MacBook Pro 2016 keyboard issue

You are so lucky you still have the old and gold Macbook!! I am unlucky!.

Yeah, I would say check out the 15-inch Dell XPS. I glanced through a layman's review (link below). Also, a little birdie told me that if you can wait for a couple of months, Microsoft is up to something with their surface lineup! For now, I borrowed a Surface 4 from a friend to use it while the Macbook gets repaired (again)!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3179677/computers/dell-xps-15-vs-macbook-pro-15-f ight.html

Also, just so you know, I sent an email out to ****** while I keep using the one I have, suffering through the trouble (at least its not completely dead!). That way, at least I won't be out of a machine causing disruption to my work!! We have an internal app that is used by the senior executives from now till May 15th when media industry's biggest event happens -- upfronts. So, my fear was that if something goes wrong, I will be out of a macbook and wouldn't be able to resolve the situation. Now, since this person called me, I am hopeful!!! I was contemplating holding on to the current dud till at least after that event was over, and may still do that if she is not able to help!

<Email Edited by Host>

UPDATE to my previous reply. The Apple representative was able to talk to Apple Stores around my location and found a replacement BUT with the 2.9G processor, and was offered that by having to pay the "upgrade fee" of $200. To be fair, she offered that she can send something else worth the $200 for my trouble. I asked why can't she just give me the replacement without me shelling out another $200. According to her, Apple's Policy comes in the way and she can't do that. The other option given to me was a like-for-like replacement but it would have taken up to a month to arrive! So, I decided to shell out additional $200, and in exchange she would send me an Apple TV. So, stuck with another product I don't need AND $200 out of pocket...just because of Apple's policies. Mathematically it would have been the same if she had just discounted the computer....but nope, thats not the Apple way!!!!

For now, I have no choice but to get the replacement by paying $200. We'll see if the keyboard is better on the replacement. I am hoping it was my unit that was faulty, but I have seen so many messages around various boards about the keyboard problems, I don't have any hope at all! Good luck Apple...the Butterfly design was a bad idea!

Well, add me to the crowd. After taking a week to replace the entire top part on my 15" due to a bad arrow-up key I get the machine back with a space bar that has the same spongy feeling on the left side of the space bar.

This seems to a massive quality control failure, which is doubly sad given they also had systematic problems with antireflective coating peeling off on the last generation 15".

Of course it goes back to repair. At one point it felt like a luxury to have a separate smaller 12" for travel, but I guess it's more of a necessity to always have two Mac laptops, since one of them on average will be on repair.

Cost isn't a big deal to me, but inconvenience is. Not being productive for a week is a worse hit than a new machine, so I'm about to order a new Linux laptop instead.

Yes, same with my laptop. The fist one I could replace. Now I have another brand new one and the w does not work proper and the arrow up only sometimes.

There is no much help from Apple when I complain and I wonder, do I have to live with a very expensive laptop and broken buttons on my keyboare.

APPLE!!! PLEASE do something!!!!

Ines

Wanted to post an update on my issue with Apple. They did replace it, but they couldn't do the same processor. So, I paid $200 to upgrade to the 2.9G processor which was in stock. To be fair, Apple sent me an Apple TV to compensate for that $200. The first one I got, the color on the sides of the W and E key wore down and the aluminum type color tarted showing. At that point I had given up and as ines@home suggested, I pretty much had accepted my fate.

However, Apple corporate office followed up with me, and I brought the issue up. I don't know if it was a manufacturing defect or I just put a little more pressure with the microfiber cloth I was using to clean some break crumbs that had fallen on the keyboard. But the fact is that the color had come off. The person was nice enough to suggest that I can take that laptop back and get a replacement. So, I did my usual routine of wiping the laptop, go to Apple Store and got a replacement.

Now, I am so scared that something with happen to it, I am pretty much blanketing my laptop COMPLETELY, especially the keyboard. I bought some ultra thin keyboard cover, a hard clear case, a cover for the touch bar (just to protect god forbid if there is even a small drop gets in!), and a cover for the track pad. So, I have my baby covered head to toe now :-). I am hoping and praying that this time it will survive for more than 45 days. The keyboard cover is a bit inconvenient, but I have come to live with it. So, buying an ultra thin laptop, but then protecting it like **** has frozen, doesn't really meet the expectations we have. I would rather give up a few millimeters in thickness to get something reliable.

Just wanted to post an update to my story. I hope Apple does some think, but even if they do, I am not sure if they will ever recall all the laptops sold so far. What a disappointment. I now have a Surface Pro 4 as my backup (I almost made that as my primary) so that the next time the Apple laptop breaks, at least I won't be stuck in a situation where I can't even work!

I hope this post helps you guys in some way.

