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How To Fix Your Macbook Keyboard (Software Solution Included)

A while back I wrote about problems that could occur with modern notebooks. I mentioned the keyboard problem of many MacBooks released after 2016. 

A quick recap of the issue: These laptops have a refined keyboard mechanism with new "butterfly" switches. This was allegedly a necessity since Apple wanted to make the newest iterations of their notebooks quite thinner and decided to develop a new keyboard mechanism with less travel and hight being used in the case. 

The keyboards can have some problems such as double or even more keystrokes when pressing on one key. My keyboard was especially affected by this with the "E" and space key. Some users also report being unable to press the button because of it being hard. 

Apple acknowledges these problems and mentions that this problem only affects a small user base. From experience, I can say that it depends on the usage of your keyboard. If you are a student who types a lot, then the risk of getting problems with your keyboard rises. 


Replaced Butterfly Keyboard on a Macbook Air (Late 2018)

What can we do to fix this issue?

Note: I will not hold any accountability if you try these suggestions and end up breaking your Macbook or have other financial disadvantages by this blog post. Everything is still at your own risk. 

One of the most important things to note is that you should not do anything that could void your warranty. Things like taking your Macbook apart could lead to problems with Apple's customer service. Also, don't try to take off the keycaps. This will break your keyboard and Apple will see it as your fault. 

The first thing you can do is to look if this instruction from Apple helps you at all: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205662
This could help you get away from stuck keys because of dust under some keycaps. 

The final and best solution is to go to the Apple Store and tell them about your problem. They will most likely help you out by replacing your top case or keyboard with a new one without charging you since this is an engineering fault. 
You can get more information about this program on this page: https://support.apple.com/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-notebooks
This program is available for four years after your Macbook Model first made it to the stores for sale. This should cover a lot of MacBooks and hopefully yours too.


Butterfly Keyboard before the replacement

But there is another fast temporary fix that could solve your problems by installing a small application called Unshaky. This program blocks all the double inputs from your keyboard before appearing on your UI. It is free and should be secure since the code can be accessed and checked, I would suggest you look into the details of the program or do some research if you want to use this fix. This is also a great alternative if your warranty has been void or Apple refuses to fix your MacBook under their four-year-long program. There is a donation button for people that want to thank this wonderful person for developing this software and helping out lots of people facing these problems many years from now. 
You can find Unshaky under this link: https://unshaky.nestederror.com

Conclusion

It is really sad to see that a company like Apple did a bad job like this when designing something so essential for a computer. The newest MacBook Pro Retina 16' has the older rubber dome switches that lasted forever like on the pre-2016 MacBooks. Hopefully, Apple will make even better replacement parts so that these machines costing a few thousand dollars will be usable for the next 10 years+. 

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