Yosemite keyboard not working

Owner of the company I work for started this exact same problem after updating to Yosemite. Yesterday he just switched the keyboard to a different USB port on his MacBook Air and it started working and he was happy enough and just told me to let it go he'd just use the other port. Today it started doing the same thing on the other USB port. I had him unplug his keyboard and shut down. When he powered the laptop back up I had him try plugging a USB flash drive into the port to make sure we weren't fighting a port issue. As soon as he plugged in the flash drive, it immediately recognized it and loaded it up. I had him eject the flash drive and try plugging his keyboard back in, and now his keyboard is working in both ports.

Definitely something quirky happening with OS X Yosemite upgrades and USB keyboards/ports.

Okay Guys: So I found a solution, that does NOT involve the stupid extention cord! You have to reset the SMC (Intel-basierte Mac-Computer: System Management Controller (SMC) zurücksetzen - Apple Support ... that one is german, but just google: Reset SMC Mac). The PRAM reset did nothing for me, but that one also does nothing with the drivers, how ever the SMC reset should reset the drivers. It worked for me!

Cheers

Pleased to report that Apple Care escalated my case all to the actual OS X software engineers, and last week, one of them called me out of the blue. I've directed the engineer to this discussion thread. Fingers crossed 😉

Thanks. I had a similar problem. The keyboard worked in applications other than Word. I removed it from my Mac, connected it to my Air and then removed it there and connected back to the Mac. Initially it still didn't work. But I then closed and re-opened Word and all was back in proper working order. Quite a work around. Would be good if Apple could provide some formal guidance.

Also the same problem with MacOS 10.10.1 on a new MacBook Pro Retina (mid 2014). The original wired keyboard from APPLE sometimes work, sometimes don't work however often don't work... weird. Incomprehensible to me that happen with original peripherals. Such workarounds are not a real solution and a mess (unplug and plug and ah ..). Wireless is not an option, many users need the full size keyboard for work.

Just another bug with Yosemite, seems that the premium apple quality begins to cease slowly. 😠

I hope apple can patch it.

I had the same issue (though experienced differently).

I installed Yosemite on a 2010 iMac and used with apple usb keyboard. A week or more later (just now) I've updated several settings including but not limited to: Security setting, iCloud settings-and logging in to some services thereof, etc.

The iMac went to sleep, I returned and unplugged the wired keyboard, plugged in my iPad and then the keyboard no longer functioned (thankfully I had a bluetooth keyboard setup also and could use it). I read this thread and tried all of the following:

1. Plugging keyboard into 2012 MacBook Pro (it worked there, did not work when returned to iMac)

2. tested all USB ports on iMac with usb flash drives (all worked)

3. plugged flash drive into keyboard (no result)

4. Plugged iPhone into keyboard (no result)

5. Plugged iPad into keyboard (no result)

6. Found keyboard extension, plugged it in with keyboard (FINALLY!!) (please note that iPad was still plugged into the keyboard via lightning cable at time of extension plugging-in)

7. briefly gave thanks that I chose NOT to discard the otherwise useless usb extension that came with this keyboard.

As a side note, I noticed earlier that even though my Bluetooth keyboard was connected and operational, it did NOT come up as discovered in the "setup bluetooth keyboard" pane of the "keyboard" section of system preferences even though I could connect and disconnect it from the iMac and see the keyboard icon with the words: "disconnected" and "connected"

It does, however appear in the "Bluetooth" section of system preferences. (not sure that any of that was related to the wired keyboard issues, but hey, if it helps someone else.

Thanks for the help.

My colleague's keyboard decided to not work this morning, he updated to Yosemite from Lion on a 21.5" Mid 2011 iMac i5 yesterday, the keyboard worked fine immediately after the update.

I tried all of the above methods to no avail. Then plugged in an older wired Apple keyboard (didn't want to screw my keyboard up) and used that to restart holding alt+cmd+P+R to reset the PRAM. I let go after two start up chimes, plugged the non working keyboard back in and it started working fine.

SO RESETTING THE PRAM WORKED FOR ME.

So thanks to Jonty180 for his advice and no thanks to Apple for your complete lack of help or advice nearly two months after first being posted for this quite major bug.

I too am having this issue. The keyboard doesn't work in my Macbook Pro, nor my wife's PC laptop. In all three situations (including it's 2008 iMac) the caps lock light is on, but nothing else works. I've tried resetting the PRAM, reinstalling Yosemite, resetting the SMC, plugging in a flash drive and plugging in my iPhone. This is very frustrating as I'm no longer covered under AppleCare. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thank you Ratchetdrums, I used this method and it works like a charm. I have used two different extensions / usb hubs and both have worked perfectly. A temp fix but the 10 key is worth it.

Thanks again!

Had the same problem, after downloading Yosemite...We had a Brown out and on rebooting...Yosemite would not recognize my wireless keyboard. Tried a third party USB keyboard and neither would work....After talking to Apple for several hours, my problem to get an apple USB keyboard...When I hooked up the apple keyboard it worked fine to turn off.."File Vault", then both keyboards worked fine. No work around or the need to plug another USB hardware into the keyboard to turn it on...I was told by the senior level tech....that most all people going through the prompts of installing Yosemite, unwittingly click a box that turns on "File Vault" encryption....I told them that I have never encrypted any of my computers, and he said you did...They just did not tell you!!! Once you disable "File Vault", then walk like magic both keyboards work just fine and all is well and back to Yosemite...They need to fix this bug in a hurry, because I have read all of the problems reported here and in other blogs concerning the problem of Yosemite not recognizing keyboards.....Check to see if "File Vault" is enabled in your computer with Yosemite. Then turn it off.

I had the same issue, you may want to try following steps:

1. unplug your usb keyboard

2. plug a iPhone or iPad to one of the usb port on the keyboard

3. plug the keyboard again to your Mac

This worked for me.

i have just updated to yosemite 10.10.2 and now my wired keyboard no longer works with my MBP. i was excited to find this thread and tried the various fixes suggested. none worked. frustrated. disheartened. help?

I also have just updated my iMac to Yosemite 10.10.2 yesterday afternoon and now my wired keyboard no longer works either nor do the suggested fixes.

fixed. here is what finally worked for me, after all of the other fixes DID NOT work:

- connected my keyboard to my old MBP to confirm it works. it does.

- shut down my 10.10.2 MBP. unplug power cord from computer and from outlet.

- wait 15 seconds

- connect keyboard to 10.10.2 MBP. plug in power cord to computer and outlet. power up.

- keyboard works.

Thank you, I tried that suggestion above but still no success. Then I plugged my keyboard into my old Windows laptop. While it did not recognize the keyboard as a usable device (old OS) it did begin to charge my iPhone, which was plugged into the left keyboard port so it recognized that a USB accessory was plugged in. I then plugged the keyboard back into my iMac with iPhone still attached and magic, it is working again no thanks to Apple. But I see it is reset to standard settings so I will need to go into Preferences and reset the keyboard functions to my tastes.

This opens a much wider discussion the community should be having... Come on Apple, what is going on there?

Support needs to be here monitoring and posting information that at the very minimum you are aware of these issues and are working to resolve them and not ignore these community discussions when multiple customers are having issues and issue something we call RESPONSES to your customer base. The new found philosophy seems to be ignore it and it will go away.

I left the MS ecosystem because of this kind of ongoing nonsense. Maybe Windows wasn't so bad after all ...