OS X esc key stops working (randomly)

Question

I have a 2011 MacBook Air with OS X Mountain Lion (I've upgraded from Lion). And ever since upgrading my escape key randomly stops working. And it's not that the keyboard on the laptop would be damaged as the same happens if I use Apple's Bluetooth keyboard. So I'm guessing it's a software issue.

Also in some cases pressing ctrl+esc achieves the same thing as just esc so I'm 100% it's not a hardware problem.

the escape key stops working completely but it starts working again after I restart the computer.
this usually happens after the computer wakes from sleep. So it's not like that is just stopps working in the middle of using it, but rather after I put it to sleep (or just close the lid) and then open it again.

Does anybody have any idea what this might be all about and how to fix it?

Stops working, as in "does not respond to any pressing"? Or works intermittently? — , Sep 25 '12 at 15:41
The first one. Then it works OK when I restart the whole computer. — Jan Hančič, Sep 26 '12 at 06:36
You may have a hardware problem. I'd make a full backup if you haven't already, and take it to your local Genius Bar. — , Sep 26 '12 at 15:57
Like I said, the same happens if I use the bluetooth keyboard. Are you suggesting that two separate pieces of hardware just happen to fail in the same exact way at the same exact time :) ? — Jan Hančič, Sep 26 '12 at 21:03
Have you tried using a different (empty/pristine) user account and tried to reproduce the issue there? It's possible some software runs in the background and breaks things for you. — Daniel Beck, Oct 02 '12 at 09:30
I have a similar thing happening (early 2011 MacBook Pro), mostly with my left command key but occasionally with other keys. I have AppleCare but I'm guessing this will require some time without my computer and I've been putting off dealing with it for over a year. I figured it was the keypad on this computer but your experience with an external keyboard gives me pause. I'd love it if it were software related and something I could fix easily. I'm staying tuned here. Mine had this problem with Snow Leopard... pre-Lion and Mountain Lion. — Richard, Oct 02 '12 at 10:55
I'm seeing this issue as well, and I have a brand new retina macbook pro that came with Mountain Lion on it. It not only affects the internal keyboard's esc key but also any number of external USB or Bluetooth keyboards. — , Oct 04 '12 at 14:34
I'm also experiencing this on a brand new retina Macbook with Mountain Lion. I've reset the SMC, reset the PRAM, reinstalled Mountain Lion and still am having issues. Once my ESC key stops working, it doesn't work on my bluetooth keyboard and it doesn't work or show up in the keyboard viewer.
The only thing I can think of is a flaw in the OS or a hardware issue. — Ben, Oct 24 '12 at 05:01
After just installing macOS Sierra on my hackintosh, I found my ESC key only works when Siri is disabled. — Charlie Gorichanaz, Sep 22 '16 at 23:59

Tom Kay · Answer 1 · 2021-12-03T12:22:23.613

99

For anyone who ends up here after upgrading macOS. I had to disable Siri and then kill the Siri process using Activity Monitor.

edited Dec 03 '21 at 12:22

answered Sep 12 '16 at 10:44

Tom Kay

1,091

3

Had this problem after update to the public release of macOS Sierra, and this answer solved it. Less than optimal solution if you want to use Siri, I guess. – Markus Amalthea Magnuson Oct 07 '16 at 08:40
3

In my case Siri was hanged and restarting it solved the issue. thanks! – Daniel Pinyol Nov 08 '16 at 09:05
3

I had this problem too. Kind of annoying as I've disabled Siri (I disabled the Notification Center too via Terminal flag which means I can't run Siri anyway). Perplexed as to why it is still running when I've disabled it... – Matt Scheurich Jan 08 '17 at 12:45
9

I am on macOS Sierra (10.12.3) and killing Siri did solve the problem! – Pauli Feb 15 '17 at 09:35
5

Brilliant! Just killing the process worked for me! Thanks very much! – Chris Edwards Nov 22 '17 at 16:26
1

Glad it worked for you @ChrisEdwards. You might find that you have the same problem after a restart, which is why i had to disable Siri – Tom Kay Nov 22 '17 at 16:52
1

This is still a problem on Big Sur. This post just solved my problem. I have been using macOS for 6 years and the random esc key not working in terminal (but fixing after reboot) has only started happening to me in the past 2 weeks – Ste Jan 20 '21 at 09:24
2

Thank you! Thought it was an issue with Karabiner. – domi91c Jul 17 '21 at 16:31
2

Amazingly still a problem in Monterey. – jcdl Oct 06 '21 at 21:18
1

even with Monterey – Anurag Priyadarshi Nov 22 '21 at 07:58
4

Can also confirm this behaviour on 12.0.1 (Monterey). Killing the Siri-process worked immediately. – Dominik Nov 30 '21 at 10:54
2

just kill siri !! – eastonsuo Dec 13 '21 at 10:31
1

Et tu Siri !!!! – Hritik Dec 17 '21 at 08:09
1

I don't know how but this actually fixed my issue. Though it's not clear what's the actual problem and why would killing Siri fix the problem with Esc key? – kabirbaidhya Dec 23 '21 at 12:51
1

