Magic Keyboard Touch ID not working consistently

I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of this for a month since buying a used “like new” Magic Keyboard online. Initially thought I had a defective board, so I bought a new and sealed replacement keyboard at Micro Center. Problem persisted.

It’s true that if you leave it plugged into the Mac or a wall adapter, Touch ID will keep working. If the keyboard isn’t plugged into power, Touch ID will stop working eventually. Comes back on with cycling keyboard power.

There’s other forums mentioning this issue so maybe Apple can get this fixed.

For reference:

2020 MBA M1 in clamshell

mac OS 13.4.1

keyboard A2449 firmware 1.4.8

After Sonoma update on Mini M2 pro, I got the same problem, no Touch Id (TId). At first the options for TId was greyed out. Decided to delete the fingerprint profile and to my horror, the entire TId function disappeared! Reboots and Safe Mode did not restore TId at all. Still in Safe Mode, decided to forget the Magic Keyboard device and paired it as a new device. It worked. The TId menu came back and working! Hope this help some of the cases here.

Not sure if this will help anyone else, but in addition to the keyboard, I have also have a Logitech mouse (MX Anywhere 3) which I had installed before I bought the keyboard.

After months of issues with the keyboard, I decided to disconnect the mouse and "forget" the bluetooth connection, likewise the keyboard.

Then I paired the magic keyboard and the mouse in that sequence. Absolutely no problems since.

So if you are having problems and also have the Logitech mouse, give that a try

I noticed the same issue. The only reliable solution seems to be to leave the cable connected on the keyboard. Apparently it will not go into sleep mode. It is definitely sleep mode. This seems like a sleep/wake issue in the keyboard firmware.

[Edited by Moderator]

I'm having the exact same problem using magic keyboard with an M1 Macbook Pro.

Touch id will always work on the mac's keyboard, but after some time it stops working on magic keyboard, usually after the computer goes to sleep. I've found that turning the keyboard off and on again gets it back working, but it is definitely not a solution.

From what I've read this is happening across devices, so I'm guessing it's something related with macOS Ventura?

I only recently bought the keyboard. Did this not happen with previous OS versions?

So I finally traded my keyboard for a new one and it has been working flawlessly for the last two days.

I just lock the computer, let it go to sleep and when I use it the next day I can unlock it with touch id, everything working as it should.

I'll post here if it stops working, but I would advise anyone who's having the same issue to try to return it and get a new one.

I have the same issue.

My setup:

• 2023 16" M2 MBP in clamshell mode
• MacOS Ventura 13.5 (22G74)
• Magic Keyboard on firmware 1.4.8

It works indefinitely when I:

1. turn off the keyboard
2. forget the keyboard
3. plug it in via a cable

Interestingly I noticed when I add they keyboard via a direct cable connection it briefly reports the version as 4.0.0 before eventually reverting to 1.4.8 again. Not sure if that's relevant at all but found it interesting.

I've been using my new keyboard for over a week and haven't had any issues with touch id.

Definitely seems like the previous one had a hardware problem, nothing to do with the version of macOS.

If anyone keeps having problems with it call Apple Support and have it replaced.

The replacement just came from Amazon … Touch ID worked right away without making new prints … just plugged it in and it worked. I’ll report back with an update if it stays working …

Had this issue after upgrading to 13.3.1. However, the touch id has been working flawlessly after I turned on the unlock with Apple Watch feature. I'm not sure if this is just a luck thing but maybe you guys can give it a shot.

Same keyboard, same firmware, same issue. I find out the Touch ID is worked normally with the cable plug-in. Now the only thing I can to is connected the cable with the computer whole time. Hopefully, there is another firmware update later.

Well folks, I thought I had updated to this post a few weeks ago, but apparently that was somewhere else. I am now on Ventura 13.4.1 Sometime during the last updates from 13.3.1 (a) to 13.4.1 I decided to unplug the power cable and reset the keyboard and try TouchID again. It has been working flawlessly. Go figure. It is the only reason I bought this keyboard. I use TouchID for every connection that requires a password.

client_zero wrote:

I've noticed that from time to time, when I'm reading something on my screen, or watching a video, a message with the keyboard icon that says "connected" appears. Does this happen to anyone else?

I have the same behavior: at different moments the message "connected" appears and Touch ID stops working after that. After keyboard reconnecting via Bluetooth or the hard switch - works again.

Interesting,

In my case, I'm still running Ventura 13.4.1 with keyboard firmware 1.4.8, the only thing that has changed for me is replacing the keyboard with a new one that has been working flawlessly for 2 days. So replacing the hardware fixed it for me.

Could be OS, Hardware, who knows?