New M1 Mac mini keyboard Lagging

Are you using an old bluetooth mouse or trackpad? That can cause problems with the keyboard. Look at the System Report under the apple menu -> About this Mac -> System Report and under Hardware -> Bluetooth, you can see what the Bluetooth versions of the connected devices are. Items with "Bluetooth Core Spec" of less than 3.0 can cause problems.

Admittedly, this is an Apple problem, but they do not seem to be in a hurry to fix it.

My M1 mini has developed the same keyboard lag problem, with a Logitech bluetooth keyboard and a (battery only) Apple trackpad. This configuration worked on my previous mini for years. I have tried resetting bluetooth, which works; but ...

A quick, and slightly counterintuitive, fix seems to be to turn off the trackpad for a few seconds, and then turn it back on.

Performing the Bluetooth reset by holding shift + option while clicking the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar has temporarily resolved the issue for me. I wasn't able to log into my M116gb Mac Mini this morning until I connected a usb keyboard to it. I have been a long time Mac supporter, but the way things are going, I may end up walking away.

I seem to have cured my Bluetooth keyboard issue by just putting a few extra inches of air between the mini m1 and the keyboard & mouse. Try 24” or so & let me know. I also replaced my usb-c to viewport cable with an Amazon basics bi-directional one, which cured my wake up problems.

I needed a new magic kb and mouse for my second location. Since using those I have not had a repeat of this issue at all.

I think it has been said before but perhaps its an issue with older bluetooth devices, I have only seen the issue occur with the older wireless keyboard that takes batteries.

I've been talking to Apple Support with my M1 Mac Mini issue, and we've tried almost everything and I'm still having issues. The last thing we tried yesterday morning was to disconnect all cables from my Mini (including the power cord) and wait 20 seconds. The support person told me that doing so will reset the SMC in the Mini which often fixes issues. After 20 seconds, I plugged in the power cable and powered up the Mini. I then plugged in the ethernet cable, displayport cable, external USB drive, and audio cable. So far, I haven't had any bluetooth keyboard issues. I've got my fingers crossed that this fixes the issue, otherwise, the next step is to escalate this issue with an Apple Hardware Support Engineer who will look deeper into my Mini (and possible exchange).

So, I suggest you also try removing all cables and then plugging them all back in and powering up. Can't hurt to try.

Update: After unplugging and replugging in all cables into my M1 Mac Mini (supposedly to reset the SMC), my keyboard began to get laggy and repeat keystrokes again 2 days later. So, I contacted Apple Support again and the support person asked if I had installed the new OS update that was made available just the previous day. I had not, so she suggested I do the update and see if that fixes the issue. I did the OS update and the keyboard has been working fine for the last 2 days. I told the support person that it would take 1 or 2 days before I would start to see issues after a reboot, and she said to contact her if the issue reoccurs and she'll get logging data from my Mac and will have an Apple Engineer investigate. So, I've got my fingers crossed that this latest Mac OS update fixes my bluetooth keyboard issue. I'll report back in a few more days if it worked, or didn't work.

earlier someone mentioned turning off the trackpad - this fixed it for me. My trackpad is low on batteries, maybe related.

with the trackpad on, it looks like it is searching for word substitutions or something, so sloooooow. I'm going to try new batteries. My trackball from logitech work fine, just the apple pad.

Jerry

Chris,

Thanks for the putting up info on your configuration. Are your keyboard and mouse both Apple? If they are, then please call support and let them know, since they are skeptical that it is really an Apple problem.

In any event, short of rebooting the mini when your keyboard is lagging, I would try cycling power on the mouse, since it is the next closest thing to a Bluetooth trackpad; but you can also “Reset Bluetooth “ from the option+shift menu ( which takes a couple of seconds, and should be otherwise painless). I would be surprised if that didn’t clear up the keyboard.

A while ago, someone mentioned AirPods as a possible cofactor. This would include my setup too, since the Mini seems to become aware of them with disturbing ease. I have seen enough correlation that I plan on isolating them for a bit. I doubt this is much crazier than cycling the power on my trackpad to clear up the keyboard, which seems to work every time.

-Rick

You could try clicking the Bluetooth Icon in the top bar while pressing Shift+Option, there will be a reset bluetooth device option... I don't know if it helps, maybe you can report back here :)

I'm pretty sure that the update to 11.3.1 fixed the problem. I haven't had any lagging issues since the update.

I was aware that the instructions for resetting the SMC and NVRAM available online were for the Intel processors, not the M1 Apple Silicon. I did mention this when Apple Support asked me to reset the NVRAM, but she still wanted me to go through the same steps to reset the SMC (unplugging power and all other cables from my M1 Mac Mini). I have read online that some Reddit and Apple support forums state that unplugging your M1 Mac Mini for 30 seconds will reset the SMC. So, I'm hoping this is still the case and that it fixed my bluetooth keyboard issue. So far, everything has been working fine since I did this two days ago. I'll report back again in a few days whether I'm still having the same issue.

Here's my update to this issue. On 5/25 I installed the latest OS update (Big Sur 11.4) and rebooted my machine. My Apple Magic Keyboard was working fine again with a bluetooth connection. I went away on vacation for 3 days and came back on 5/31 and when I first tried logging into my Mac Mini, my keyboard was again repeating characters at the login prompt. I turned my keyboard on/off and that fixed the problem (this on/off operation never fixed the issue in the past). It's now 6/8 and I haven't had any keyboard issues since 5/31, so it looks like the latest OS update may have fixed my keyboard bluetooth issue. Fingers crossed that it stays fixed!

Have you tried cycling power on the mouse? I realize that this sounds strange, but cycling my (Apple) trackpad's power frees up the keyboard!

Please call Apple support on this, since they seem to have an opinion that this only involves 3rd party devices.

Control shift and click on the bluetooth in the top bar. select reset bluetooth. this disconnects your mouse keyboard and other devices then they reconnect and all works as normal for a day or two. I then have to repeat the process.

hope this works for you.