option key stuck (not physically)

This started this morning for me on a macbook pro in the middle of working on the computer. I searched and tried several things, coming close to losing my mind in the process. I know this is an old thread, but its the first one that comes up on google and I finally got it fixed and wanted to share what worked for me in case anyone else is hunting for a solution...

My symptoms -

Keystrokes and trackpad were all of the sudden being modified as if the option key was being pressed.

Keyboard viewer did not show that the option key was being pressed.

Tried disabling option key in modifier key controls

Tried rebooting - no change

Bluetooth keyboard worked normally

Sticky keys was turned off

My fix-

Open system preferences

Select accessibility

Select keyboard

Enable sticky keys

Press option twice quickly to enable sticky and once more to turn it off (option key must be enabled if you previously disabled it in modifier key controls)

Problem solved!

Turned sticky keys back off afterwards

Somehow the laptop had a sticky option input (even though sticky keys was off and it was not displayed in the top right corner) and activating/deactivating the sticky option key cleared it.

EASY FIX -> Hold down the option key for a few seconds and then let go. This will unlock the ⌥ (Alt / Option) key and put it back to normal.

I experimented a bit to find the solution on my own.

What's really odd is that the ⌥ key was locked on my external USB keyboard, but not the Macbook Pro built-in keyboard. Except when I was using the trackpad on the Macbook. In that case, all mouse/trackpad gestures behaved as if the ⌥ key was down.

wagnerman wrote:

My fix-

Open system preferences

Select accessibility

Select keyboard

Enable sticky keys

Press option twice quickly to enable sticky and once more to turn it off (option key must be enabled if you previously disabled it in modifier key controls)

Problem solved!

Turned sticky keys back off afterwards

Somehow the laptop had a sticky option input (even though sticky keys was off and it was not displayed in the top right corner) and activating/deactivating the sticky option key cleared it.

Very interesting, thanks!

Hallo Wanja- I had the same problem: Option key stuck active but not physically pressed. I just finally fixed it. (OS 10.10.1) Essentially, what you need to do is go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys and then set Option to No Action. The problem is that you can't get it to actually ignore the option key while it's being pressed. So the first thing you have to do is disable the built-in keyboard. But before we disable the built-in keyboard, hook up an external keyboard (USB or bluetooth) and ensure that it works fine.

To disable the internal keyboard now, copy paste this into the Terminal application on your mac:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyb oard.kext/

It will prompt you for your password and give you an error message, but it will disable the keyboard (on OS 10.8 and 10.10, at least).

Your keyboard should be off. Now- do the first step in System Preferences where we set the Option key to No Action.

Now we can turn the internal keyboard back on by typing this into terminal:

sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyb oard.kext/

Now your keyboard should be on, and the option keys should be disabled. Except that you can't use the option keys anymore, your keyboard should be fine.

Let me know if it works!

-basil

To connect a Bluetooth keyboard, first you have to start up into OS X and set up the Bluetooth keyboard with your computer here.

Then, to use your Bluetooth keyboard during startup to start into OS X Recovery, hold Command and R keys after hearing the startup sound

basilgg wrote:

To disable the internal keyboard now, copy paste this into the Terminal application on your mac:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyb oard.kext/

It will prompt you for your password and give you an error message, but it will disable the keyboard (on OS 10.8 and 10.10, at least).

Your keyboard should be off. Now- do the first step in System Preferences where we set the Option key to No Action.

Now we can turn the internal keyboard back on by typing this into terminal:

sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyb oard.kext/

Well, basilgg, you are a genius! Your solution worked perfectly for me. My keyboard behaved like the alt button were constantly pressed down: typing asdf, I would get åß∂ƒ. Probably it is a hardware problem. But your solution saved me to repair my otherwise perfectly functioning Macbook Air. Thanks!

By the way, I avoided using a usb keyboard, I didn't have one. Essentially, by copy and pasting each letter of the phrase "option key stuck", I managed to find this post on the web. Then, I copied-and-pasted your commands in the terminal application.

Hi there

I had this exact problem today with both my shift and alt keys, and living in New Zealand, I don't really have good access to apple care of any kind, so after spending 2 hours on the phone with an assistant overseas, we came to this solution (Note, you need a spare hard drive/ USB over 16GB, and a spare wired/ USB wireless keyboard for this fix to be applied:

1. Restart your computer/turn it on, and once you hear the chime, hold down the command, and R keys, this will take you to the recovery menu

2. Once the recovery menu is loaded, click on the disk utility service (plug in your external hard drive/ USB now)

3. Erase the spare hard drive/ USB, or, if you don't want to lose data you already have, partition it so at least one partition contains at least 10GB of free space, name this partition something recognisable, like "backup"

4. Go back to the recovery menu, and click restore mac OSX

5. Follow the restore assistant, and when you arrive on the screen asking for the reinstall destination, choose your recently created disk partition.

