Apple USB keyboard not working since Catalina update

Here is a solution:

I think the root cause for this issue is that a keyboard connection is not triggering a USB Event.

This issue almost always shows up when the laptop was being used without a USB keyboard for some time. So, when you want to connect the keyboard again, first connect a USB pen drive which will get recognised. This kind of wakes up the USB driver and then if you connect your keyboard, it will work.

I have tried it numerous times now and it has worked every single time.

Download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Add Text button to include the report in your reply. How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting Large Amounts of Text, i.e. an Etrecheck Report

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

ALSO IMPORTANT:

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the root of the problem.

Boot into Safe Mode (Use Safe Mode to isolate issues with your Mac and Playing Safe: what does Safe Mode do?) and test your keyboard from there. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 

Next log into another user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac,  and see if the problem persists. (This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide).

Lastly run and post an Etrecheck report.

I plugged the USB keyboard into an Apple USB to USB-C adapter and it works now.

I called Apple Support today and they fixed this issue. There was a corrupt file that had to be deleted. Here are the steps:

1. Open Finder > Go
2. Hold down the Option key, the Library pops up in the Go dropdown. Click on Library.
3. Open the Preferences folder.
4. Find the file that starts with "com.apple.HIT"... (I don't remember the full file name, as it isn't recreated later)
5. Send it to the Trash and empty the Trash.
6. Reboot

Late to the game, but I have been trying various things to get this solved so I don't have to restart. The only thing that has worked for me is to put the computer to sleep (not restart) and re-plug in my keyboard while it is in "sleep mode" and then open it back up. Restarting it also works, but that is just annoying to have to do.

I am one of the many who have been frustrated that i cannot use a simple cabled USB apple keyboard.

The issue was solved by plugging in a USB stick (keep it in) and then plugging in the keyboard.

Try downloading and applying the macOS Catalina 10.15.3 Combo Update and see if that will fix the problem.

Recap after some days: To me it looks like it really has to do something with the com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice process. When I plug my USB keyboard back in and it doesn't work, in 80% of the cases this service is not responding. Killing it and plugging the keyboard out and back in works almost every time for me. In some cases I have to repeat this process or wait a moment, but then the keyboard is eventually detected and I don't have to reboot. In the end, this is still pretty annoying. And it's a bit more frustrating that no one at Apple seems to care about this.

Turns out, in my specific case, user error. At the back of the Magic Keyboard is a switch, I missed this. I did not RTFM. I hit that switch and of course, it worked. I'm lucky that it does work, frustrated that I didn't realize this initially when plugging in the keyboard and wasting 20 hours and $20 on the HP keyboard (though I'm sure it's a good backup, just incase).

I did have this issue with a previous gen apple keyboard that is wired and resolved it by logging in with a generic USB cheapo keyboard, however, this time it was me being an idiot.

That said - Apple, obviously there are people dealing with keyboard issues - help em out would ya.

Hi,

Running Catalina 10.15.3 (19D76). The wired Apple Extended Keyboard died all of a sudden on me. Wouldn't be recognized when connected to a Thunderbolt Display, or directly connected to a MacBook Pro 15" 2017.

I followed suggestions on this thread, namely deleting the com.apple.HIToolbox.plist and killing the com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice on the Activity Monitor.

What finally worked for me was connecting the keyboard to an old USB hub + USB-to-USB-C adapter. This is a really old issue and an unnecessary nuisance.

Today I noticed something which helped me at least this time:

There was a process called "com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice" in my list of active processes. It was listed in red and marked as not responding. As it's name starts with "hi" it looked to me like it has something to do with Human Interfaces, like the keyboard.

I killed that service, disconnect the keyboard and plugged it back in and it worked without rebooting the whole machine. The service restarted by itself then.

Will be interesting to see if this will work for a second time and on other machines..

It seems that this is no longer an issue and has been quietly fixed in the latest MacOS update (10.15.2). Whilst I'm happy it is now working, the radio silence from Apple about the issue is rather disturbing. I've also tried to search for a changelog and release notes on the latest update, but cannot find anything. Anyone know where one can find the changelog/release notes?

I tried everything suggested (clearing NVRAM, multiple reboots, removing the HI* file), nothing worked. Then I shut the machine down completely and went out for a run. When I came back I restarted and now it works. So obviously a bug and there are many reports on it so I don't know why apple doesn't investigate and fix it.