My built-in keyboard and trackpad not working

Alright, so here's an update. I managed to get a replacement cable as we have been discussing, and replaced it. Powered back on and everything seems to be working fine!! I let the laptop go to sleep (that's when the problem would usually occur) and even on waking up, no issues. Have only tested this for a couple of hours so too early to say if the problem is permanently fixed, but so far, it looks like that's the case. I'm hopeful - only time will tell. But one thing is clear as water - this is not a software issue, it's a hardware problem!

I will keep you guys posted and will report back in a week if all goes well (or earlier if the problem resurfaces).

I have facing similar problem. My touchpad and keyboard are full unresponsive. The backlight working fine (automatically, in darkness full bright, during the day - off), usb/bluetooth keyboards and mouses working just fine. I don't drop the mac, and don't spill anything on the mac. Always used in hardcase, and transported in a sponged cover inside a backpack with build-in another sponged protection.

When I check inside, I discover that on a touchpad there is a small dot, like a small punch, so maybe small grain of "dust" force it and damage the touchpad ribbon, so I ordered 10 (9 as a buck'up), on aliexpress they are really cheap, just 3 USD/one. Now I remove the "damaged" touchpad ribbon, and reset pram and smc, but keyboard still refuse to be operational. Is there any trick to do with this? The hard ware test running on boot don't report any errors. Also I hardly believe that original ribbon is damaged.

The problem occurs randomly, 3 days ago i just close the mac lid and after few hours of travel in a train when I want to do some work I found that keyboard and touchpad are unresponsive, but at the morning everything works fine.

Do you have any idea why it's happening? Why keyboard are unresponsive when it is connected to motherboard itself, not pass trought touchpad ribbon cable (or somehow it is?)?

My model is Early 2015 13" Retina (A1502).

I hope that new ribbon will recover it back to full life 🙂

The issue comes from a driver ( possibly the trackpad or keyboard driver).

How to find out which driver it is (and fix it):

• Install Windows without Bootcamp
• See that trackpad and keyboard work fine
• Find the latest Bootcamp files on the internet
• Run the setup.exe and install all Bootcamp drivers
• See that the trackpad and keyboard do not work anymore
• Start uninstalling the drivers one by one until your keyboard and trackpad work again ( might need rebooting after each uninstall) - You will then know which driver is ******* up
• Go back to OS X
• Be a OS X wizard and find out where this driver is and kill it with fire
• Enjoy

Only known temporary fix : Replace trackpad cable.

Alternatives : Run Windows or Linux on your mac , maybe even both if you want.

Hello everybody,

I have exactly the same issue with my Macbook Pro 13" early 2015.

In 2016/04, I had the problem for the first time. I brought my macbook to genius bar, they changed the motherboard (under warranty).

I had exactly the same freeze in 2016/07, and I brought it again to genius bar. They changed the top case, with keyboard and trackpad.

Since yesterday I am having the issue again. Sometimes it freezes, I shut down the macbook, and then sometimes it works. I'll have to bring back the macbook to genius bar. I am fed up with this problem. It seems that it only concerns early 2015 macbook pro...

I think I know what you are going through. I tried several ways to recreate / avoid the lock-up situation but the more I do it, the more it doesn't make sense. I concluded, it is really random (at least for us who don't have the Apple laboratory, we will not find out). Anyway, my solution at the moment which WORKS ALL THE TIME whenever the keyboard and trackpad become unresponsive is to DETACH THE BATTERY, let it sit for 3-5 minutes, and attached it again. ;-)

To DETACH THE BATTERY, you need a special screw driver to open the back cover, it is called a Pentalobe screwdriver specific for MBP. And another TORX screwdriver to detach the lock of the battery once the back cover is open. The whole process is done in less than 15mins (assuming you have both screw drivers ready). Don't rush. Be gentle and precise.