6. You may be asked to type in your apple ID and password, do this using the spare keyboard, and you shouldn't have a problem using the lowercase and uppercase letters

7. Allow OSX to be downloaded/ installed on your drive partition

8. When the install is finished, turn off your computer, then turn it on again, again holding down the command and R keys, taking you again to the recovery menu

9. Once on the recovery menu again, click on the terminal option, under the utilities heading in the top left hand corner of the screen, then try to type normally, if the letters come out lowercase, and the numbers come out normally, then your problem is fixed, BUT THERES STILL ONE MORE STEP

10. Go to the apple logo in the top left hand corner, and select startup disc, when this loads, make sure you select the ORIGINAL disk you were using to run OSX (It should be called "Macintosh HDD" but if not, and you're unsure of which one it is, you can find out by going into disk utility again from the recovery menu, and looking at the first hard drive option)

11. Restart your mac as normal, and type in your password as you normally would, and you should be good to go!

This fix worked for me, as through downloading and installing OS X to a new hard drive, it reset the NVRAM, and any other issues your logic board may have been having while communicating with your regular hard drive, and if this fix still doesn't work, you can go back into recovery menu, select your fresh OSX install on your spare hard drive/usb as the default startup disk, restart your computer, then transfer any important documents you may have had onto your spare hard drive, and do a full restore of your normal hard drive through the recovery menu

Hope this helps anyone with future problems! I for one like being able to log in and use my computer properly, and this 100% helped me out, any problems, just reply to this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can with some assistance!

Cheers,

Josh (Pootr33)

well, this helped me too.. but after restarting my mac, the problem still exists. now, I can login without issue and use external usb keyboard, and when i see keyboard modifier option, the option key is disabled. However, I still can't type with inbuilt keyboard. I tried turning off default keyboard but it returns some kind of error. If you could help please, it would be great.

Thanks for this info (Even though this appears to be old) - I had the same issue and it appears resetting the NVRAM did the trick... It's still early on, but having positive results so far, so haven't continued on to the SMC yet. If something fixes the problem permanently I want to be able to identify what fixed my issue 😉. Anyway, thanks again for the useful info.

So a few days ago I got home from work and my keys were acting like the option key was being held down. I ended up getting locked out of my computer because I reset my computer then wasn't able to log back into my Macbook Pro because the keys were still all goofed up. I put my computer in recovery mode and was able to somehow reset my password and get logged back in. I tried to disable the option key button but this didn't help. I went to bed defeated.

Then today at work I was complaining to my coworker about the situation. He had mentioned that he had once spilled an entire beer on his computer keyboard and had ended up taking all of the keys off of the keyboard and wiping down the spaces below the key covers with Isopropyl alcohol. When I got home my laptop was dead and I did exactly what he had told me and wiped off the underneath all of the key covers. I plugged my laptop back in and started typing....and it ******* worked. I have no clue how but it worked.

Hope this will at least help someone else!

Hi I realise this is an old thread but I figured what caused Alt to get stuck on my 2011 macbook pro.

It was the Wacom Intuos Pro I use - I had 'touch mode' active and I think it just confused my poor Mac OS. Anyhow after an hour of forums and sweating I saw a thread where someone reinstalled their Wacom driver. I was about to do it and thought I'd just look at the Wacom settings first. I turned off the alt key assigned to the Wacom speed button on the side and bingo the problem disappeared.

So my MBP is back to former glory and I'm back to work 🙂

Thanks a lot! I hade the exact same issue on my 12" macbook.

Your answer might have saved me almost $400 for changing the keyboard on my macbook, which was the recommendation from a support person at an Apple premium reseller nearby.

Hi,

Yes for me it fixed it permanently. Having said that it has happened twice but it seems to happen when I've got the Wacom Intuos Pro plugged in with 'Touch' on (I only use the Wacom when sculpting on Zbrush). It hasn't happened since I turned the Alt off from the quick keys on the side of the Wacom so maybe I'll be lucky going forward.

It's unbelievably frustrating when it happens because the Mac becomes borderline useless instantly, and the fear factor of restarting and not being able to type the password properly is really worrying. I'm not sure what I can suggest if it keeps happening, although the first time it happened, the solution I found was more based around using the circular scroll feature and randomly pressing the different quick keys. Not scientific but it did fix it and you could try it if you haven't already!

The only other suggestion is to unplug the Wacom when you're not using it. At least to find out if it can help after a restart/wake.

Good luck!

Greg