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jackoatmon

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 15, 2011
617
655
Hey ya.

Just trying to figure out if I should exchange my machine. For me, the touch bar either completely crashes (goes black and requires computer restart to come back) or a bunch of buttons become unresponsive until restart, about 2-4 times per day of work. Usually seems to happen while in Safari (maybe I just go back to Chrome...). It's really annoying because escape is (i'm learning) the most important key on the keyboard after spacebar hahaha.

Anyway, is this the way other peoples' machines behave?
 

dyn

macrumors 68030
Aug 8, 2009
2,708
388
.nl
I'm not using it that much but thus far I haven't had it crash once. There are some other people who've reported something similar like you and it seems that all of you have the 15" MBP version, mine is the 13" one. This could also be some issue with macOS or the app that is freezing which also freezes the touch bar. Have you tried digging up some log files in Console?
 

jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,421
4,208
SF Bay Area
Hey ya.

Just trying to figure out if I should exchange my machine. For me, the touch bar either completely crashes (goes black and requires computer restart to come back) or a bunch of buttons become unresponsive until restart, about 2-4 times per day of work. Usually seems to happen while in Safari (maybe I just go back to Chrome...). It's really annoying because escape is (i'm learning) the most important key on the keyboard after spacebar hahaha.

Anyway, is this the way other peoples' machines behave?

I have not heard this happening before. You should get them to look at it. The touchbar has a similar processor to the Watch and a it's own software. So if something is going on they may be able to do a fresh install of touch bar software.
 
Last edited:

SurfaceBookUser

macrumors member
Nov 13, 2016
70
38
Never happened to me. Once in the past month mine stopped registering input but that was fixed by re-logging into my account.
 

raqball

macrumors 68020
Sep 11, 2016
2,323
9,573
Mine has never completely crashed but it does glitch out quite often...
 

myscrnnm

macrumors 68000
Sep 16, 2014
1,941
1,660
Seattle, WA
I have never had the Touch Bar crash on me. But in the first few days, bringing up the emojis on the TB and then switching to another app would cause the emojis to persist on the main display. Hasn't happened again since though.
 

ardchoille50

macrumors 68020
Feb 6, 2014
2,142
1,231
I have not heard this happening before. You should get them to look at it. The touchbar has a similar processor to the Watch and a it's own software So if something is going on they may be able to do a fresh install of touch bar software.
Yeah, the Touch Bar runs a modified version of watchOS.
 

Softwarez

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2016
43
52
Mine never crashes. But there's is an audible crackling noise caused by the touchbar starting up from a cold boot.
 

jackoatmon

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 15, 2011
617
655
ok so sounds like it's not very common at all !

or at least not ubiquitous

i might ask apple / get a new machine, then

one thing i've learned from having to work without the touchbar often now, is that including the esc key as part of the touch bar was an enormous error

i'd be willing to bet that next year's MBPs will have a physical escape key opposite the on/biometric, and the touchbar running between 2 hardware buttons
 

jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,421
4,208
SF Bay Area
one thing i've learned from having to work without the touchbar often now, is that including the esc key as part of the touch bar was an enormous errors

Agreed. If you spend time using a text editor or any other tool that requires you to press the esc often you want a physical key.
 
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Softwarez

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2016
43
52
ok so sounds like it's not very common at all !

or at least not ubiquitous

i might ask apple / get a new machine, then

one thing i've learned from having to work without the touchbar often now, is that including the esc key as part of the touch bar was an enormous error

i'd be willing to bet that next year's MBPs will have a physical escape key opposite the on/biometric, and the touchbar running between 2 hardware buttons

In settings, you can change the "~" (Tilda) key into escape. As far as my coding experience goes, I have never used ~ except in linux commands.

EDIT: Whoops, I made a mistake, apparently you can only remap hardware keys. I remember reading somewhere that you can could map any key to esc, but I guess not.
 

jackoatmon

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 15, 2011
617
655
In settings, you can change the "~" (Tilda) key into escape. As far as my coding experience goes, I have never used ~ except in linux commands.

EDIT: Whoops, I made a mistake, apparently you can only remap hardware keys. I remember reading somewhere that you can could map any key to esc, but I guess not.

Yeah I started a thread asking if anyone knew any way to make ~ into escape, but no one on the board knew of anything

You used to be able to do it with 3rd party programs before Sierra came out.
 

Branskins

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2008
1,235
180
I've had the emoji bar keep crashing on me in Messages, but quitting and reopening the app fixed it
 

Westbrook0

macrumors member
Oct 17, 2016
65
10
I've had the emoji bar keep crashing on me in Messages, but quitting and reopening the app fixed it

I have a funny problem using Whatsapp; if I click the emojis button using the trackpad, it lags like crazy. If I press the emojis button on the touch bar, it works perfectly!
 

Branskins

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2008
1,235
180
I have a funny problem using Whatsapp; if I click the emojis button using the trackpad, it lags like crazy. If I press the emojis button on the touch bar, it works perfectly!
That emoji button always lags for me too in Messages! The Touch Bar is much faster when it hasn't crashed on me lol
 

xergic

macrumors newbie
Apr 29, 2010
4
0
Ostrava, Czech republic
Every time it turns off after some idle time. When I move the mouse it flashes once and goes dark again. Touching the bar shows only the button used... Pressing Fn key shows F keys and it's almost fine - apart from missing Esc key.

No need to restart. But is't really annoying.
 

MarcBou

macrumors regular
Oct 11, 2016
244
161
Mine crashes allways when using the App "Duet display", at least using premiere Pro.

The brightness and volume keys won't work, well, they work if I have the 2 buttons config (volume down/volume up, and same with brightnes) but it doesn't work when trying to use the press and hold, so i have to reset the macbook to get it back. For now when using Duet display I'll have to use the other brightness and volume controls.
 
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