iMac High Sierra Upgrade - USB Keyboard not recognized

None of that VRAM or other stuff worked for me.

Here's what fixed my problem:

I repaired disk permissions through the startup disk utility at boot. I rebooted and held down Command+R to get into the menu. Then in the disk utility, I chose the disk repair option.

My Apple USB extended keyboard with numeric keypad is working. Thank goodness.

Thank you. That worked. I shut down the iMac, then unplugged it, then disconnected the USB keyboard. Then I powered it on without the keyboard attached. Once it was completely booted up, I plugged in the USB keyboard and it worked.

This is a known and common problem with the Apple USB keyboards. It happens after almost every major OSX upgrade and BootCamp users often face the problem when switching back and forth between Windows/Mac modes. Seems Apple just chooses to ignore it. None of that usual "reset SMC or PVRAM" *bs* helps (does it ever?) ...

What DOES work though, is to unplug your wired keyboard (leave your Mac turned on) and leave the keyboard unplugged for a couple of hours. Then re-attach and hey presto - it works again. You can tell by the green light on the Caps Lock key. If it turns green when pressed the keyboard is working again.

So, I had the same problem and the following worked for me. (I have no idea why)

1. Unplug the USB keyboard.

2. Reboot with the keyboard unattached.

3. When the machine is all the way back up, plug the USB keyboard in. It recognized the USB keyboard then.

Hope this works for you, too.

Strange as it may seem, if I disconnect the Apple usb keyboard and plug it into a windows based computer, and that computer recognizes the keyboard (always does, btw), then I disconnect that keyboard from windows and plug that same keyboard back into my iMac27, it works again. I have had to do this 3 times in the past month with each successive “update” to the iOS. Irritating, but very predictable.

so, I had to plug another usb extended keyboard into the High Sierra Imac and it worked.... I then plugged the non working one into my other imac and it started working . I then plugged the orginally non functioning keyboard (worked fine before the upgrade) back in the HIgh Sierra Imac and it started working. I'd recommend once you begin your High Sierra upgrade, UNPLUG your APPLE usb extended keyboards. I have no idea what people would do who have no access to extra keyboards just laying around. Drag my Imac to the Apple Store???

My USB keyboard is recognized only sometimes by my late-2012 MBP running MacOS 10.13 when it’s plugged into either of the MBP’s USB ports directly. It always works when it’s plugged into either of the MBP’s USB ports through any of

• a Belkin 4-socket USB hub
• an Amazon USB extension cable
• a laptop cooling pad whose USB power plug has a USB socket

I came back from a business trip to notice this on my Mac Pro too (it apparently rebooted last Sunday after the latest security update installed). Plugged the keyboard into a colleague's Windows machine, then plugged it into the Mac again and hey presto, it worked.

Seriously, Apple, sort your lame response about this out. This is lame. The fact we have to revert to using another platform to make our keyboards is lame. THIS IS LAME. Fix it.

😠

Stefan

I managed to fix the USB keyboard problem, by using the USB Extension cord between the keyboard USB Cable and the computer USB port. Then, for some reason the keyboard always shows up after the computer goes to sleep.

Same thing happened here. I did find after plugging and unplugging it a few times it now works again.

Unplug your wired keyboard (leave your Mac turned on) and leave the keyboard unplugged for a couple of hours. Then re-attach and hey presto - it works again.

I have also been experiencing this issue (that's 22 of us so far…). It's intermittent, with the keyboard freezing after ~ 24 hours of uptime, and not showing on the System Information > USB > USB 2.0 Bus > Keyboard Hub > Apple Keyboard.

Feels like a software/firmware glitch, as this was stable AF under Mavericks, El Capitan & Sierra. No hardware changes AT ALL.

Come on, Apple, Disk Utilities is not going to fix something like this. Are you seriously going to ignore the failure of MILLIONS of full-size Apple USB keyboards due to a major OS upgrade?

Strange, the thread I was responding to disappeared. I tried the plugging my Apple USB keyboard into a windows computer, where it worked just fine, and then I plugged my Apple USB keyboard back into my iMac27 (2013) again. That worked and it only took 1 minute to fix the problem!

Thank you! I had the same problem with my old Macbook Air from 2013 or 2014 when I updated it to High Sierra, and I unplugged my Apple USB keyboard and plugged back in and got that to work.

My new 2017 Macbook Air with High Sierra, though, was not recognizing the same keyboard after unplugging and plugging back in multiple times and trying to repair the disk permissions. So, I tried this and it worked! I kept the computer on and worked without the keyboard for 3 hours, then I plugged it in. At first it didn't seem to work and I unplugged it, then I plugged it back in and waited a minute or so and it is now WORKING! Thank you!