Macos detected wrong keyboard layout

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Macos detected wrong keyboard layout

I'm using an external Logitech keyboard with a German layout but MacOS wrongly identified it as the '<' key (normally next to the left shift key) and the '^' key are switched in position, which is very annoying as a programmer.

I find proposed solutions for this problem by restarting the keyboard detection wizard but to do this I would have to delete the 'com.apple.keyboardtype.plist' file in Library/preferences/ but can't find it on my MacBook.

I also can't find any other way to change to the correct layout (The correct layout is not an option when trying to add a new input layout)

MacBook Air

Posted on Jan 20, 2023 1:59 AM

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Answer 1

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Stokel Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 20, 2023 4:16 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Your keyboard is exactly the layout that I want to have for my external keyboard. But I only get this shown in the keyboard viewer:

And if I press on the physical key, next to the left shift, which does not exist in my keyboard viewer, I get a '^'.

I want to have the layout 'your' layout.

Side note: My internal MacBook Air Keyboard has the correct identified and physical ('your') layout. It is only the external one, that is wrong.

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Answer 2

Stokel Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 20, 2023 5:15 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thank you for the link. I read it again and apparently I was looking in the wrong preferences folder to delete the '/Library/Preferences/com.apple.keyboardtype.plist' file.

After disconnecting the external keyboard, deleting the file, rebooting and reattaching my external keyboard the wizard was shown again and I could select ISO Europe as layout. Seems to be fixed now. :)

Thank you both for your help!

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Answer 3

Stokel Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 20, 2023 4:32 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

All available German Layouts are 'wrong' with the key missing next to the left shift.

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Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,216 points

Jan 20, 2023 5:00 AM in response to Stokel

Your machine thinks the keyboard is ANSI instead of ISO. It comes up pretty often, you might check the Logitech forums too. Some ideas for fixing such "keyboard type" problems are at

https://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2009/12/fixing-keyboard-type-problems.html

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Answer 5

Jan 20, 2023 3:26 AM in response to Stokel

How exactly is it wrong?

The German layout that I get in macOS is this (screenshot of Keyboard Viewer):

This layout agrees with all the ones I see when searching online for German layout.

Does your layout look different in those two keys, or is your physical keyboard that is different?

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Answer 6

Jan 20, 2023 4:23 AM in response to Stokel

What happens if you go to System Preferences->Keyboard->Input Sources, click + to add a new layout and choose German?

FWIW, this is how I test several layouts, including German. My mac has a Portuguese layout, but as a programmer and writing a lot in English I always have the US layout selected.

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Macos detected wrong keyboard layout

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