On macOS 12.0 beta. Disabling Siri did the trick. Thank you! – Jagtesh Chadha Jan 03 '22 at 18:47
1

It works for Monterey as well, thanks! – Willian Andrade Jan 05 '22 at 20:43
1

how did you figure out that siri is the problem here ? – Bhavay Anand Mar 23 '22 at 05:21
1

For me just disabling it without anything else solved it. Problem stays solved for now even after re-enabling Siri. Thanks! – yairchu Mar 24 '22 at 15:15
Can confirm this still occurs on Monterey 12.4, this just fixed it for me – benyamynbrkyc Aug 11 '22 at 21:29
You're a genius. Same problem on Montery 12.6 – Bill Sep 29 '22 at 20:25

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 12 '12 at 09:00

11

I've been having the same exact issue for a couple of weeks, and it did turn out it was indeed the Visor feature from TotalFinder as mentioned before by Joe. Disabling it did solve the thing.

Anyway, as it has been said, given the fact that the behaviour is the same with the built-in keyboard or the bluetooth one, it's obvious it's not a hardware issue.

answered Dec 12 '12 at 09:00

Brieuc

111

Could you improve your or joes post by listing the version of TotalFinder that causes this bug / interaction? Is it perhaps a known issue or fixable by the TotalFinder people (for bonus points) – bmike Jan 16 '13 at 13:10
Thanks! I disabled and re-enabled Visor from TotalFinder and it works! Saved me tons of trouble :) – pyronaur Jan 27 '13 at 13:32
Thanks for pointing this out. I never would have made the connection between my esc key problem and the TotalFinder Visor. Disabled 'Hide on ESC' and now I have my esc key back! – drebabels Feb 06 '13 at 07:38
Simply opening and closing the visor solved this issue. – Swader Mar 08 '13 at 12:21
In my case, it was a different program "WiD" (to connect to a wireless-display) causing ESC to not register as a keypress with any apps. Quitting WiD let it work again. (And while WiD was running, Ctrl-ESC worked sometimes, and fn-ESC other times.)
Thanks for the hint of looking at other apps; since I didn't even try ESC for a long time after starting that particular app, I didn't make the connection at all. (And that app stays running after I disconnect.)
– not-just-yeti Aug 28 '17 at 16:13

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited May 02 '14 at 16:32

If this problem happens in every application then it is indeed a system wide problem. If it only happens in one application it's an application problem.

This problem might also come from another (modifier) key getting stuck.

To check if the Esc key is ignored by the system itself or if another key is stuck use the Keyboard Viewer:

Go to Apple → System Preferences...
→ Keyboard
Enable Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar

Then when the problem happens again display the keyboard viewer and check if any keys are stuck. If not try using the esc key there and see if it displays as being pressed. If not then you probably have a driver problem.

Show Keyboard Viewer

You could then try installing your system on another drive and try to reproduce the issue on a clean install.

This didn't help me solve the issue. The answer below saying to kill Siri and try again did. — kabirbaidhya, Dec 23 '21 at 12:54

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 12 '22 at 10:39

7

Killing Siri has made this work on Monterey(12.1) as well.

answered Jan 12 '22 at 10:39

Ash

144

I unchecked "Enable Ask Siri" in System preferences -> Siri – Sarfaraz Nawaz Apr 22 '22 at 06:12

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 22 '22 at 06:13

2

I unchecked "Enable Ask Siri" in System preferences -> Siri.

Now it looks like this:

Now my ESC is working again!

answered Apr 22 '22 at 06:13

Sarfaraz Nawaz

121

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 04 '12 at 14:48

I wouldn't do a drive wipe and clean install just yet. I would first boot into safe mode. Do this by holding down the Shift key as soon as you hear the Apple "chime". See if you have the problem then. If the escape key works reliably, it is likely a driver or software issue that is interfering. You can remove apps or third-party drivers to try to figure out which one(s) are the cause.

If it still happens in safe mode, it might be time to do a drive wipe and reinstall OS X from scratch.

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Jan 16 '13 at 13:07

As others have said, there's probably some application conflict that's causing the issue (since you said it's happening with the built-in keyboard and BT keyboard). I was having this problem, too, with the same symptoms (happening after waking up from sleep, reboot solves the issue).

In my case I believe it's related to my use of TotalFinder, specifically the Visor feature of it. Bringing up the Visor and then hitting escape seems to recover from the failure until my Mac sleeps again. If you disable the Visor or uninstall TotalFinder, the escape key wont become lost in the first place.

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 04 '13 at 20:51

The escape key on my Macbook Air was not working at all. I realized that the problem was that the Speakable Items Utility had assigned the Escape Key as the "Listening Key." Turning off Speakable Items (under Accessibility panel in System Preferences) seems to have fixed the problem.

score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Feb 15 '13 at 07:18

1

Note that in order to solve this, you might not have to disable the Visor feature completely. I only disabled the option to 'Hide on ESC' and now I can switch windows between my terminal apps without sacrificing the option key

edited Feb 15 '13 at 07:18

nohillside

100,768

answered Feb 15 '13 at 02:38

Tihomir S.

