Unresponsive 1QAZ`, F1, and Caps Lock keys on 2019 i5 MacBook Air

After about five years of use, the mentioned keys have stopped working on my Macbook Air. Initially they were only slightly unresponsive and you had to press multiple times or with more pressure to get them to work. Over a couple of months they slowly lost all responsiveness and now they no longer work at all. I successfully conducted an SMC reset but that did not fix the issue.

I was wondering what further steps I can take from here. Thanks

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Jan 15, 2025 6:26 PM

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HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

74,910 points

Posted on Jan 16, 2025 7:24 PM

The 2019 models used the dreaded Butterfly mechanism in their keyboards. It could be the well known design & manufacturing defect of the Butterfly keyboards, or it may just need to be cleaned using the instructions in the following Apple article (make sure to keep the can of compressed air completely upright or you may damage the laptop with the cold wet propellant):

How to clean the keyboard of your MacBook or MacBook Pro - Apple Support

I do not recommend spending any money on repairs for the 2016-2020 Intel Macs with USB-C ports for multiple reasons. The money spent on repairs is better put towards a new laptop.

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Unresponsive 1QAZ`, F1, and Caps Lock keys on 2019 i5 MacBook Air

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