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Magic keyboard suddenly typing the wrong characters

When I type a question mark I get _ and when I try to use an apostrophe I get [. And more. I have not changed my set up and in fact went in to make sure no evil elves did so...even did a factory reset to no avail.


This has happened before and simply restarting all has fixed it, but not this time. Any help much appreciated!

Posted on Aug 15, 2023 12:02 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 16, 2023 2:34 AM

Agency14 wrote:

When I type a question mark I get _ and when I try to use an apostrophe I get [.

You have the Latin American Spanish Input Source active instead of an English one. Go to system preferences > keyboard > input sources and make sure you have only one item on the list, and that the name of that item is US or ABC. Remove Latin American or anything else.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 16, 2023 2:34 AM in response to Agency14

Agency14 wrote:

When I type a question mark I get _ and when I try to use an apostrophe I get [.

You have the Latin American Spanish Input Source active instead of an English one. Go to system preferences > keyboard > input sources and make sure you have only one item on the list, and that the name of that item is US or ABC. Remove Latin American or anything else.

Aug 15, 2023 12:12 PM in response to Agency14

Possibly, one or more of the following may be the reason:

  • There is minute debris lodged between the keys and the keyboard surface.
  • The keyboard had earlier experienced a liquid spill which has left conductive material that could affect one or more keys functionality.
  • The keyboard is defective.
  • The keyboard cable (wired keyboard only) is defective.
  • The Mac's logic board / Bluetooth is faulty.


If resetting the keyboard does not resolve the issue, the next step would be to contact Apple Support directly for further assistance with this matter. To do so, simply select the "Support" link on the lower left-hand side of this forum's web page.

Magic keyboard suddenly typing the wrong characters

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