111

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered May 19 '15 at 19:56

I had enabled speech command in system preferences and soon after that the esc key stopped working. I tried several different fixes from forums before I realized it might be Speech command .Once I disabled this the esc key worked immediately. Go to System Preferences System Speech Speakable Items; Off

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

You may need to reset your SMC

http://osxdaily.com/2010/03/24/when-and-how-to-reset-your-mac-system-management-controller-smc/

Copied verbatim from the above blog post:

This is how to reset SMC on most modern Mac laptops, none of which have a removable battery:

Shutdown your MacBook Air / MacBook Pro

Connect the power adapter to the Mac
On the MacBook / Pro’s keyboard, hold down the Shift+Control+Option keys and the Power button at the same time
Release all keys and the power button at the same time – the little light on the MagSafe adapter may change colors briefly to indicate the SMC has reset
Boot your Mac as usual
Here’s the key sequence to hold down:

Reset the SMC of a MacBook Air or Retina MacBook Pro

Do keep in mind that by resetting the SMC you will lose power specific settings, like the time it takes to sleep a Mac and other customizations to power settings. No big deal, but if you have made many changes to your hardware behavior you will want to adjust stuff like sleep behavior again.
The boot time after resetting a machines SMC can be a bit longer than usual, that is normal.

Reset SMC of an iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Mini

Resetting SMC is different for non-portable Macs, but it’s still easy enough and the problems it addresses are the same. On any desktop Mac, here is how you reset the System Management Controller:

Shut down your Mac

Disconnect the power cord
Press and hold the Mac’s power button for 5 seconds
Release the button
Reattach the power cables and boot the Mac as usual
Reset the SMC of a MacBook or MacBook Pro’s with detachable batteries
sad mac reset the smc Older MacBook laptops, indicated by having a removable battery, can reset SMC with the following approach:

Shutdown the MacBook/Pro and remove the battery

Disconnect the power adapter, hold the Power Key for 10 seconds
Release the power key and reconnect your battery and power adapter
Turn your Mac on
Let boot as usual

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Sep 03 '17 at 21:59

0

For me, in macOS Sierra, with the Macbook Pro with Touchbar, ctrl + esc works, in vim. But nowhere else so far, such as escaping from a full-screen Chrome tab.

Unfortunately, killing Siri does not resolve this for me.

answered Sep 03 '17 at 21:59

Tyler Collier

151
3

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered May 28 '22 at 22:48

0

Kill siri from either GUI as suggested by some here or simply type the following in your terminal:

ps -ef | grep siri
sudo kill -9 <pid>

answered May 28 '22 at 22:48

Shaze

101

This surprisingly worked for me – Skyline X Jun 19 '22 at 16:16

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Oct 02 '12 at 17:24

0

Wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of OSX.

I hate suggesting this, but it should fix your problem. I too had a weird glitch from upgrading my mac OS. (mine was that i couldn't empty the recycle bin normally- i had to use console commands) The apple genius bar was lost, google turned up nothing, and no "expert" had any idea.

I know a clean install isn't an answer to the problem, but it's a means to a resolution of it...

Feel your frustration, let me know if you try this and if it works :)

(apple will do a clean install free of charge, if you're uncomfortable doing it)

answered Oct 02 '12 at 17:24

Ryan Hollingsworth

680

Perhaps, if you dont want anything as radical as a clean install right away, you could install on a fresh external hard drive. Boot from that, and see if the problem is there.
I think though, that this type of issue will show up or not with a new user account, so I agree to try Daniel Beck's idea first.
– ICL1901 Oct 02 '12 at 18:26
agreed.. I tried that with my issue without success.. external drive is a great idea.. good call :) – Ryan Hollingsworth Oct 02 '12 at 18:43
I should have said, that if this works, the OP will need to do a clean install afterwards.. – ICL1901 Oct 02 '12 at 20:29
Hmm, didn't know you can install OSX on an external drive and then boot from it. Will look into it. Clean install might not be such a bad idea, as the upgrade also messed with my PHP that I had. I'll just have to find the time now :) – Jan Hančič Oct 03 '12 at 08:49

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Mar 20 '13 at 04:18

DON"T REINSTALL YET: I had this problem. The keyboard viewer did not register "esc" presses. Turned out it was from turning on speech commands while playing chess. To fix it, I went to System Preferences --> Accessibility --> Speakable Items --> Listening Key. Then I changed the listening key to something other than esc, and the problem went away immediately.

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 27 '13 at 06:14

0

For me, I'd to do the both.

Disabled the TotalFinder hide on esc key
And also changed the Esc key to something (i set it to backtik `)

Now it works.

answered Mar 27 '13 at 06:14

millisami

101

score -3 · Answer 17 · answered Jan 19 '13 at 11:43

-3

Why not just briefly press the power button to wake from sleep like I do? No different from pressing a key.

Works for me!

answered Jan 19 '13 at 11:43

user39956

1

This has not much to do with the escape key not working. – Saaru Lindestøkke Jan 19 '13 at 12:13