iMac High Sierra Upgrade - USB Keyboard not recognized

I am having this problem too, with my older USB Apple keyboard. I updated to the latest version of High Sierra and it stopped working. It works with every other computer in the house, both Mac and PC. I tried everything listed here (reset SMC & NVRAM, run Disk Utility, plug into PC, leave unplugged for a while) to no avail. My newer Apple USB keyboard works fine. Both are A1243 models, but I suspect the newer one has some different internal components that are incompatible with the latest version of High Sierra + my MacBook.

What did the trick for me was to unplug the keyboard, put my iMac to sleep (wait for it to fully sleep) and then plug the keyboard back in.

A USB extension cable also brings it back to life but I dont wanna use that solution as it isn't a very elegant one. So I tried to unplug the keyboard, put my iMac to sleep, plugged the keyboard back in and it worked.

I just updated my system before reading about it, and the same thing happened to me. I talked to them in chat and didn't resolve anything. Basically the only way to revert back is to erase your entire system.......who wants to do that?
I hooked up a windows keyboard and it works fine. I hooked up my wired keyboard to a windows computer and it works fine. But for some reason when the apple keyboard is hooked up to the apple laptop it doesn't work................ They told me my only other option was to go into the store, but being as it's the end of semester and I have the end of year rush of assignments that isn't going to be helpful. I wish they had an easier way to revert back to the previous OS. Or another way to back up the computer to the cloud..

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 had this with one of my USB devices. I was able to resolve this today with the purchase of a USB C to USB convertor and then plugging the device into the USB C port at the rear of my iMac.

I went through the Apple Care and Apple tech help procedure and none of the usual things worked. My iMac is only three weeks old. Luckily I have an Apple store nearby who tested my item on display iMacs, item not recognised! However when he connected to a MacBook USB port it popped up on screen and behaved normally much to the surprise of the guy in the store, confused springs to mind.

He went away and came back with said USB C to USB connector connected everything together and the device worked and was recognised by the iMac. I came home with the convertor and everything is now working as it should.

I would add that I have other devices connected to my iMac via the standard USB ports and they work perfectly normally so it is a bit pot luck and frustrating, I suppose you could try my solution to see if it works for you.

Wow. Just wow. Apple really needs to sort themselves out.

A Sierra-loaded (not High Sierra) Mac Pro exhibited similar issues. Just wouldn't recognise an Apple USB keyboard. Plug into a Windows box, gets detected. Plug back into the Mac Pro, hey presto.

We shouldn't have to spend more money to buy USB 2 to USB C converters to make this work! This is madness!

This is great customer service.

Apple gets millions of people to use their hardware and then just leaves them to suffer.

This has been an ongoing issue for so long and Apple still has no reply?

An actual software update to fix this issue not that nonsense of SMC & NVRAM crap. That does not work.

What worked for me is.

Keep Apple keyboard plugged in then plugin another non-mac keyboard.

I tested with a couple of restarts. Apple keyboard does not work each time, then plugin the windows keyboard and the Apple keyboard starts working again.

#WindowsMakeAppleWork, well-done Apple

Worked for a while... updated point release last night... really?

Probably firmware in the keyboard. Why they wouldn’t release a firmware update package through the App Store is beyond me.

funny thing is that my ancient apple keyboard from my original Imac works fine ....really dropped the ball on this one , High Sierra ...boo...

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

Tried this and it worked perfect. Thanks!

23 of us

That does nothing for the issue. Plus holding down buttons on the keyboard doesn’t make much sense when the keyboard not being recognized is the issue. 😀