MacBook Keyboard

Over the last few months, it’s been taking me longer and longer to write these blogs because of 1 thing – the spacebar on my MacBook Keyboard – although I think I’ve now resolved the problem!

I’ve never really been a fan of the keyboard on my MacBook, and much preferred the previous keyboards on the MacBook Air (MBA) models.  I really struggled to get used to the new keyboard, and whilst I now type almost as fast as I can on the old one, I still think I make more errors than I did before.

A few months ago that changed completely when I started to notice that spacebar key presses weren’t always recognised and I either had to correct the errors at the end of typing or delete the text I’d entered when I noticed.

It was starting to become a real issue for me, and one I wasn’t sure how I might get resolved.  In the past, I’ve always taken out AppleCare with my MBA and it ended up being a good investment for them all.

The hinge broke on my original 2008 MBA, and the whole screen and lid was replaced under AppleCare.  I developed a mark on the screen of my 2010 MBA which I believed was due to the keyboard pressing against the screen when the device was closed, and the whole screen and lid was replaced again under AppleCare.  I had a display issue with my 2013 MBA which resulted in the screen and motherboard being replaced, so without AppleCare, I’d have been pretty seriously out of pocket, and probably no longer using Apple devices!

I bought my 2016 MacBook from John Lewis, and they provided a free 3-year Extended Warranty, so I didn’t both with AppleCare.  When I started having the problems I checked the warranty and it didn’t look anywhere near as good as AppleCare, or certainly not in terms of the diagnosis and repair turnaround times.

Anyway, enough backstory!  I was browsing MacRumors (I know, it should have another U) over the weekend and noticed this thread, where Apple has accepted an issue with the butterfly mechanism keyboards on a whole range of devices, including my 2016 MacBook.  I went straight to the Apple website and booked a Genius visit for the Edinburgh store this coming Thursday.

I had a little spare time today so thought I’d read through some of the 25 pages of comments when I came across this post.  It was a link to the Apple website showing how to clean the keyboards using compressed air.  Now I didn’t have a small can of compressed air as shown in the image at home, but I do have some rather large compressed air cylinders that I use for diving in the garage, along with a nozzle I hoped would work just as well.

AND IT DID!  I’ve typed this whole blog without missing a single spacebar keystroke.  What a difference it makes not having to go back and correct mistakes every 4-5 words.  Now I just need to cancel the Apple store appointment…