Cleaning Apple Wireless Keyboard

Any pharmacy such as Walgreens, CVS, etc. in the US carries the required "99% Isopropyl" alcohol.

Is Methylated Spirits (Metho) the same thing ?

Simon 2468: No, isopropyl alcohol is different. See

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_methylated_spirits_the_same_as_isopropyl_alcohol

There is an easier, non-invasive option:

Get a wet alcohol cotton swab and a business card. Poke the alcohol swab under each side of the sticky key with a corner of the business card and mover back and forth - yes it will go a bit soggy but will do the job. A credit card is probably a bit thick. In essence, anything thin and firm can be used for pushing the alcohol swab under the key. Worked a treat for me.

Very grateful for this resource here at Apple. My "return" key was sticking - Read some of the posts that were thoughfully shared and decided try the removal and alcholo fix: It worked great! I removed only the part of the key that fingers contact. Then cleaned with cotton tips and alcohol, paying special attention to the permitter where the small clearance can easily trap contaminants. Carefully cleaned the plastic scissor spring mechanism, then cleaned the key itself making sure to get under the u wire.

Thanks for both pputnam'a question and jwaltersiv's reply!!! - iMac BT keyboard came down with a sticky/crunchy sounding key problem weeks ago (a real Scooby Doo mystery... except I think it was the meddling kids this time) and I've just been dealing with it hoping it will work itself out... duh... alcohol - and I call myself a "computer" guy... never thought of using this method before... thanks again for sharing!!!!

Another tip, more suited to regular periodic cleaning (rather than I've-poured-a-ton-of-sticky-stuff scenarios), that helps in terms of avoiding excessive moisture under the keyboard and a trick from cleaning up coffee oils from the plastic hoppers on coffee grinders: buy a pack of small square pre-injection alcohol swabs like those used in hospitals when they take blood samples. (Very cheap, found this link that shows them selling 100 for $2.69!).

The advantage is that they have enough alcohol to do the job, but not so much that it rolls down the side of the keyboard.

Just used 3 to clean my entire keyboard, which was in awful shape.

I have had this very same thing happen to me on occasion, and the clear plastic tray that the keyboard sits in just compounds the problem. Now, I don't know why Apple even puts the **** things in a tray in the first place, but I know that the folks at Apple aren't dumb. Some just look at it like this... they probably did this to drive sales of accessories.

With that said, you may want to try "Denatured Alcohol", which is available through Grainger.com or Home Depot for around $8. We use to use this as a solvent for cleaning motherboards, and various electronic components when working on people's computers. It dries fast, and doesn't leave a residue behind.

Make certain there are no open flames or ignition sources, and always wear a painter's mask because it stinks. For tool to clean, you can use q-tips with the wooden stems, or a very soft (very, very soft) small brush, like an ultra soft toothbrush to breakup the sugars in the liquid that you spilled (allow it to dry first, before you begin.)

Whenever you spill anything n an apple keyboard.... always assume it is a total loss. This way it won't matter if you clean it and it is now destroyed, or you clean it and it works. But, as soon as you spill, turn it ver onto its face (keys) and pull the batteries as fast as you can!!! This will potentially save the device. Use bounty paper towels to dab it as dry as possible, and set the keyboard up long-ways to allow it to drain. Let it be for two - three days.

Now, Apple uses some funky screws to hold the tray in place... That's apple's way of telling you not to mess with their device (an old saying for this type of tactic was the "give 'em the wings so they'll buy your beer," and they'd sell you a cheap printer like HP does, only to charge you painfully overpriced ink cartridges... apple has deployed this techno-philosophy but doesn't give you the wings, sauce, or a taste of the beer! When 'hippies' become capitalists... it is a 'stickit to the man, woman, or child' mentality... Ironic!)

You can get tools for these screws out of the Grainger.com catalog, or possibly a Hobby-Lobby stores. Also try ebay.

Remove the clear plastic catch basin the keyboard comes in and start scrubbing the keyboard. Don't worry about the solvent it dries very fast. Once finished, Let it again sit for 12-24 hrs. Test it by replacing the batteries, sync it with the computer, and check out each key.

The alternative is to buy another keyboard.

I usually will have a spare on hand, and it is usually one that I ave repaired.

GOOD LUCK!

Does anyone know what to do if this happens to the newest keyboards with thunderbolt charging? Yo cannot remove the batteries.

Since this is an old thread, but still one of the top search results for "how do I clean my apple keyboard?", just wanted to say that I used this method last week (Dec 2016) and it worked great! My apple bluetooth keyboard had many sticky keys, probably from my 5 year old, so I went to Target and bought a large bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol (since usually only computer stores sell 99%) which was next to the ace bandages. I took the batteries out of course (not sure how this affects the new lightning charged keyboard - you would think the rechargeables on those would be pretty sealed), and slowly poured the entire bottle over my keyboard over the sink, periodically stopping and repeatedly pressing all the keys especially the sticky ones to get the liquid in there. I then let it dry for about 3 days, and when I got back into town, popped the batteries back in and have been typing on it ever since! So I highly recommend this process first. I've taken keys off before, but it's painstaking work and you could easily break one of the little clips. By pouring the alcohol over it, I avoided the pain of removing any keys.

Hope this helps someone!