Keyboard input source issues are driving me nuts!

Several months ago I was forced to update my macOS from I think El Capitan to High Sierra because out of the blue I began to have issues loading many of the websites I commonly visited in my web browser, Google Chrome. Updating my macOS fixed the issue, and for a few months all was well.


Now, however, I have begun to have a series of issues involving my keyboard input sources. In short, none of them work with any sort of consistency. Across most of my commonly used apps, only three of the five keyboard input sources that I have set up as active can actually be switched to. The computer skips over the others, seemingly ignoring them.


Sometimes restarting my computer will solve the issue, but even then the solution is only partial and temporary (i.e., it will allow me to access the other keyboard input sources in some apps but not others, and only for a time).


I tried updating my macOS from High Sierra to Mojave in an attempt to fix the issue at Apple Support's recommendation. Unfortunately, that did not solve the issue.


This has officially become an incredibly frustrating situation. I am especially stressed about it because I am a Ph.D. student in the middle of my first semester! I need access to these keyboard input sources and for my computer to work reliably.


Any help you can give I would greatly appreciate! I am not an especially tech savvy person, but I'm also far from illiterate.


Thank you in advance.


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I use the following keyboard input sources:

  • U.S.
  • Greek – Polytonic
  • Transliteration
  • Biblical Hebrew - SIL
  • Biblical Hebrew - Tiro


The main apps I use are these:

  • Mail
  • Google Chrome
  • Evernote
  • Mellel (a word processor)
  • Logos

Posted on Feb 26, 2022 7:48 PM

Reply
4 replies

Mar 3, 2022 5:16 AM in response to TorchesTogether

Sorry for the delay.


Do you have any antivirus stuff installed? It is useless and can mess up things like this.


Try making sure that the shortcut for Spotlight is set to none. I think that may have caused problems for some users.


Regarding 5. First redownload the 3rd party input sources to make sure they are still available. The just delete the present ones using the minus button in the input source preferences, and then install the new ones.


Ideally you should have a backup of your current system somewhere just in case anything ever goes wrong.

Feb 26, 2022 9:03 PM in response to TorchesTogether

Do you have this problem when you switch layouts manually via the Input Menu at the top right of the screen? Also when you switch via the keyboard shortcut for Select Next Source?


Which of your 5 layouts cannot be switched to?


Where is "Transliteration" from?


Have you tried things like removing all the 3rd party layouts, downloading new copies, and installing those?

Feb 26, 2022 9:19 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Tom,


Thank you for your reply! I'll try to hit all of your questions in my response:


  1. The two input sources that don't work are Biblical Hebrew - SIL (which, unfortunately, is the one that's most crucial for my schoolwork and personal interests) and Transliteration.
  2. When I attempt to manually switch to one of those two input sources, nothing changes. It just stays on the U.S. input source (or whatever was already selected) as if I had done nothing.
  3. The same thing happens when I attempt to use the input source shortcut (see above).
  4. I believe the Transliteration input source is from sbl-site.org, which is where I got the others.
  5. I have not tried removing all the third party input sources installed on my computer and then re-downloading and -installing them, mainly because I'm not sure how to go about doing that properly. For example, do the keyboard layouts and keyboard drivers have to be deleted before re-downloading and -installing everything (I think I remember reading that somewhere)? Basically, I'm not sure how to attempt this course of action in the most ideal fashion, but I would be willing to do so if you think that it might fix the issue and if you can walk me through how to do it.


Thanks for your interaction!

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Keyboard input source issues are driving me nuts!

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