M3 Ultra keyboard outputs unexpected symbols

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M3 Ultra keyboard outputs unexpected symbols

I use a M3 Ultra, Tahoe. The keyboard responds to the English character that corresponds to the keys I touch. I have been typing for over 30 years now.

I came from a Windows OS (I switched from Apple Intel to Windows to now Tahoe and Silicon as I am not a fan of Windows 11).

Continuing, I am typing away and then my characters are different, I would say, they are copyright symbol, delta symbol and things I would type if I needed it input them from a panel or an ANSI or Unicode character.

I have changed the keyboard layout to US to ABC to ABC Extended. I turned off the keyboard shortcuts in case I am trigger a change (I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts and I can understand the Control key gets mixed up with the Command key--it's a muscle memory thing).

I am very close to throwing away this Apple and moving towards Linux.

Thank you

Mac Studio, macOS 26.2

Posted on Jan 24, 2026 2:06 PM

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Tom Gewecke

Level 10

123,040 points

Jan 25, 2026 4:40 AM in response to trope

trope wrote: I am typing away and then my characters are different, I would say, they are copyright symbol, delta symbol and things I would type if I needed it input them from a panel or an ANSI or Unicode character.

That sounds like the standard behavior of the US keyboard when you hold down the option key. asdfg becomes åß∂ƒ©. So perhaps you are hitting the option key by mistake sometime? Or the option key is active when it should not be?

You could try setting the option key to "no action" (search for Modifier Keys in System Settings). Also try another keyboard to see if the original might be damaged.

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