Dust Is Still Breaking Apple’s Improved MacBook Pro Keyboards

Everyone wants a laptop that’s thin and light because we often need to haul these things around. Apple shaved a few more millimeters off its already slim laptops several years ago with the custom “butterfly” switches. Owners soon complained of defective switches and expensive repairs because of a few specks of dust. We thought the keyboard nightmare would be over when Apple rolled out revamped butterfly switches in the 2018 MacBook Pros, but reports of stuck keys are again piling up.

Apple’s butterfly switches have lower travel than other laptop keyboards, making them thinner. The keys barely move when you press them, but there’s still a tactile sensation as you type. For a lot of computer buyers, that’s a fine arrangement, but the extreme low-profile of butterfly switches led to problems.

Even a single crumb or bit of dust that got under a keycap could gum up the works. The debris physically stops the key from depressing all the way and triggering the contact at the bottom. Unlike past Apple keyboards, the butterfly switch assembly is so flat that the dust doesn’t have any way out. The only fix is to replace the entire top section of the case along with the keyboard.

It took several class action lawsuits for Apple to admit there was a problem. It responded by making keyboard repairs free for four years. The company also designed the new MacBook Pro keyboard with a flexible membrane around the switches to keep dust out, but Apple doesn’t like to talk about the reason behind the change. It might all be for naught, though. A growing thread on Macrumors and numerous tweets point to ongoing issues with the revamped switches. Owners are reporting the same old issues: keys work intermittently or not at all, and no amount of jostling or blowing can dislodge the dust.

When the new MacBooks shipped, an iFixit teardown seemed to show that the new silicone skirts helped keep dust out. However, that was a limited and artificial test, and some particulates did end up in the mechanism with enough typing. It would seem the 2018 MacBook Pro is behaving similarly in real life — with enough time, debris still gets stuck in the mechanism and ruins the keyboard.

This wouldn’t be such a problem if it were easier to fix. You can’t even take the keys off a MacBook without running the risk of breaking something. Apple will most likely deny there’s a problem until it has no choice, so you might want to keep that in mind when shopping for a new computer.

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