Mac Keyboard Test — MacBook & Magic Keyboard
This mac keyboard test shows you in seconds which keys on your MacBook or Magic Keyboard still register. Press a key and it lights up on the on-screen layout; anything that stays dark is not reaching macOS. It reads the same key events every Mac app receives, so it behaves identically on Apple silicon and Intel, built-in or plugged in. No install, and no keystroke leaves your browser.
How to test a MacBook keyboard
Click once inside the tester so the page holds keyboard focus, then run the mac keyboard test row by row: number row, the three letter rows, modifiers, arrows, and the keypad if you have one. Three results matter — a key that never lights, a key that lights twice from one press, and a key that lights and stays lit.
A key that never lights is mechanically dead, blocked by debris under the keycap, or switched off in software. Check software first: in System Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard, turn off Slow Keys and Mouse Keys — Slow Keys only counts a press you hold, which looks exactly like a dead key. Then plug in any USB keyboard and retest. If the key works there, the fault is in the Mac's own keyboard, not macOS.
A key that registers twice is chatter, and on a Mac that is the switch rather than a setting. The keyboard double click test times the gap between the two events, so you can hand a technician a number instead of a description. For a non-Apple board, the general keyboard tester draws Windows and Linux layouts too.
What a browser cannot test
A web page only sees keys that produce a key event, and macOS keeps several for itself. The top row in media mode — brightness, Mission Control, volume, keyboard backlight — is consumed before any page sees it, so those keys can stay dark while working perfectly; hold fn to send them as F1–F12 instead. Touch ID is a sensor, not a key. Command-Q and Command-W are taken by the browser, so test those in a text editor.
Magic Keyboard and Touch ID
The same mac keyboard test covers an external Magic Keyboard, but rule out the wireless link before blaming a key. Connect it with its Lightning or USB-C cable and repeat the test. If a key that failed over Bluetooth works over the cable, you have a connection problem: re-pair the keyboard, charge it past 20%, and move it away from a USB 3 hub or dock, both well-known sources of 2.4 GHz interference.
Treat the numeric keypad as a separate test. Keypad Enter and Return send different codes, as do the keypad digits and the number row, so a keypad that looks dead in one app may be sending a code that app ignores. Software swallows keys too: a Magic Keyboard spacebar that dies minutes after connecting is usually Full Keyboard Access turning Space into a selection key. Touch ID cannot be tested here — it sends no keystroke.
Butterfly vs scissor switches
Which switch your Mac uses decides how seriously to take one flaky key. Butterfly keyboards shipped on the 12-inch MacBook (2015–2017), MacBook Pro (2016–2019) and MacBook Air (2018–2019). Travel is roughly 0.5 mm and the mechanism sits so close to the surface that a crumb can stop a key or make it fire twice. Apple's own description of the defect matches what this test shows: characters that repeat unexpectedly, characters that do not appear, and keys that feel sticky.
Scissor switches returned with the 16-inch MacBook Pro in late 2019 and are in every Mac laptop since. Travel is about 1 mm and failures are far rarer, so on a 2020-or-newer Mac a single dead key is more often liquid ingress, a swollen battery pressing up on the keyboard, or a loose flex cable than a switch defect. Intermittent faults also hide from a single pass: a one-minute typing speed test provokes a key that drops one press in fifty faster than tapping keys in isolation.
Fn / Globe, Command, Option and Control
Modifiers deserve their own pass, because macOS lets you remap them and a remapped modifier looks broken. Press Command, Option, Control and Shift on both sides, plus Caps Lock and fn. Left and right send distinct codes, and losing only the right-hand Command is a common fault. If a modifier reports the wrong name, open System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Modifier Keys — that panel is per-keyboard, so an external board can be remapped while the built-in one is not.
On Apple silicon Macs, fn is also the Globe key, and it carries an extra job: switching input sources. That job is what usually breaks, not the key. Check System Settings > Keyboard for “Press 🌐 key to” and the Input Sources list — with only one source installed there is nothing to switch to and the key seems dead. One honest limit: browsers rarely receive fn or Globe as a standalone press, so a dark Globe key here is inconclusive. Verify it with fn+F or fn+arrow instead.
