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External Keyboard for iPad Issues

Hello, I have two iPads, one 5th gen in silver running iOS 14 as a WiFi model with 32GB, and one 7th gen gold running iOS 14 as a WiFi model with 32GB. Both are running the same iOS 14 version, the newest. When I am writing a paper for school, or anything in Google Docs and I want to indent the first line of a paragraph, my device goes into some weird mode I can’t exit. It always puts a line around the device’s screen and says, “Typing Mode: ^ Tab to exit”. I attempt to exit this odd mode, but whatever I do, I can’t exit and the keyboard won’t type, nor does anything on the iPad respond when I try to use the keyboard. This gets really annoying bc I have to then disconnect the keyboard, restart the iPad, then connect again and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This is also annoying when it lets me type, but not use the space key, so then I have to bring up the internal keyboard and use the space bar on it. I don’t get this at all bc I also want to disable all gestures so the keyboard won’t interact with my iPad as a “mouse” of some sort. I want it to work like a normal computer keyboard and use my hand for all navigations on the iPad. I’ve searched YouTube and Google for answers about my problem, but I can’t find anything. Please help, I’ve dealt with this problem for too long and my mom has no patience’s for waiting for me to restart my and get my paper back up for school. Here is a pic of my iPad

iPad, iPadOS 14

Posted on Nov 23, 2020 4:48 PM

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6 replies

Dec 1, 2020 4:46 PM in response to -Captain-

Hello -Captain-.


Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand that your iPad becomes unresponsive when using Google Docs and you need to indent the paragraph. We are happy to help.


So that we can isolate the cause, we’d like you to use the Pages app and type and let us know if the same issue occurs when indenting the paragraph. When the app becomes unresponsive, please try the steps here: If an app unexpectedly quits, stops responding, or won’t open - Apple Support


Are you using the Apple Smart Keyboard, Apple Smart Keyboard Folio, or a third-party keyboard?


We’d also like you to use the steps here to update your apps: Update apps or use automatic downloads - Apple Support


Let us know if you have further questions.


Take care.

Dec 8, 2020 6:41 PM in response to MoonJ.

Thank you for your help, I just now logged onto Apple Discussions and saw your response. I just now tested to see if I could indent my paragraph in the Apple Pages app, but oddly, it would instead try to select tools in the tool bar at the top when I pressed tab. Whenever I continued to press the tab button it would go to another tool, putting a box around the tool. I have also noticed I couldn't type with the space bar as select and click for actions because I would be typing and it would try to sometimes exit my document or select and click another tool in the tool bar.

External Keyboard for iPad Issues

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