iPad Pro Smart Keyboard not working

Just went to Apple and they exchanged my keyboard and all is fine now. It’s not the iOS its the keyboard. They replaced my keyboard no charge. Apple Redeemed.

Apple is replacing these Smart Keyboard for free provided it was purchased not earlier than three years ago.

I got mine replaced last week and the new one seems to work flawlessly.

i had the same problem and I tried this and my keyboard was working.

1. Detatch ipad of out keyboard and turn off (no need to power off using the power button but you may try if this isn't working for you)

2. Now detach the keyboard off the magnetic contact and reattach

3. Turn on your ipad with wifi connection and place it down and attach to the magnetic contact to be in place.

See how it is working for you.

P.S. I read one of the solutions using the magnet moving on the magnetic field on the keyboard to activate the magnetic flux. It seemed working but then it was on and off. But after doing that I tried this and it always worked for me.

As someone who hates to reboot the iPad when the Smart Keyboard stops working, I found the following steps to work for me:

1.) From your home screen, swipe to the right to get the search bar at the top.

2.) Tap into the search bar and see if typing with the keyboard works. If it does, you can now type in Safari and other apps now.

3.) If that still didn’t work for you, then I’m afraid a reboot is necessary.

Regards,

Daric

Contact Apple Customer service, they are aware and honoring a replacement if defective w/in 3 years of purchase date. I just got a new one. Hope this helps.

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my problem was a wifi problem. it works at home fine, but doesn’t work with a certain public wifi location. as soon as i go to airplane mode, the keyboard starts working again. for my problem, i never got an error message indicating that my keyboard is unrecognizable.

I had this fault too.

It is a hardware fault with the keyboard connection. Over time the strip that connects the pins and the keyboard stretches, thus causing an intermittent short between the pins and the keyboard itself.

I have a new keyboard now, so will see how that goes. My old one lasted about 14 months.

I've had the keyboard and iPad Pro for around a year and started getting the accessory not supported error as well.

Tried the rebooting technique did not work.

Got some rubbing alcohol and a cotton bud, ran it over both the iPad contacts and the keyboard contacts, tada started working again.

So far so good.

Shortly after the replacement keyboard I thought I would look at my new iPad unit, so I returned my now two week old ipad Pro 12.9mand ordered a new unit. I did not return the smart keyboard. On arrival I had the same issue, however, Verizon replaced my second keyboard with a new one again and I am a week into the new iPad and smart Keyboard and all is well.

Cedric

I have an original iPP 12.9” at end of 2015, and just got a ASK for first time at end of 2017. I was having issues of the keyboard not working on my lap when I didn’t have a table to work on, but also sometimes not working on flat surfaces. My iPP is always up to date with latest iOS. I tried the hard restarts and cleaning contacts multiple times with no luck. Sometimes changing the angle or reconnecting would work, but just for a little while. I returned the ASK and got a new one, which is now worse. It wouldn’t work at all. Then I read more blog posts...

THE PROBLEM & THE FIX:

One blog post pointed out that we “monkeys“ weren’t connecting it right. This non-monkey was right, but it is certainly not anything us monkey’s were necessarily doing wrong. If you look really close at the connectors area when connecting it, you may notice that it is misaligned with the pins when the magnets snap together. I believe there is a flaw with where the rare earth magnets inside the iPP and ASK are located which may just be a quality of production / tolerance issue in either or both. In my case, i think it is the iPP since it has had the problem with two ASK’s. Now, when I connect my new ASK, i just let it snap on as normal and then fold the cover into typing mode. It never works as-is, but then i just slide the base of iPP around a bit (in my case to the left just a nano-meter) then the on-screen keyboard drops away and typing works on the ASK.

To me, this is a major design flaw and the fix is essentially just a duct tape fix. The problem that still exists is that it drains my iPP battery when i close up shop and use the ASK as a protective cover in my bag. It is advertised to be a protective cover and I could not find anywhere in the fine print that cautions that a pin misalignment will cause the iPP battery to drain. Again, this is because the native magnetic alignment is misaligned, and through the smallest little movements, it finds its way to this native magnetic ‘misaligned’ alignment. Essentially, the misalignment causes the screen to constantly flicker until the iPP battery is drained within a few hours, even when it was at 100%.

I’m taking the ASK back for a refund and will just do without it.

In my case, I find that sliding the iPad a little to the right lines up the connectors between the keyboard and the iPad, and that causes the virtual keyboard to disappear the physical one works ok after that. sliding back to the left disconnects the pins and the virtual keyboard returns, rendering the physical keyboard inoperable. At least I have a fix for it. Poor design 😟.

They did not say it was a problem with the iOS as is stated in this forum. It was simply a hardware issue. Once they replaced the keyboard the problem was solved. They apparently have a replacement program. The guy was not even surprised. I think they do not want to openly announce it. Anyway solved.

Hello,

This seems to be an hardware AND software issue related to ios 11.

After a call with Apple, they asked me to upgrade to 11.2.6 and also test this with another ipad pro (we all have multiple ipad pro isn't it).

I finally found a colleague with another ipad pro, and he was using a logitech keyboard instead.

The logitech keyboard worked fine on my ipad pro, and the smart keyboard worked for some times on his, but after sometimes stopped working (as we know too well).

BUT, when he hooked up back the logitech keyboard, this one was not working either! A reboot was mandatory.

We were able to reproduce the issue on both ipad pro.

SO, it seems that the keyboard, when aging, has bad connection and may have intermittent disconnect, that ios 10 was managing well. SINCE ios 11, intermittent disconnect seems to put the software in a buggy state (buffer overflow or something else) that can be solved sometimes through a reset (Apple procedure), but not always.

I will try another call with Apple to have my smart keyboard replaced, but I doubt the swap will last forever if they dont fix the software issue.

My two cents.

I was having this problem and most recently, even after cleaning the contacts with rubbing alcohol and rebooting, my iPad would not recognize my smart keyboard. I saw the mention of having more than one keyboard for the keyboard so went to my General settings and keyboard and found that I indeed did have two keyboards - the Smart Keyboard and Emoji. I deleted the Emoji keyboard then shutdowned my iPad and rebooted. It’s now working and hoping not to run into future problems.

I had this problem with two different keyboards, and have figured out a quick, consistent solution—if you detach the keyboard and flip it around so that back of the iPad is facing you, and try to force it into position and then flip it back, they keyobard will connect.

The keyboard and iPad won’t attach in the reverse position because it seems that the magnets in the keyboard and in the iPad alternate (positive-negative) so that it only connects in the forward position. But if you try to match the top and bottom (so that the central connector in the iPad and the keyboard match up), that’s should do the trick.

I tried using a magnet (as suggested in the comments above) and that worked for a while, but not consistently. I’d have to run the magnet all over the area above the numbers, finally stopping at the number (above the 1 and 2) before the keyboard would connect, but, more often over time, it would disconnect befoe I could set the iPad in the keyboard gutter.

It seems that turning the iPad around in the gutter precisely lines up the positive magnets in the iPad and in the keyboard of exactly the right size and in exactly the right places, and the negative magnets with the negative magnets so that it pushes whatever magetic switch is responsible for this problem back in place so that we you match positive and negative it’s ready to connect again.