Macbook air function keys not working, sound, brightness, mission control

Are you are holding down the fn key bottom left of your keyboard when you are pressing these keys.

Stop pressing fn and just press the keys.

Using the fn key brings up different functions for those keys.

Enjoy your mac.

Hope this helps.

PJRS

Sorry just checking.

Ok go into System Preferences>Keyboard is the Use all F1,F2 etc. keys as standard function keys checked?

If so uncheck.

Hope this helps.

PJRS

System Preferences> Users and Groups> select Guest User, enable log in for Guests.

Restart log in as guest. Test.

PJRS

Boot into safe mode and test again.

Restart holding down shift key.

PJRS

Ok don't worry these were all tests to see where the problem may lay.

You say this is a new Macbook Air straight out of the box.

I would suggest take it straight back to Apple. It more than likely needs a clean install of mavericks.

Though seeing as it is shinny out of the box, take it back and let the "Genius's there sort it out."

A clean install is something that you shouldn't need to do this early in it's life so there may be underline problems.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

PJRS

I have been having the same problem. None of the solutions or fixes have worked.

I Haven't done a clean install yet. Would I just boot the install partition and do it all from there?

This just happened to me, also on a mid-2013 Macbook Air. I took it in for repair of the trackpad under warranty, and it came back behaving exactly like what you describe.

So I went back in and the Genius and her colleagues were stumped. She called back a couple hours later saying they fixed it by "reprogramming the keyboard".

^^^ This is exactly what has just happened to me. My 2013 Macbook Air 11-inch needed a new trackpad so I took it in for warranty repair. When I got it back, I didn't think to try the brightness, backlit keyboard or audio level function keys (why would one automatically think to test those specific keys?). When I got the machine home today it had exactly the same symptoms everyone here describes. I've tried all the tests in this thread and more and nothing clears up the issue.

I got a technician at the same store on the phone and he was stumped by the issue too because he stated the trackpad replacement does not require removing the keyboard OR logic board in these 2013 MB-A models. I do hope a "keyboard reprogramming" is a quick fix for it.

I can confirm that Adam Frix's issue (post above) and my issue were the same and that a "keyboard mapping tool" needed to be used at an Apple Store to remedy it. It is not a tool that we have access to as end users but it was a very fast and simple fix.

The reason this happens sometimes, as the technician explained, is that for security purposes the keyboard and trackpad are tied together in terms of how the data goes into the logic board. I realize this is an overly simplistic explanation. I haven't looked into a more detailed explanation. This is done to better protect against potential keylogger malware. When the trackpad was replaced, it caused the computer to think it had a different type of keyboard installed even though in OS X it would still come up as a U.S. keyboard. So it just had to be reset with Apple's technician Keyboard Mapper Tool. This would explain why, before getting this fixed, I was able to replicate all functions correctly on my external bluetooth Apple keyboard... but not on the Air's built-in keyboard.

The fix took less than five minutes and I was ready to go. Hope this helps someone who has this issue!

And if you do have to get your trackpad replaced on an Macbook Air or other newer Mac with a similar multitouch trackpad, just give all your function keys a quick test before you leave the store once you receive your machine. If you have the above symptoms, it will be very quick and easy for them to fix before you drive all the way home and find out later.