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Hi:
The keyboard on our new iMac quits working about once a week. Then I have to turn off FileVault and all is well, unless I reenable FileVault and then within a week or two the whole cycle starts again.
1) Can anyone explain why FileVault messes with the keyboard?
2) What may we do to obviate this?
3) If nothing works, will the next release of OS X fix this bug?
Thank you!!!
OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)
OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)
OK, just wanted to add my experience for the public record after a fair amount of hair ripping. I have a mac pro, wired apple keyboard and mouse (directly connected), running El Capitan 10.11.6. The other day I decided to turn on filevault because most things with Apple seem to work fairly well for me, so I made full backups just in case and turned it on. I used my apple id as a recovery key. It began encryption and all was cool. After the encryption, the next time i restarted, the filevault login screen came up and I could not type my password... but only certain keys failed.
Here are the keys that didn't work: i p a d h k l c m - [ ] \
Weird stuff. So I happened to have a different keyboard and I swapped that - no immediate result, but after a couple more reboots, resetting the SMC and PRAM, it started working. Not sure why, but i thought it was maybe a glitch with the initial filevault setup. I used my computer normally after that for the rest of the week. This morning, I came in and restarted my computer, same problem. And this was with the replacement (brand new wired Apple keyboard). I swapped with the old keyboard and same problem. I zapped the PRAM - same issue. Couldn't type those same characters. I reset the SMC. nope. I went into recovery and did first aid on the disk, re-chose my startup drive... nothing. shutdown / restart / remove peripherals... no effect. FINALLY, somehow, the system generated this window:
For google, here's the blurbage:
"If you were unable to use your keyboard to type your password, it may not be compatible with FileVault."
It tells you to try another keyboard or disable FileVault.
Being that it's APPLE and brand new... I can't imagine this is because of the keyboard. I googled "FileVault compatible keyboards" and found nothing. This is obviously a known issue if it has it's own error message screen. So, for now, I have turned off FileVault. That is not the level of security I was hoping for. Seems a really odd glitch and fairly easy to address I would think. Hopefully this is something that will be fixed soon. I would like to encrypt my drive.
OK, just wanted to add my experience for the public record after a fair amount of hair ripping. I have a mac pro, wired apple keyboard and mouse (directly connected), running El Capitan 10.11.6. The other day I decided to turn on filevault because most things with Apple seem to work fairly well for me, so I made full backups just in case and turned it on. I used my apple id as a recovery key. It began encryption and all was cool. After the encryption, the next time i restarted, the filevault login screen came up and I could not type my password... but only certain keys failed.
Here are the keys that didn't work: i p a d h k l c m - [ ] \
Weird stuff. So I happened to have a different keyboard and I swapped that - no immediate result, but after a couple more reboots, resetting the SMC and PRAM, it started working. Not sure why, but i thought it was maybe a glitch with the initial filevault setup. I used my computer normally after that for the rest of the week. This morning, I came in and restarted my computer, same problem. And this was with the replacement (brand new wired Apple keyboard). I swapped with the old keyboard and same problem. I zapped the PRAM - same issue. Couldn't type those same characters. I reset the SMC. nope. I went into recovery and did first aid on the disk, re-chose my startup drive... nothing. shutdown / restart / remove peripherals... no effect. FINALLY, somehow, the system generated this window:
For google, here's the blurbage:
"If you were unable to use your keyboard to type your password, it may not be compatible with FileVault."
It tells you to try another keyboard or disable FileVault.
Being that it's APPLE and brand new... I can't imagine this is because of the keyboard. I googled "FileVault compatible keyboards" and found nothing. This is obviously a known issue if it has it's own error message screen. So, for now, I have turned off FileVault. That is not the level of security I was hoping for. Seems a really odd glitch and fairly easy to address I would think. Hopefully this is something that will be fixed soon. I would like to encrypt my drive.
USB or wireless keyboard?
Do you have access to another keyboard you can test with?
Keyboard/Mouse – Troubleshooting Wireless
Bluetooth devices become unresponsive
Bluetooth Interference Sources
Bluetooth Interference Sources (2)
If your Wi-Fi is capable of generating a 5 GHz signal, try that.
Restart the computer holding down the command - option/alt - P - R keys before the gray screen appears. Continue to hold until you hear the startup chime for the second time.
