I solved it: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250873307 I think it is a bug in Catalina. Even if it's because of some deliberate changes in macOS, IMHO these things should not make the keyboard freeze

Several have said something to the effect of "Apple please fix this!" This is a user forum. Please use the URL below to tell Apple about this problem. Numbers matter; the more people the better. BTW, I was on with Apple support today and mentioned this problem and the rep acknowledged the issue. If it can be fixed in software, I hope that's a good sign.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

I somehow grabbed a bad link and now I can't edit or delete. The proper feedback link is:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html

Please use that link to let Apple know how completely unacceptable this is, if you haven't already.

I have tried clean reinstall once. Didn’t help. I believe it’s not caused by 3rd party apps. I am sure it’s a macOS bug in WiFi code somewhere. As I only have this problem when WiFi is on.

please report this bug here:

https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/welcome

the more people will do it the better

@Papa & Mama Bear I think this is correct, but I also think @ngowerjo is correct.

An apple macbook's OS should not have this difficulty connecting to so many routers. It should not have this limitation and needs to be fixed in an update.

As for me, I have decided to go with an ASUS router that I will update to Merlin once I receive it. I am coming from a Xiaomi (very limited in control options to try to solve) and an older TPlink Chinese only model. I hope the new router will solve, but cannot be certain... which is disappointing. The new router should have more options to play around with settings too - therefore allow a fix similar fix/solve like this one: from @mallow_pl

This answer: "I solved this problem setting IPV6 to OFF in network settings => airport => tcp tab." in this old topic: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5248738?answerId=29499974022#29499974022

helped me to solve my problem. I did something else, however. I didn't change my network settings in macOS, but I have changed one setting in my Asus Router. In IPv6 section > Connection type - I've changed to Passthrough from the default Disable. After this - problem with keyboard and trackpad freezing is almost gone. Happened maybe 2 times in 2 weeks.

At any rate, I am hopeful that the new router (unexpected and disappointing expense) will solve the issue, as I don't easily have the opportunity to change my provider. China only has two providers.

If a solve is not forthcoming, I am left with the only other option that Apple update a fix in their OS as suggested by @ngowerjo

Will let you know how I go in a few days.

Hi everyone,

I've been following this discussion for months, as I have the same issue with my 2020 MBP 13" 4-port. Not sure if Big Sur will fix this or not, but regardless, I developed a reliable work-around: I wrote an Automator Quick-Action called "Bounce Wi-Fi" and put that on my touchbar. It turns off Wi-Fi, sleeps 1 second, then turns Wi-Fi back on. That causes the system to give up on whatever it's doing to hold up the keyboard/touchpad and it all starts working again.

I placed the "Quick Actions" button on the touchbar where Siri normally sits. Whenever my keyboard hangs upon wake, I tap the Quick Actions, then tap "Bounce Wi-Fi" and I'm back in business.

This takes a small bit of coding, but it's not too bad and definitely remedies the issue.

First, write a bash script and call it "bounce-wifi.sh". I put mine in a "bin" folder under my home directory. Here's the script you can copy/paste into your text editor (TextEdit should work):

#!/bin/bash

port=`/usr/sbin/networksetup -listallhardwareports | grep -A 1 Wi-Fi | tail -n 1 | awk -F': ' '{print $2}'`

/usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower $port off

sleep 1

/usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower $port on

Next, make the script executable by bringing up Terminal, cd-ing to the directory where you saved the script, and type:

chmod 700 bounce-wifi.sh

You should test the script from Terminal by running it from its directory:

./bounce-wifi.sh

Watch your Wi-Fi icon and you'll see it deactivate and reactivate within a couple of seconds.

Once that script works, next make an Automator button for it. Run Automator, click File->New, and choose Quick Action. Here's a screenshot followed by instructions:

1. Set "Workflow receives" to "no input".
2. For fun, I chose a "Refresh" arrow for the Image.
3. From the left side under Library, scroll down and drag "Run Shell Script" over to the right of your quick action pane.
4. In the shell script window, type the full path to your "bounce-wifi.sh" script. For me, it was /Users/david/bin/bounce-wifi.sh.
5. Save the quick action as "Bounce Wi-Fi" and quit Automator.

Lastly, open System Preferences, go to Keyboard, choose "Customize Control Strip..." and drag the "Quick Actions" button to your touchbar. Here are screenshots, showing my Quick Actions where Siri normally is, and showing "Bounce Wi-Fi" when I tap Quick Actions:

Whenever my keyboard/touchpad hang from sleep, I tap Quick Actions then Bounce Wi-Fi and I'm good to go. I hope this helps.

After almost a month without the problem resurfacing, this happened to me again today.

