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Apple wireless keyboard a1255 discoverable but not pairing

Hi there,

I bought an A1255 (3 battery) keyboard from eBay. It was described as for 'spares or repair' - which was fine because I was actually buying it for the keys.

However, it looked in pretty good condition when it arrived (better than in the photo), so I gave it a bit of a clean, put in some fresh batteries and switched it on...


The good news is that the keyboard is discoverable and will go into pairing mode (double green flash). However, it will not actually connect with anything (iMac, iPad, iPhone, windows PC etc). For each device the connection process seems to start, but it doesn't get as far as asking for a passcode.


I've done quite a lot of googling, and I've read a lot of posts and I've tried a lot of things but to no avail, so I just wondered if anyone had been successful with a keyboard that seems to work, will go into pairing mode but doesn't get as far as the passcode step?


Many thanks for any suggestions etc,

M.

iMac (24-inch Early 2008), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 2, 2015 3:02 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jul 6, 2015 2:16 AM

Hi again,

I've actually given up on this particular keyboard, and will now use it for the spare keys that I was originally after.


Why did I give up? Well, I realised that the Caps Lock light wasn't coming on (implying a wiring problem within the keyboard itself).


So why am I posting this? Because there are a lot of articles that say that all you've got to do is press the power button throughout the entire process, and there are very few that give the following tip (that worked for me, where all the standard advice failed):


You will need a Bluetooth keyboard (that may still be paired with another device / hasn't been unpaired) and an iMac (or similar), with nothing connected (no mouse, no trackpad, no other keyboard).


Switch the Bluetooth keyboard completely off (press the power button for about 3 seconds).

Turn on the iMac.

Turn on the keyboard (I only needed to press the power button for about 6 seconds before it went into pairing mode, at which point I stopped pressing. Indeed, pressing and holding did not work with this particular 3-battery A1255 keyboard).


The iMac has no input devices attached to it, so it searched for one... It found my device and correctly recognised it as an Apple wireless keyboard.

More importantly, it attempted to connect - and gave me a 6 digit passcode to enter (which none of the other methods had!). At that point it should be fairly straightforward (don't wait for any sort of pop-up box to type in, simply enter the 6 digits and press return) - and that should be it.


Unfortunately for me, the number keys (some or all) aren't working, but the return key was - so I couldn't finalise the pairing, and kept getting an error message (triggered by the return key).


So there you go. If you've acquired a second-hand Apple wireless keyboard - and the standard set-up assistants aren't getting you as far as the all-important passcode stage, try connecting it to an iMac which has no other input devices attached.


All the best,

M.

1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Jul 6, 2015 2:16 AM in response to marts2003

Hi again,

I've actually given up on this particular keyboard, and will now use it for the spare keys that I was originally after.


Why did I give up? Well, I realised that the Caps Lock light wasn't coming on (implying a wiring problem within the keyboard itself).


So why am I posting this? Because there are a lot of articles that say that all you've got to do is press the power button throughout the entire process, and there are very few that give the following tip (that worked for me, where all the standard advice failed):


You will need a Bluetooth keyboard (that may still be paired with another device / hasn't been unpaired) and an iMac (or similar), with nothing connected (no mouse, no trackpad, no other keyboard).


Switch the Bluetooth keyboard completely off (press the power button for about 3 seconds).

Turn on the iMac.

Turn on the keyboard (I only needed to press the power button for about 6 seconds before it went into pairing mode, at which point I stopped pressing. Indeed, pressing and holding did not work with this particular 3-battery A1255 keyboard).


The iMac has no input devices attached to it, so it searched for one... It found my device and correctly recognised it as an Apple wireless keyboard.

More importantly, it attempted to connect - and gave me a 6 digit passcode to enter (which none of the other methods had!). At that point it should be fairly straightforward (don't wait for any sort of pop-up box to type in, simply enter the 6 digits and press return) - and that should be it.


Unfortunately for me, the number keys (some or all) aren't working, but the return key was - so I couldn't finalise the pairing, and kept getting an error message (triggered by the return key).


So there you go. If you've acquired a second-hand Apple wireless keyboard - and the standard set-up assistants aren't getting you as far as the all-important passcode stage, try connecting it to an iMac which has no other input devices attached.


All the best,

M.

Apple wireless keyboard a1255 discoverable but not pairing

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