Ever since updating to macOS 10.12.2, my MacBook Pro has had horrible problems with Bluetooth. Multiple times per day, the keyboard disconnects. Sometimes it reconnects automatically a few seconds later. Sometimes it reconnects only after I power cycle it or toggle Bluetooth. Sometimes to get it to reconnect I have to reset the Mac’s Bluetooth module by holding down the Option and Shift keys (on the internal keyboard, natch) to access the Debug submenu of the Bluetooth menu bar icon. And sometimes all that fails and I have to reboot the Mac.<\/p>\n\n
At first I thought this was due to a hardware problem with my original aluminum Apple keyboard. I had been able to extend its life<\/a> by making better connections to the batteries, but power problems with this model seem to be common, and eventually something inside of it breaks.<\/p>\n\n Liking the keyboard’s feel, but tired of dealing with the AA batteries, I replaced it with a Magic Keyboard<\/a> (Amazon<\/a>). I ended up liking the Magic Keyboard slightly less, as it’s flatter, it’s harder to feel the edges of the keys, and the left-right arrow keys are harder to find because they aren’t half-size.<\/p>\n\n More importantly, the Magic Keyboard also<\/em> would disconnect all the time. Sometimes it would reconnect and think that a key was stuck down. I’d see the same letter repeat for several lines, or see several lines of text delete one character at a time. Still suspecting a hardware problem, I reported these problems to Apple Care. After ruling out Wi-Fi as a cause and also reproducing the problem on a second Mac, I got them to send me a replacement Magic Keyboard. It exhibited the exact same problems. Curiously, the Magic Keyboard also did not work reliably when directly connected via Lightning. I had thought that when used with a cable it would act like a regular USB keyboard, but apparently the cable only provides charging and Bluetooth pairing assistance.<\/p>\n\n Thinking\/hoping that the problem was with Apple’s keyboards, I then bought a Logitech K811<\/a> (Amazon<\/a>), which I’d heard good things about. Indeed, it’s a great keyboard. It’s like an improved version of the Apple aluminum keyboard that I liked so much. It can pair with three different devices at once and quickly switch between them. It’s still low-profile, but the keys have slightly more travel than Apple’s, they’re slightly clickier, and there are larger spaces between them, so it’s easier to feel their edges. It has the T-shaped arrow key layout, and you also get an extra function key: F13. One downside is that some of the hardware functions (like brightness) are assigned to different F numbers than on the internal keyboard, and I have had a hard time getting used to this.<\/p>\n\n There are also a bunch of software issues compared with the Apple keyboard. The OS doesn’t know the keyboard’s battery level. You need to install a kernel extension<\/a> to make the media keys behave as standard function keys. Both the menu bar and flashing bezel indicators for Caps Lock get out of sync with the actual state of the key. It keeps forgetting the level I’ve set for the keyboard backlight. LaunchBar and Dictation can’t detect taps of the fn key.<\/p>\n\n And the Enter key doesn’t work. You’re supposed to be able to type Enter by pressing fn-Return, but (unlike with Apple’s keyboard) this just generates a Return<\/a>. Logitech support first blamed this on a defective keyboard and sent me a replacement that had the same problem (as did another, older, Logitech keyboard that I tried). They then blamed a recent OS update, but I reproduced the problem on 10.10. It’s possible<\/a> to use Karabiner Elements<\/a> to program another key to act as Enter, but that didn’t seem worth the extra software to me. Instead, I opted to use the alternate keyboard shortcuts—unfortunately not consistent—in the apps where I used Enter: Control-Return to execute a BBEdit shell worksheet command, Command-Return to send a tweet in Tweetbot, Command-Return to submit an event edit in Fantastical, and Command-K to compile an AppleScript in Script Debugger.<\/p>\n\n The main problem, though, is that the K811 is subject to the same disconnection issues as Apple’s keyboard, although it seems to be slightly better at auto-reconnecting and does not repeat keys. I’m now convinced that the Bluetooth keyboard problems, which others<\/a> have<\/a> also<\/a> noticed, are due to an OS bug. And it’s not limited to keyboards: when I tested a Microsoft Bluetooth mouse, it also kept disconnecting. Fortunately, my wireless mouse<\/a> does not rely on Bluetooth.<\/p>\n The keyboard disconnections have gotten so frequent that I pulled my Apple aluminum USB keyboard<\/a> out of storage. It works reliably, but I miss the narrower layout of the newer keyboards (which keep my mouse more centered), I keep forgetting that the corner key is Control rather than fn, and I miss the dual-purpose function keys that fn enables.<\/p>\n\n Update (2017-03-08): Addison Webb<\/a>:<\/p>\n I’m having the exact same issues with my Late 2015 iMac. It’s super annoying and I also solved the problem with my Apple USB keyboard.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jordan Merrick<\/a>:<\/p>\n I have two Logitech BT keyboards, K780 and K380. Both completely unusable with Sierra, yet worked flawlessly with El Cap.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I was able to get the Magic Keyboard to work in wired mode by connecting it via Lightning and then unpairing it in the Bluetooth pane in System Preferences. I expect this to be more reliable, though it keeps auto re-pairing even before I reboot. I don’t want to turn Bluetooth off entirely because I use it for my AirPods and Universal Clipboard.<\/p>\n\n Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n Sierra also introduced a couple of serious bugs with the way keyboards and trackpads are interpreted. I occasionally notice keypresses getting “stuck”, and my cursor sometimes lags when it is moved. Both of these bugs have been destructive for me: I have, more than once, deleted the wrong file, and have selected the wrong action in several applications.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n Paul Ward<\/a>:<\/p>\n Same problem with an MX Master & K780. My MBP lives on a swing arm, & the problem is reduced when I move it away from the desk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n Update (2017-03-17): Dan Frakes<\/a> recommends FunctionFlip<\/a>, which uses the accessibility APIs to invert the behavior of the function keys so that a kernel extension is not needed.<\/p>\n\n