Keyboard not working after booting into Recovery Mode

Question

Level 1

11 points

Keyboard not working after booting into Recovery Mode

Hello,

i have a 15-inch, Mid-2010 Macbook Pro that was running macOS 10.12.3 Sierra. I've just recently installed a 240 GB SSD and a 2 TB hard drive in the place of the optical drive with a data doubler. I've also upgraded to 8 GB of RAM from the stock 4 GB.

My problem is this: The keyboard works when I initially boot up the Macbook Pro, I hold [Command + R] and it boots into recovery just fine. However, once I am in recovery mode, the keyboard does not work anymore. The trackpad works fine, and the only thing that works is the green light on the [Caps Lock] key. The Time Machine backup I have of my old hard drive is encrypted on an external hard drive, but I cannot even type the password to restore the backup to my new SSD because of this keyboard issue. I've tried using an external USB keyboard and that does not work either. I've searched online and no one seems to have had this exact problem. Has anyone ever had this problem and can anyone offer a solution?

Thank you in advance

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.3), null

Posted on Feb 10, 2017 7:27 AM

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Answer 1

S.U.

Level 6

9,601 points

Feb 11, 2017 8:35 AM in response to ataplin777

I don't know if this will cure that, but you could try SMC and NVRAM resets:

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

Good luck!

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Answer 2

Sep 26, 2017 2:13 PM in response to Kmaddox89

I’m having the exact same problem with the same age mac.

It’s failed updating to High Sierra and now I can’t enter the password in recovery mode to unlock my backup!

Hello!

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Answer 3

ataplin777 Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 11, 2017 1:30 PM in response to S.U.

I ended up installing Sierra on the new drive, the SSD, and restoring the Time Machine backup after that. Once I got past recovery mode and into the setup of Sierra, the keyboard worked normally again. I'm guessing it is disabled in recovery mode for some reason, although pointless because there are things that need to be typed in recovery mode. Nonetheless, if anyone else comes across that issue, there is my workaround. Thanks for the advice.

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Answer 4

pcoote

Level 1

4 points

Jun 17, 2017 12:46 PM in response to Kmaddox89

Did you get a resolution? I have exactly the same issue, keyboard is disabled in recovery mode so cannot unlock the hard drive to re install the OS!

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Answer 5

Jun 17, 2017 4:09 PM in response to pcoote

No I never received a response unfortunately so i ended up having to flash my drive and reinstall the entire system so when that happened my keyboard began working in recovery again.

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Answer 6

May 9, 2017 12:47 PM in response to ataplin777

I have the exact same model macbook pro, same year, and i'm having th EXACT same problem down to the T. However the solution that worked for you isn't going to work for me as I need to use disk utility in recovery OS to unlock my boot drive to repair it but of course the keyboard won't work, so it seems crazy having to erase and reinstall all my things because i can't enter a password. I don't have time machine, i backed up what i could to google drive but i'm going to lose some software I no longer have the serial numbers to. Still haven't found a resolution and I've been searching for over a week now.

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