OMG. Continued... OK, so i thought hey, looks like Sierra updated some things related to the file system and encryption. They probably killed this bug. NOPE! Updated to Sierra today, turned on FileVault... rebooted... EXACT Problem. Same keys on the keyboard failing. Can't enter my password. Got caught in some hellish loop of resetting my password to increasingly simple things... the subtext in one of the errors says "you can try changing your password to not use complex or accented characters". So this is clearly a known issue. It blows my mind that some keyboard driver error ? could stop me from using filevault completely on my Mac Pro. FINALLY, the ONLY way i got this to work... was to make my password a single letter (but it can't be any of the broken characters above). ***. So to enable encryption on my HD, i have to use a ridiculously insecure password. Nice. WHY ? Help Apple! All i want to do is encrypt my stuff. So weird. OK. That's all for now - turning off FileVault again. I'd rather have a secure password on the login.
Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem or a suggestion for change. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem/suggested change solved sooner.
Is there a way to disable FileVault when the keyboard won't work properly ? I found that if I hold down the opt key while typing it logs in what's typed. Is what's typed logged in correctly ..... I don't think so.
When are Apple going to stop pretending that this is not a FileVault issue and fix it. I have used several wired and wireless keyboards including brand new Apple ones. The second I enable FileVault they all stop functioning correctly. This is so annoying that despite decades of buying Mac and Apple products they are no long ser on my shopping list.
Same problem on my MacBook Pro after the last update 21/12/2017. Disable FileVault works properly for the first time, but after that I've tried to unable FileVault again and same problem without solution! I'm trying to disable FileVault and it is working now. Any idea?
You are entitled to 90 day telephone support from Apple. Try contacting them.
Thanks much for the reply. Unfortunately, tho, we're about 4 months into our new iMac. And, from what little I know, this seems to be an issue with FileVault rather than the keyboard, since the Mac itself has a built in message saying at login that if your keyboard doesn't work to disable Filevault and that will fix the "keyboard" problem and it does. The keyboard starts working right away, although Filevault takes a few days to completely decrypt in the background. Then I encrypt the fusion drive and all works fine for a week or two, then the issue starts again. It makes no sense to me that Filevault has something to do with the keyboard working, but there you have it. Would love to learn more...
Hi Eric:
Thanks so much for your help trouble shooting this issue!
As you suggest, now it looks like the keyboard itself is to blame, rather than the iMac. Here's what I've learned regarding the issue:
It's a USB keyboard, not wireless. It always works when the computer has not been restarted, but there is a weird issue where it will quit working occasionally and intermittently after a restart on the iMac. When this happens, the problem persists on multiple USB ports on the iMac, and another (different) keyboard works fine. When the problematic keyboard is plugged into a MPP 17" it will not work there for a while either. However, after 30-60 minutes, the problematic keyboard will work again on both the MBP and the iMac, and then it will function fine until the iMac undergoes a restart (but some restarts do not reproduce the problem, but others do).
Does this behavior ring any bells? Or should I just return the keyboard for a new one?
Again, thank you very much.
You are welcome. I'd get a new keyboard since works properly using another keyboard.
Interestingly I have a very similar experience with the built-in keyboard on my new 2015 MacBook Pro. It randomly stops working at the boot/filevault password prompt. Disabling filevault fixes the problem - but that is obviously unacceptable.
Keyboard and mouse inop at filevault screen
Just pointing this out that it may be more complicated than a keyboard issue (surely the keyboard built in to the laptop should be compatible).
There may be more than one issue at play here but this does sound suspiciously similar.
Same problem with Mac Pro... turned on File Vault, Mac reboots, login screen... usb keyboard and mouse dead as a Dodo! You then have to wait a minute or so before Apple gives you an option to reboot into recovery. So, did that but requires you to change your login password. Did that rebooted... 'PASSWORD INCORRECT'! (both old one and new one)... really, this is the kind of stupidity that made me abandon Microsoft all those years ago FS!
Anyway... bright spark of intuition; plugged usb keyboard into the Mac as opposed to the display... next reboot hey presto... keyboard works! However, keychain had to be unlocked with the old password, just to confuse the issue even more? Thanks for that Apple.
Now waiting for File Vault to encrypt my entire HD before deciding what to do next as you CANNOT turn it off until it's done that! If it means, I have to unplug my keyboard from the display and plug it into the Mac every time I reboot... well, they know what they can do with that!
Apple must have a room someplace, where techs check out the new software on new Macs, old Macs and everything in between? Question is... do these people just sit around drinking coffee all day then tick all the boxes? Or do they actually find these issues... then with a wry smile on their smug little faces, decide not to tell anyone about it??
Filevault Issues: Keyboard Quits Working