I finally found the problem for the unresponsive trackpad/keyboard. The trackpad cable is broken. You can get the cable for about $15 (821-00184-A Touchpad Trackpad Cable for Apple MacBook Pro Retina 13" A1502 2015). To change the cable you need to follow steps 7, then 17-20 in (https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Retina+Display+Early+2015+Track pad+Replacement/45138). This is very simple. I am not sure why the cable brakes, but the cable is bent (seems a little to long) and combined with the heat from the battery it may lose connection over time. I am sure this was causing the problem on my MBP (retina, early 2015). Really happy to finally have it working again.

MBP keypad and trackpad are working flawlessly for about a week now after replacing the trackpad cable. This was clearly the problem on my MBP and is perhaps the problem in most of these unresponsive keyboard problems.

Hey thanks for lets us know this problem. I will buy this and try this week. Hope It will be ok. thanks again

I will buy this (821-00184-A Touchpad Trackpad Cable for Apple MacBook Pro Retina 13" A1502 2015) today

I have this exact same problem, and my laptop is 3 months out of warranty now so Apple Care says they will charge me around 1/3rd the price of the laptop for replacing entire top case because they aren't able to identify the problem. Your posts have given me some hope. I tried finding the cable in India but apparently its not sold separately here and only with the trackpad, which is too expensive. Also, apple refuses to sell any parts to consumers directly even if you know exactly what you want. So i've ordered the cable from China (I figured everything is made there anyway, so it would be my best bet). It's going to take a few weeks to get to me (if it arrives at all) so fingers crossed. Hope this works. Because if it does, it will verify your theory and give other users a solid fix to this issue, which is obviously a manufacturing quality issue that Apple isn't acknowledging (given the number of laptops with this models with the exact same problem). Looks to me like this should get more attention from Apple.

Wow! Thanks for the update!

Based on your experience, I now believe that the power cable / ribbon that connects the battery to the motherboard / trackpad is the culprit. In my case, detaching and re-attaching the cable every time it freezes might have reconnected the loose wires for good. I didn't have a freeze attack for almost 1 month now.

OrthodocX, kindly update us once you installed the replacement cable you ordered. Thanks in advance.

I have the same problem here (MacBook Pro 13, Retina, early 2015). This is the second time happened to me. The first time I reboot the machine and it was fine. This time I reboot and shutdown my MBP for more than 20 times, and it doesn't work. Then

I googled it and found this thread and followed all steps, tried all the ways. None of them works for my keyboard and touchpad (Strangely the backlit for the keyboard is always on ). Really bad and annoying. I was literally panicked in the office for the entire afternoon, as I have REALLY important documents in the laptop. I use this laptop a lot for giving lectures and presentations in front of a large number of audience. Imagine this breaks down when I am about to give the talks. Strangely, when I was speaking on the phone with tech support from apple, the keyboard and touchpad came back alive for no reasons. I don't know what cause this problem. But I can tell this is very serious. Either a bug in OS or bad design in hardware. Now I am very worried this will happen again. Ironically, I recommend MBP to all my friends a few weeks ago, now my friends heard this thing happened to me. They are just mocking me about my MBP. I think I would possibly never recommend MBP to anyone again. BTW, this is my very first apple laptop because I used to trust apple and their stability. Now, it seems to completely change my opinion on them.

In my previous posts, I am kinda leaning towards defective cable that link the battery and trackpad. However, latest development seems contradicting it. To cut the story short, I am now suspecting it to be either a Malware (virus, trojan, etc) or a 3rd Party software conflict. I backed-up my files using Time Machine, deleted the files and restore osx. Once fully restored, I avoided re-installing 3rd party softwares. Restored my data-only files from Time Machine. It is currently working for 3 days.

It happened again this morning when I start up my MBP, and I shut it down reboot then the issue is gone. I suspect this could be a hardware problem. Apple should seriously investigate this issue and resolve it soon.

I erased my HD and reinstalled OS (I didn't install any 3rd party software yet, and planning not to install any 3rd party software). Now I just to see if this issue will happen. I will report here if this happen again.

The keyboard and touchpad freeze again. This time It is a clean system, except I installed a few software skype, flash, texshop, etc. I think this is more likely to be a hardware problem. Please, apple fix this!!!