Some keys on my MacBook are not working.

Had the same done to my machine, housing, topcase keyboard with backlite replaced, 12 months later exactly the same problem, Apple says must replace housing, topcase, keyboard with backlite. Apple will not replace free as only 3 month warranty on spare parts. They do not want to acknowlage it is a hardware fault judging by the number of queries and complaints on the internet.

I have a 13-inch, Mid 2009 macbook pro and the number keys 1 2 3 and their upercase symbols do not work. Will I have to replace the entire keyboard?

Take heart! I'm on a 2013 15" mbp, and "dfghjkl" became intermittent:

• Gently (like, no harder than usual) press and hold a spotty key: Does it eventually register?
• Keep holding it: DOes it eventually register again? Or maybe even commence a slow few characters?
• Repeat a few times and see if it's consistent.

THat's what I did, and that's what I saw: sometimes, nothing at all. Always D-L keys (this go'round at any rate).

Eventually, I shut down all apps and services (painful, let me tell you-- i never shut down anything and leave lamp, mongodb, and solr running constantly, not to mention a whole boatload of Chrome browsers and tabs, terminals, etc. -- no telling what the actual cause was).

Eventualy, and not immediately after having close some things, all keys' expected functionality returned: Total cost: 0 US

oh shoot. The D key seems back again!

<edit>But not permanently.. DDddddfgdfgjkhdjfkghkdjfhgkjdf.. looks ok to me again. Odd</edit>

Message was edited by: bronius Adding more case history.

I'm having the same problem with the d, f, g, h, j, k, l keys. This is on a MacBook (mid 2010).

So this might be a Mavericks bug that happens under high load?

Did you try reinstalling the OS?

What 3rd party utilities do you have running?

Ah hah the plot thickens!

I'm still on Mountain Lion.

I *think* may have made a correlation between iTunes + iPhone sync over USB and unplugging with unmounting.. Sounds far-fetched.. But something about that seems to bring it all together. You?

It seems to occur randomly for me but turning my MacBook upside down and then right-side up seems to help sometimes.

Great work with being persistent to try to fix this problem, bronius! I am having the same issue (different keys) on a MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011), and following your steps has fixed the keys! Closing of applications and services doesn't seem to have any effect on the success though. The trick just seems to be holding the key for way too long, a couple of times, and it will work again. The odd part is that my "=" as well as the F12/volume up key weren't working at all. I used your method to get the "=" key working again, and the F12/volume up key began functioning again without doing anything. The result, I'm seeing as I write this and test it out, is temporary, though, which tells me that as I type, the clattering on nearby keys probably knocks something loose again. I'm able get the keys going again using the "bronius method," which may get tedious. We'll see!

Thanks!

Same problem here. Happened after I mistakenly used an alcohol-moistened cloth to clem the keys on the keyboard.. I'm told it can't ever be cleaned or fixed. Works well wirh external keyboard. May have to get the keyboard replaced by local shop.

Hello Tim

I have the same problem... My computer is a Mac pro tower the letter "p" upper and lower case does not work, it suddenly stopped about three weeks ago.

I tested the keyboard on my laptop, it works fine.

I tried to use the native discs to do a utilities disc for a repair etc... It doesn't allow me to start with these discs.

I ran virus software, came u clean.

Did you find a cure??

I had the problem of the "f" key not working. Then weeks later it expanded to the "g" "h" "j" "k" and "l" keys, i.e., a whole row of keys starting on the left with the "f" key.

Sometimes, very rarely, I could get one of these keys to work by pressing long enough. But basically not.

I tried many of the suggestions here. Like holding the Option key and the letter key down 5 times in a row. Other solutions as well. Nothing worked. I was about to bring my laptop in for a $400 to $500 keyboard fix. Worse part was losing the machine for 5 day repair time.

Bluetooth keyboard worked fine when I attached it. The Show Keyboard Viewer worked fine too. So it had to be something with the keyboard.

Today I tried blowing compressed air (dusting air) onto the keys, but could not reach under the keys. So then the voila moment.

I searched and found this video tutorial on removing a MacBook Pro key to clean under it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh88cn_rtLo

I watched the video about a hundred times while doing what it said - remove the key and the plastic thing attached to it. I removed only the first key in the line of non-working keys, in my case the "f" key. Underneath I found a large lump of dog hair or something. As soon as I removed that dustball, I found that pressing the little white knobby thing under the key worked. And so did the rest of the keys in the line. "g" "h" "j" "k" and "l" all worked (I never removed them). So clearly a problem under the left-most key can affect all remaining keys in the line.

So if you have a line of keys that is progressively not working, starting with the left-most key, try using the above video to remove & clean under the leftmost key. Be careful removing keys & the little plastic thing attached to them. Like I said, I watched that video scores of times as I did the repair. You definitely do NOT want to break the plastic.

Bottom line, though, is that I fixed the keyboard (thought I needed a new one, so did Apple) and saved $400 to $500!

Well that cleaning fix did not work after all. The entire line of keys from "f" through "l" is dead. Only option is to use external bluetooth keyboard which is a royal pain.

I had this issue where m, p, u, j, : were not working. Was about to buy a wireless keyboard rather than get my old macbook from 2007 or so fixed, it's one of the early 64bit ones that wont upgrade beyond snow leopard. Anyhows I was trying to put in some new ram, took out the old ram, new one was wrong one so I put the old one back in, and hey presto, all the keys worked. Weird but you never know, try it!

Try going into system preferences than go into accessibility than go to mouse and track pad and see if mouse keys is enabled if it is than turn it off

Had the same issue. Mouse keys had been enabled. You can tap the ⌥ Option key five times or go to your settings to turn off.