US ANSI vs ISO vs JIS layout
The Return key tells you which layout you have. Wide and rectangular, with a full-length left Shift, is ANSI — the US, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, China and Thailand. Tall and L-shaped, with an extra key between the left Shift and Z, is ISO, covering most of Europe and International English. A tall Return plus 英数 and かな keys flanking the spacebar is JIS, at 109 keys against the ANSI pattern of 101.
It matters for testing: keys with no ANSI equivalent are drawn as extra or unlabelled on a US diagram rather than reported as broken, which is easy to misread as a fault. If macOS itself has the layout wrong — backslash and hash swapping places, or 英数 and かな doing nothing — run System Settings > Keyboard > Change Keyboard Type.
The Keyboard Service Program, and testing before you book
Apple's Keyboard Service Program repaired butterfly keyboards free of charge for four years from the unit's first retail sale, independent of warranty. Eligible models were the 12-inch MacBook (2015–2017), MacBook Air (2018–2019) and MacBook Pro (2016–2019). The clock ran from the sale date, not from the day the fault appeared, so the last eligible machines aged out during 2023. Coverage now depends on AppleCare+ or consumer law where you live, and eligibility is decided by serial number.
Either way, run the mac keyboard test before you book. Note which keys fail, whether they drop, repeat or stick, and whether the same keys fail on an external keyboard — that last check is the first thing a technician performs. Apple's own first step is simpler still: press Caps Lock and watch the indicator. If the light stays off, the keyboard may not be reaching the logic board at all.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my Mac keyboard typing double letters?
One press is registering twice because the switch is bouncing — on a Mac that is nearly always hardware, not a setting. Butterfly keyboards do it when debris works its way under the key; scissor switches do it as they wear. Rule out Key Repeat in System Settings > Keyboard first, then press the key here: if a single press lights it twice, the switch is chattering and needs cleaning or replacement.
Some keys on my MacBook don't work — how do I know if it's hardware?
Plug in any USB keyboard and press the same keys. If they work there, the fault is in the MacBook's own keyboard; if they fail on both, it is macOS or the app. Before concluding anything, turn off Slow Keys and Mouse Keys in System Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard. On older MacBooks also check the battery — a swollen cell pushes up against the keyboard and kills a whole band of keys.
My Mac is acting like a key is stuck but nothing looks wrong
Check your other input devices before the keyboard. Constant beeping, a character repeating forever or menus that will not close is often a Bluetooth mouse, tablet or stylus sending stray input. Disconnect every wireless device, then run this test and touch nothing: a genuinely stuck key stays lit on its own. If the tester stays clean while the symptoms continue, the keyboard is not the culprit.
How do I test the Fn / Globe key on a Mac?
Test it in combination, not alone: fn+F for full screen, fn+arrow for page up and down. macOS and most browsers never deliver fn or Globe as a standalone keypress, so a dark Globe key in an online tester proves nothing either way. If Globe has stopped switching languages, the key is usually fine — check System Settings > Keyboard for “Press 🌐 key to” and make sure more than one input source is installed.
Is my MacBook covered by the Keyboard Service Program?
Almost certainly not any more. The program covered the 12-inch MacBook (2015–2017), MacBook Air (2018–2019) and MacBook Pro (2016–2019) for four years from the unit's first retail sale, not from the day the fault appeared, so the newest eligible machines ran out during 2023. Apple decides by serial number, and owners with clearly sticky keys were told their serial was excluded.
How can I tell if my Mac keyboard is ANSI, ISO or JIS?
Look at the Return key. Wide and rectangular with a full-length left Shift is ANSI — US, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand. Tall and L-shaped with an extra key beside the left Shift is ISO, which includes most of Europe and International English. A tall Return plus 英数 and かな keys either side of the spacebar is JIS. If macOS has it wrong, run System Settings > Keyboard > Change Keyboard Type.
My Magic Keyboard spacebar stopped working after a few minutes — is it broken?
Probably not. A key that works on another Mac but dies a few minutes after connecting to yours is software, and the usual cause is Full Keyboard Access in System Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard, which turns Space into a selection key. Switch it off, reconnect the keyboard by cable and retest here. If the spacebar also fails over cable on a second machine, the switch really is dead.