Anyone's Bluetooth keyboard lagging or repeating keys after waking from sleep?

[Fomalhaut]

I know there have been reported Bluetooth issue with M1 Macs, but I am curious if anyone has my particular problem. I have an M1 Mini.

I have a (12 year?) old Apple Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad, and have noticed that about one time in 6 after waking from sleep, that the keyboard has developed severe lag and repeats key presses. The trackpad seems to be mostly unaffected, although in the past I have had periods of lagging cursor movement.

The problem makes it very tricky to log-in. I have to type one character every few seconds and often try several times if a key repeats and I have to delete it (it often "overshoots" and deletes previous characters).

I have found that disabling and renabling Bluetooth generally resolves the issue, but of course, this requires an additional (non-Bluetooth) mouse to work because I lose connectivity to my trackpad to renable Bluetooth.

I have deleted and re-paired the Bluetooth keyboard from the configuration several times, and also tried a different Apple Bluetooth keyboard (a little newer, but still at least 8 years old)

It's quite frustrating and inevitably happens when I need to access the computer quickly in the morning.

I'm on the latest general release version of Big Sur.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[AppleB]

I’m using the Space Gray Apple Magic Keyboard and Space Gray Magic Trackpad and it’s been 100% with my M1 Mini.
You may want to consider a new keyboard. I have a Apple wired keyboard from 2011 than would act up.

 

[lupinglade]

Yes, same problem here. It is very annoying, the keyboard becomes unusable. M1 Mac mini and also an older Magic Keyboard, without the keypad.

 

[jasoncarle]

Yep, happens here sometimes as well. I have a Logitech K811 for Mac keyboard.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I though that using the virtual keyboard from the "Accessibility" options might be a solution for the login issues, but this requires presses to enable (alt-cmd-f5), which is almost impossible to do with the Bluetooth keyboard playing up. What a stupid idea to make accessing the virtual keyboard a function of the physical one -doh!

 

[lupinglade]

You can use VNC from an iPhone or iPad to connect and disable/re-enable Bluetooth. SMH @ Apple.

You can also download blueutil (separately or also available on homebrew) and save the following script as restart_bluetooth.command on your Desktop or someplace convenient:

#!/bin/sh
blueutil -p 0;sleep 5; blueutil -p 1

Then run the following command in the Terminal to make the script executable:

chmod +x /path/to/restart_bluetooth.command

When the issue occurs you will be able to fix it by double clicking this script.

 

[Nihilvor]

I've been using the Amazon Jelly Comb (looks just like the full-price extended keyboard Logitech and Apple models, but is super cheap). The only issue I've noticed is when it goes to sleep, which only really happens after thirty minutes of inactivity (specifically, when I'm on the log in screen). I just hit a button a few times, and then everything is normal. I haven't ever had to reset bluetooth as I haven't lost connection.

 

[cw48494]

3rd generation Apple keyboard pairs and works amazing, my bluetooth mechanical keyboard has those issues though, even when wired.

 

[B.A.T]

I've had those issues with my current iMac (2013) and my previous iMac (2010). The easiest fix I have found is I power my keyboard off and turn it back on and everything is good for awhile. I have a hard time believing Apple can't fix this annoyance.

 

[Significant1]

Change batteries. My experience is that when my old Apple bt keyboards and trackpad starts to act "funny" it is an indication that the batteries are weak and things goes back to normal with fresh batteries.

 

[JackHinkle]

My family has a 2017 4K iMac and we also have this issue. We use the keyboard that came with it (Magic Keyboard).

I can almost guarantee that your M1 Mac mini is fine. I've noticed that Apple Bluetooth keyboards can be a bit wacky at times, especially when waking from sleep. I'm not sure what solutions there are either.

If anything, I'd try unpairing the keyboard, replacing its batteries, and re-pairing it.

 

[jdb8167]

This happens infrequently to me. Happened again yesterday. My solution has been to use MacOS Share Screen to remote in from another Mac. Then I turn off Bluetooth and back on. Sometimes I have to unpair the keyboard and then toggle Bluetooth again. One time I had to rest the entire Bluetooth stack with the option click on the Bluetooth menu.

Annoying and if I didn’t have another Mac or iPad it would be a lot worse.

I’m going to give @lupinglade solution a try.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I've had those issues with my current iMac (2013) and my previous iMac (2010). The easiest fix I have found is I power my keyboard off and turn it back on and everything is good for awhile. I have a hard time believing Apple can't fix this annoyance.

This doesn't seem to fix the issue for me. Generally I have to toggle Bluetooth, which is annoying because I need either a non-Bluetooth mouse to re-enable it (or another device to log in remotely).

Change batteries. My experience is that when my old Apple bt keyboards and trackpad starts to act "funny" it is an indication that the batteries are weak and things goes back to normal with fresh batteries.