I completely agree. I didn't face the keyboard coating issue on my last one, or maybe I didn't notice), but this came out literally after 7 days of getting a brand new replacement! So, something is very very wrong. I wish I could buy the linux laptop as well, but the workplace doesn't allow them :-(

Hey I have a problem with my space button on my macbook 2016, 13, no touchbar, two weeks after I bought it. It didnt stop working, but on one side of the button, it cant be pressed down anymore. My friends have similar issue with this keyboard. I feel like the buttons will stop working eventually, and it is not a nice feeling. The problem is that changing the macbook is not a solution, since seems like its a problem of all the new keyboards. I think apple should do something about it.

OK, two weeks later, I've just picked up the machine after having the entire top case replaced a second time... and when testing the keys it turns out the third keyboard is also defective (in this case it's the lower-left part of the space bar). For the last two cases I have screen/keyboard recordings showing the defects. The third chance will be their final - after that I'll ask them for a refund and publish the videos to warn others.

Actually, given that Apple's attitude seems to be that I should just keep testing replacement top cases, I figured we might as well start to provide a track record to help them. First video showing the bad replacement top case http://youtu.be/SaJ_oVluxHk , and then another one for the bad second replacement top case http://youtu.be/aGVwh6QRZDg .

Well, I'll join the chorus. I've used Macs for 35 years an this 13" MBP 2016 is the first computer I've bought from Apple that not only isn't an improvement over my last one (2013 MBA), it's a significant downgrade.

Even if the keys didn't stick, I'd still hate the keyboard. I still have a 27" iMac 5k with Apple Keyboard, and it's like a breath of fresh air when I go from typing on the MBP back to typing on that normal keyboard. I often use the computer while I'm on the phone, and the MBP is so loud that it interferes with the call.

But that's not all. Like many others, I have the "sticky key" problem. In my case it's the "D" key most consistently, but it can happen to other keys too. Sometimes compressed air will solve the problem, but other times (like right now) it doesn't. It took me a lot longer than it should to write this message, for example, because I had to re-type the "d" so many times.

I've been avoiding taking it in for repair, because *** am I supposed to do without my MBP for 7-10 days? I take it in to my office every day an can't really work without it. And what are my alternatives if I want to stay within the Apple ecosystem (I do, at least for now). Seems like Apple is committed to this ridiculous path of thinner (and more and more useless) computers.

As others have pointed out, what is a significant inconvenience now (having to part with your computer for 7-10 days while it gets fixed) becomes an unacceptable expense ($1k for keyboard repair) in the future—and it's clearly a recurring problem. Most people on this thread who've had it fixed go on to have the issue again, often with a different key.

I can't believe there isn't a class-action lawsuit about this. There are so many threads here and over at MacRumors about this issue.

I don't think Apple cares about this problems at all. As long as they sell lot´s of them, maybe to people who not use it in professional way - they don't care.

My MBP took 13 days to fix at service-center. Lucky me, I have my 2013 MBP. So now after the service (new top case and logic board) I´m going to sell this lemon. What a release!

I had the keyboard issue twice. Replaced both times. The third time I pushed for a refund and Apple gave in. Do not accept these $3000 broken dells. I'll wait for the next iteration. Very unlike apple, the 2011 (new) MacBook Pro was flawless, 6 yrs, no issues and sold it for $1100. Shockingly bad product from Apple. It also has the popping sound issue.

This makes me both angry and sad. I've used Macs exclusively for almost 40 years. I remember having an Apple IIe (and then IIc etc.) in our house growing up, and every computer I've ever owned myself has been a Mac. I have zero interest in going to Linux or PC.

However, this keyboard is unusable, and obviously returning it doesn't make sense because there's no guarantee that they can actually fix it. What's the point of enduring 2 weeks without my MBP (no idea how I'll be able to get my work done during this period) with no clear solution on the other side of that?

I really wish I hadn't sold my 2013 MBA. I was perfectly happy with it. Yes, occasionally missed the retina screen but not that big of a deal. I'd easily that for a working keyboard.

The worst part is I have no hope that they'll fix this in a future release. They're just going thinner and thinner, despite the fact that no pro users I know of are even asking for this. In fact there was an article on Macrumors saying that Apple has recently renewed a patent for a "virtual keyboard". Great! No we can have even less travel and tactile feel on the keys.

So ridiculous.

To follow up my previous posts, after replacing the top case again (the first two replacement keyboards were bad), the third seems to be the charm, and now all (yeah...) keys on the machine have the same feel. I still think it's inexcusably bad QA for high-end computers, and I have no idea if this keyboard will stay good, but at least Apple kept replacing the keyboard - so one lesson is that you hopefully do not have to settle and accept that it's bad.

I changed mine last week also, the problem was when i bought it, but I couldn't´t live without it until now.

Everything worked flawlessly, only the keyboard was a mess.

My problems was that keys 2-7 sounded very loud when i typen on them. And the letter "b" sometimes came twice (said the girl 😉 swedish saying)

But I asked them about this, and they said that this has been a BIG problem. No questions asked, they changed the keyboard.

Now it works well, but it´s good that we have 3 years service for free in Sweden, because this would stress me like **** if not, it costed me 4000 dollars.