MacOS – Apple Wireless Keyboard A1314 tilde key

keyboardmacos

It looks like keys with tilde ` and section § glyph are not working with OS X. I found a question on Official Apple Support Communities but there is no usable answers.

I highlighted a keys that does nothing.

I checked that on OS X Sierra on my MacBook 12" and on hackintosh with El Capitan 10.11.6. I do not have older version of Apple desktop OS to check that keys is physically working and not broken inside or on keyboard logic board.

I think that keys must be physically okay because this keyboard was into cardboard packaging as I bought it for a few years and now I found it and want to use with latest OS X.

Only workaround I found is open keyboard window and click that keys if I want to print them. But I'm a programmer and it's not really handy.

Best Answer

I'm not 100% clear on what you're asking, but what I can tell you is:

I use a number of Apple Wireless A1314 keyboards with various iMacs and MacBook Pros and the tilde ~ key works fine on all of them.
I haven't actually used any of this model keyboard on a Mac running macOS Sierra, but I have on Macs running Mac OS X Snow Leopard all the way up to Mac OS X El Capitan and the ~ key works fine on all of them.
If you actually meant the ` key (which on my keyboard is the same physical key as the tilde ~ key), then this also works on all of them.
As for the Section Sign (§), I've always achieved that with a option6 keyboard shortcut (i.e. there is no physical key labelled as § on any of my Apple Wireless A1314 keyboards.

If the above isn't helpful, you could try starting your Mac in Safe Mode just to see if that makes any difference in your scenario.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of whether your keyboard now works as you want?
Exit Safe Mode by restart your Mac as normal
Test your keyboard again

Once you've tested in Safe Mode and afterwards, let us know how you went.

Related Solutions

Keyboard or logic board problem

If the only thing that's broken is the keyboard/typing, your logic board is most likely fine.

The logic board (motherboard) will cause lots of problems if it's broken. The fact that your computer is working (mostly) normally means that the logic board is probably fine.
If you want to know for sure, you can run Apple Hardware Test to find out.

It is entirely possible that your keyboard isn't working, but before you buy a new one you may as well look to make sure it isn't a software problem.
Can you detect any pattern in when you have this problem? Are some apps worse than others? If so, it's likely that this is a software problem instead of a hardware problem.

To troubleshoot a software problem, I recommend that you do a safe boot and try typing. If the problem doesn't occur, you know that it is being caused by something related to your account. Try quitting apps and making sure that no startup items are being troublesome.

MacOS – Control not working in iTerm 2 when using Programmer Dvorak keyboard layout

Edit: There is now a new version of Programmer Dvorak that works with key combinations like ⌃A, so the instructions below are no longer needed.

◊ Option modifier is currently non-functional. Also, you cannot replace a default Roman layout with this one. Control keys should now be functional.

Option worked everywhere I tested, so non-functional could just mean that states under option don't output non-ASCII characters. If you want to disable all other input sources, you can edit the HIToolBox plist.

Instructions for older versions of Programmer Dvorak:

Open /Library/Keyboard Layouts/Programmer Dvorak.bundle/Contents/Resources/Programmer Dvorak.keylayout

And add this to modifierMap:

<keyMapSelect mapIndex="3">
  <modifier keys="control anyOption? anyShift?"/>
</keyMapSelect>

Add this to keyMapSet:

<keyMap index="3">
  <key code="0" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="1" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="2" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="3" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="4" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="5" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="6" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="7" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="8" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="9" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="10" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="11" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="12" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="13" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="14" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="15" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="16" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="17" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="18" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="19" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="20" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="21" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="22" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="23" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="24" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="25" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="26" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="27" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="28" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="29" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="30" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="31" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="32" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="33" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="34" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="35" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="36" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="37" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="38" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="39" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="40" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="41" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="42" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="43" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="44" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="45" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="46" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="47" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="48" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="49" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="50" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="51" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="52" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="53" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="64" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="65" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="66" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="67" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="69" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="70" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="71" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="72" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="75" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="76" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="77" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="78" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="79" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="80" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="81" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="82" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="83" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="84" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="85" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="86" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="87" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="88" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="89" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="91" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="92" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="96" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="97" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="98" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="99" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="100" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="101" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="102" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="103" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="104" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="105" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="106" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="107" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="108" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="109" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="110" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="111" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="112" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="113" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="114" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="115" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="116" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="117" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="118" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="119" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="120" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="121" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="122" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="123" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="124" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="125" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="126" output="&#x0000;"/>
</keyMap>

Run sudo touch /Library/Keyboard\ Layouts/ and log out and back in

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Keyboard or logic board problem

MacOS – Control not working in iTerm 2 when using Programmer Dvorak keyboard layout

Related Question