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I plan to get a new Mac Mini AS soon, but I need a new Magic keyboard now. I want to get the version w/ touch ID so I can use it with the future Mac Mini. I know that the touch ID won't work with the Mac Mini 2018, but I can't find anywhere whether it will otherwise work fine aside from the touch ID, or whether the entire keyboard is completely incompatible and won't work with a Mac Mini 2018 (or any pre-AS Mac) at all?
Mac mini (2018)
It will work just fine.
I do not know why Apple says it is only compatible with Apple Silicon Macs. In 2021 this was also mimicked by all Apple blogs without anyone seemingly taking the time to verify the actual compatibility or incompatibility.
In fact today, Nov 7 2024, I hooked up a 2021 Magic Keyboard with Touch ID to a 2018 13" MacBook Air and even the Touch ID worked to unlock the computer.
The above is incorrect in that the lady told me it was a 2018 one. I wanted to verify it and saw that "About this Mac" says "M1, 2020". So it was not a 2018 intel MacBook Air but an Apple Silicon one. Sorry for the misinformation.
I appreciate you following up, especially to admit you made a mistake. Unfortunately most people wouldn't bother these days.
I did go ahead and order the Magic Keyboard w/ Touch ID, and coincidentally it arrived today.
Unfortunately, it's not fully compatible. It connects fine to Mac Mini 2018, and all the standard keys work, but the function keys do not - no volume buttons, Mission control and Launch Pad keys don't work, etc.
However, all will be fine - I should be getting my new Mac any day now.
So many coincidences because coincidentally... that lady ordered a new keyboard which arrived yesterday as well.
The whole story is... her keyboard did not work well anymore, the 's' was broken. She used her built-in laptop's keyboard for the 's'. Ridiculous, I know.
A year ago, yes, over 12 months ago in fact... I told her to wait with ordering a new keyboard because USB-C ones were imminent. That is how long this USB-C peripheral rumour has been circulating.
She waited for a whole year to order one... When she finally did I hooked up my 2021 keyboard with Touch ID to see if that'd work... which it did. We thought it was a 2018 MacBook Air.
Then I heard on Accidental Tech Podcast that the new 2024 keyboards would only work with macOS Sequoia 15.1... which seemed absolutely bonkers to me. So I got worried, went to her laptop yesterday to really check the model and it was an M1. I was happy it'd be upgradeable to macOS Sequoia, because she was still running Sonoma.
The keyboard arrived yesterday and yes... it "worked", but as you said U69... none of the function keys worked. How is that possible? Apple should really really fix that. It's madness to think that their own keyboard doesn't work except for with the absolute latest version of their OS? That is ridiculous, Apple.
She updated to macOS Sequoia and it worked. But after a year of waiting it was unnecessary stress about something as simple as a first party keyboard.
What does one do if their slightly older intel Mac's keyboard breaks, I wonder. Only some of the late intel-period Macs support macOS Seqouia. I very much hope that Apple will backport to macOS Sonoma and Ventura whatever is needed to make their own Apple keyboards work with their own Apple computers .
I updated my Mac mini 2018 (Intel) to Sequoia and now the function keys work. The keyboard appears to be fully functional now, other than the touch ID key of course.
(FTR, this is the USB-C version of the Magic Keyboard released in 2024)
Magic keyboard w/ touch ID compatible with Mac Mini 2018?
