My iMac keyboard intermittently becomes meaningless symbols rather than letters

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My iMac keyboard intermittently becomes meaningless symbols rather than letters

Intermittently my Apple keyboard for my iMac does not work properly.Rather than typing letters it types meaningless hieroglyphics.I can still read things using my mouse but I can't type any message.Nothing specific seems to set this off and nothing specific seems to allow me back into my computer.

I have had 3 phone conversations with Apple staff-two thought it was the keyboard settings (it was not) and one thought it was the keyboard mechanics (it was not).

Does anyone have any ideas apart from the tedious last resort of wiping everything on the computer and starting again.

iMac 24″, macOS 14.2

Posted on Jan 23, 2024 2:25 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,318 points

Jan 23, 2024 4:17 AM in response to nickfromsingapore

nickfromsingapore wrote:Rather than typing letters it types meaningless hieroglyphics.

Can you post a screenshot/photo so we can see what you are talking about?

What do you get when you type asdfg? If it is åß∂ƒ© or ÅÍÎÏ˝ it indicates your option and shift keys are not behaving properly.

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,318 points

Jan 23, 2024 8:38 PM in response to nickfromsingapore

nickfromsingapore wrote:

Hi,this is what I get when I type asdfg:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/f7e948e3-58e9-49bb-84ac-c172a180c7f2

That is what happens if you hold down the option key and type "werasd" on the US keyboard. What language keyboard are you using?

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Answer 3

RPAEA

Level 1

79 points

Jan 24, 2024 12:26 PM in response to nickfromsingapore

Does it happen when connected to the iMac via cable? Plug it in and turn off BT on the iMac and see if it still does it.

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Answer 4

Jan 24, 2024 7:07 PM in response to RPAEA

Thanks yours.I am not sure because I only have a magic keyboard working on Blue Tooth so can't test that.

Temporarily actually I just got the keyboard back because,when I could not download a file on my screen,I used Option-Command-L as the download keys and the script came back.

It is puzzling

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Answer 5

Jan 23, 2024 5:28 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi Tom,

Thanks yours.

I don't have it happening right now so I am not sure what the exact symbols have been but I think I have had both of those ones you show.

I thought before it was the option key but last time it happened when I pressed the option keys it did not solve the problem.In fact it got better when I shut down the machine and re-srtarted,but sometimes I shut down and try to restart and can't re-start so that is not a solution.

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Answer 6

Jan 23, 2024 8:00 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi,this is what I get when I type asdfg:

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My iMac keyboard intermittently becomes meaningless symbols rather than letters

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