M1 chip-left shift key shows desktop, and continues

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AR2022-Aug Author

Level 1

4 points

M1 chip-left shift key shows desktop, and continues

Recently, my left shift key started showing the desktop when I press it. Of course I jumped into this lovely community resource to fix my MacBook Pro. The article recommended resetting the shortcut key for 'show desktop' in Sys Pref>Mission Control.

I did that, and restarted, repeatedly. Once I restart, I go back to Mission Control (or Keyboard>Shortcuts), and it is what I set it to. I set it to F11, and exit System Preferences. The behavior continues after resetting the 'show desktop' shortcut in Mission Control this way several times.

Another article recommended uninstalling and reinstalling the keyboard driver. How to you reinstall anything if the keyboard driver is not there??

I read one article that said it sounds like malware behavior. So I downloaded malware scanner, and found nothing...help!

How do I reset the left shift key to what it is supposed to be doing, and what it was doing until recently?

Posted on Sep 29, 2022 4:46 PM

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Answer 1

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Lager1

Community Specialist

Oct 1, 2022 3:46 PM in response to AR2022-Aug

Hello AR2022,

You have tried some great steps, but let's try to narrow this down and isolate it more by testing in safe mode and a new user account.

Safe mode prevents certain software from opening and completes great checks on startup. More information on starting to safe mode and steps to take after starting there can be found here: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

"Shut down your Mac.
Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window.
Select your startup disk, then press and hold the Shift key while clicking “Continue in Safe Mode”.
Log in to your Mac. You may be asked to log in again."

If the resolution change continues after the steps from safe mode, create a new user account (administrator) to see if the behavior happens there. This will let us know if it is system-wide or something within your user account: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac - Apple Support

Delete a user or group on Mac (to remove the test account once completed)

Let us know what you find.

Cheers!

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M1 chip-left shift key shows desktop, and continues

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