I left it alone for about 2-3 minutes and neither the trackpad or the keyboard recovered on their own, and the "connect bluetooth keyboard" popup didn't disappear. So, the 30-second wait solution doesn't seem to work for me.

I tried my own "workaround" (described above), and after putting the MacBook to sleep via TouchBar and waking it again, the problem was still there. Bummer. So no, this is not the solution. HOWEVER, after clicking a few keys on the keyboard and clicking the touchpad, I put it to sleep again via the TouchBar, woke it up again using the TouchID button and voila! after a couple of seconds everything was working again.

SO:

• The problem persists. Only not as often (at least for me).
• Sleeping it again and waking it up seems to eventually fix the problem. I'll have to try again (it's difficult to come to a conclusion when this happens not very often now).

Catalina 10.15.3, btw.

The ones I have in common are

• Zoom
• Speedtest
• Chrome
• CleanMyMac X
• Bartender 3

I do think 3rd party apps are unlikely to be the cause though, since I've experienced this bug from a clean 10.15.4 with only Bear from the App Store installed.

Ok, I can confirm that 10.15.5 released today does not fix this issue.

For all the troubled souls like myself in this forum and beyond, here is a temporary workaround I figured out yesterday to get this gremlin out of your sight, until Apple officially fixes this.

Since the bug only occurs when Wi-Fi is on, we can create a process that automatically turns off Wi-Fi upon sleeping and turns it back on from waking up.

• Install Homebrew

Copy this line to Terminal and hit Enter.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

• Enter

brew install sleepwatcher

to install Sleepwatcher.

• Enter the following code to create two files . sleep and .wakeup in the home directory ~/

touch ~/.sleep && chmod 700 ~/.sleep
touch ~/.wakeup && chmod 700 ~/.wakeup

• Go to ~/ and edit .sleep and .wakeup with a code editor of your choice, I used Xcode. These would dictate how Sleepwatcher would perform.

For .sleep

#!/bin/bash
networksetup setairportpower en0 off

For .wakeup

#!/bin/bash
networksetup setairportpower en0 on

• Finally, enter the following code in Terminal that would configure launchd to run Sleepwatcher at startup or login

cp /usr/local/Cellar/sleepwatcher/2.2.1/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/de.bernhard-baehr.sleepwatcher-20compatibility-localuser.plist

Now everything is set, go on and close the lid, wait awhile and reopen it, notice the Wi-Fi icon is off and quickly turns back on.

Although this is not the most elegant solution, it eases me from the paranoia that makes my blood frozen every time I suspect to see a yet again frozen computer. A moment of idea and inspiration just can't wait an extra 15 seconds.

I'm not an expert in these, if anyone would spot a mistake or suggest a better solution please post here, thank you.

I learned from these sources:

https://www.kodiakskorner.com/log/258

https://gist.github.com/ziadoz/7bddcf346adb89da1e990126c9f82429

https://github.com/wujunchuan/wujunchuan.github.io/issues/9

For me, the exact problem only started recently after the upgrade to 10.15.4 and continued to the update to 10.15.5. There were several changes that had happened to my usage which could account for this behaviour and I have not yet pinpointed the exact cause of the problem.

1. The behaviour became apparent after I started using Mobile Hotspots to connect to the internet as opposed to the WiFi (because our WiFi was down for about a week). I connected to both Apple and non-Apple hotspots, though I can't say if the issue is different with different hotspots.
2. I cleaned my laptop keyboard recently using wet and dry cloth which made me suspect a hardware issue, but this seemed far fetched as the water involved was minimal, and the hardware damage would be more permanent.

There are a few things I tried, but the issue persists.

1. I reset SMC which had no effect
2. I rebooted to safe mode on the guidance of apple care executives, where the issue was rarer. When I booted back to the normal boot made, initially the issue seemed to have gone away but returned.
3. I upgraded to MacOS 10.15.5, which also seemed to make the issue disappear, only to appear again after a few days.

Some other important factors to consider

1. Yesterday, my WiFi connectivity was restored, but I can't conclusively say the issue is not present when connecting to WiFi because the connection soured again today. Also, I don't remember how well the installation of 10.15.5 and restoration of WiFi co-incide to conclusively say the disappearance of the issue I encountered after updating to 10.15.5 was due to reconnecting to WiFi. The restoration of WiFi came much after booting to and from safe mode, so there is no chance of there being a co-incidence.
2. I have been using Catalina for a long time, and only now am I encountering this issue.
3. Sometimes, there is a prompt that appears on opening the laptop's lid thus waking it from sleep and logging in looking for wireless keyboards. Is anyone else experiencing this as well?
4. I disabled WiFi once, and the issue disappeared, but I didn't test enough to say this conclusively.