I haven't seen any direct relationship between battery state and this issue, but nevertheless, it can't hurt to keep the batteries at a healthy charge level!

My family has a 2017 4K iMac and we also have this issue. We use the keyboard that came with it (Magic Keyboard).

I can almost guarantee that your M1 Mac mini is fine. I've noticed that Apple Bluetooth keyboards can be a bit wacky at times, especially when waking from sleep. I'm not sure what solutions there are either.

If anything, I'd try unpairing the keyboard, replacing its batteries, and re-pairing it.

I tried re-pairing a few times, but it wasn't consistent. Toggling Bluetooth seems to be a more reliable fix.

 

[jdb8167]

You can use VNC from an iPhone or iPad to connect and disable/re-enable Bluetooth. SMH @ Apple.

You can also download blueutil (separately or also available on homebrew) and save the following script as restart_bluetooth.command on your Desktop or someplace convenient:

#!/bin/sh
blueutil -p 0;sleep 5; blueutil -p 1

Then run the following command in the Terminal to make the script executable:

chmod +x /path/to/restart_bluetooth.command

When the issue occurs you will be able to fix it by double clicking this script.

This works. I haven’t had any Bluetooth issues since installing this but it definitely toggles Bluetooth off and back on again which has been a reliable fix for me. As long as I can screen share from another Mac or iPad I can use this even when the keyboard isn’t working on login.

 

[xraydoc]

I personally have not noticed this, M1 MBA, paired to (depending where I'm working) Apple Magic Keyboard (10-keyless) that's at least 4 years old, and newest version Apple Magic Extended Keyboard in Mac Pro silver & black (thanks, eBay). No issues so far coming out of sleep.

 

[jdb8167]

I personally have not noticed this, M1 MBA, paired to (depending where I'm working) Apple Magic Keyboard (10-keyless) that's at least 4 years old, and newest version Apple Magic Extended Keyboard in Mac Pro silver & black (thanks, eBay). No issues so far coming out of sleep.

I use an old replaceable battery Apple Wireless Keyboard from 2009 and it happens infrequently to me.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I Use an old replaceable battery Apple Wireless Keyboard from 2009 and it happens infrequently to me.

My two Apple Keyboards are also the 2009 A1314 model, so it sounds like this is the root cause. There is nothing wrong with the keyboards with my MBP16 and buying a new keyboard & matching trackpad is a lot of expense to fix what is is a minor inconvenience at home.

 

[jdb8167]

My two Apple Keyboards are also the 2009 A1314 model, so it sounds like this is the root cause. There is nothing wrong with the keyboards with my MBP16 and buying a new keyboard & matching trackpad is a lot of expense to fix what is is a minor inconvenience at home.

I was going to buy the Magic Keyboard but the 10-keyless version has the bad cursor key layout. The Apple Wireless keyboard works well enough for now.

 

[ascender]

Same here with a Magic Keyboard and Trackpad. Very annoying and it only happens on my Mini, doesn't affect my M1 Air.

 

[theSeb]

I have a keychron wireless keyboard and use it with an Intel Mac. When key response feels delayed, it means it's time to charge it.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I have a keychron wireless keyboard and use it with an Intel Mac. When key response feels delayed, it means it's time to charge it.

That's a good general rule, but not the problem in this case. There is something screwy in the Bluetooth stack interaction between the older Apple BT keyboards and the M1 Mini. Toggling bluetooth (thanks for the script @lupinglade!) seems to be the only reliable fix, but the issue re-occurs eventually, maybe one time in 10 after waking.

 

[jdb8167]

That's a good general rule, but not the problem in this case. There is something screwy in the Bluetooth stack interaction between the older Apple BT keyboards and the M1 Mini. Toggling bluetooth (thanks for the script @lupinglade!) seems to be the only reliable fix, but the issue re-occurs eventually, maybe one time in 10 after waking.

Not just the mini. It happens on my M1 MacBook Air too. But it is less frequent than 1 out of 10. More like 1 out of 50 or so.

 

[Mistercharlie]

Happens to me sometimes on an M1 mini. To fix it, I switch the monitor resolution back to native, and then reselect my preferred scaled resolution. Works every time!

 

[drguiom]

so this is still happening here, Mac mini M1, Apple Wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse (ok they are 10+ years old but still). Anyone know if this is tracked by Apple? I can't find any info.

 

[jdb8167]

so this is still happening here, Mac mini M1, Apple Wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse (ok they are 10+ years old but still). Anyone know if this is tracked by Apple? I can't find any info.

I had it happen once with the older models of the Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad. I used the option-shift Bluetooth menu reset Bluetooth module command and the problem went away. Since then I’ve upgraded both the trackpad and keyboard to the latest and haven’t seen it again.

Edit: The menu item seems to have gone away in Monterey. So that fix might not work for long.