Apple USB keyboard not working since Catalina update

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

Everytime I uplug the keyboard and close my MacBook Pro, when I come back to open it and plug keyboard back in, the keyboard doesnt work and requires a reboot. Every single time. It's terribly frustrating.

Doesn't work for me:

Keyboard didn't work -> Deleted the file -> Rebooted -> Keyboard worked -> Keyboard disconnected/reconnected -> Keyboard doesn't work. Another Reboot is required to get it going.

It's so annoying..

datort wrote:

Switching USB ports doesn't work, it has to be a complete reboot. Using an USB extension cable improves the issue a bit, which makes it even stranger... In 1 of 4 times the keyboards remains functional when using the extension cable.

@Apple: Please fix this asap!

Have you tried relaunching the Finder in the  ➙ Force Quit menu option?

Apple isn't here. We're all just users like yourself. If you want to report the issue to Apple use this link Feedback - macOS - Apple 

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'm having the exact same issue on both of my Macbook Pros from early 2015. Even with the Catalina update released yesterday there is no change. It's ridicules, I reboot 2-3 times a day in the office, depending on how often I have to leave my desk with my Mac.

Switching USB ports doesn't work, it has to be a complete reboot. Using an USB extension cable improves the issue a bit, which makes it even stranger... In 1 of 4 times the keyboards remains functional when using the extension cable.

@Apple: Please fix this asap!

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..

Since upgrading to 10.15.1 I cannot use any USB keyboards. Bluetooth works fine, but none of the USB keyboards are being recognized by the OS. I've tried multiple reboots, resetting NVRAM/PRAM, and killing the com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice process all to no avail. I have tried this with 2 different USB keyboards

+Same for me. I've tried the above suggestions (deleting the com.apple.HIT... file and killing the com.apple.hiservice... process) but neither have worked.

My Lenovo mouse is fine (it can be disconnected and reconnected without reboot)

My Apple keyboard (CC231320403DPQVA1) has the problem.

My computer is a 2013 Macbook Air.

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.

The resolution list by one of the users above where we need to delete a plist file from the library->Preferences folder seems to have fixed the issue. Have tried it once and it worked. Should be fine for multiple uses.

This is a board of sadness. I have a 1 year old iMac. Purchased a new Apple Magic keyboard, wired, for $150. Will not work. Purchased a HP wired keyboard + mouse for $20, works first time.

Apple engineers, you should be very embarrassed - sadly, based on the lack of Apple response on this thread - not a single engineer even knows what we're dealing with.

Simply put, this is embarrassing, a total disrespect for all of us who hand over our earned money to use what we want to believe is a great product by a once great company.

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.