MacBook Pro 2015 keyboard locks shift after pressing spacebar

Hello.

I have A very strange problem with my MacBook keyboard. (MacBook Pro 2015)

It happened shortly after i gave it a wipe to remove some dust from using if in the workshop , but that may be coincidental.


As soon as i press space bar, the shift buttons become locked on, and i can't turn them off, the only way i have found to carry on typing in lower case is by holding down the space bar while typing, as soon as i release it the shift button is stuck on.

This also means clicking on a anything with the mouse is difficult as it thinks i'm holding down shift

The left shift key also doesn't seem to function, along with the left options key.

This seems to happen on all user logins, until rebooting, at which point it goes back to normal until i press spacebar again!


i have tried turning on sticky keys, as i have read that has been a solution for some people with similar issues, but it just changes the behaviour:

when i press space bar, it still turns turns shift on, but i can turn it off again by pressing the right shift key (the left one still doesn't work) Also the ?/ button and += button don't work.


i have tried resetting smc which had no effect. i can't boot into safe mode (possibly due to the keyboard issue??) and i can't reset nvram (possibly due to keyboard issue)

I can't have sticky keys and keyboard viewer on at the same time, so can't see what going on in that situation, but without sticky keys turned on i can see in the visualiser that the space bar activates shift, however, i can turn shift off in the viewer by clicking on the shift button twice, but the computer still acts as if it is pressed.


I can type on my phone (through a remote app) and space bar behaves normally, but if i press space on the laptop, my phone then types in capitals (even though the keyboard shows lower case!)


I would really appreciate any possible help with this!


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: WIERD KEYBOARD ISSUE - MACBOOK

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Jul 26, 2025 02:44 AM

Reply
2 replies

Jul 26, 2025 12:30 PM in response to Oakfield1980

Oakfield1980 wrote:

Hello.
I have A very strange problem with my MacBook keyboard. (MacBook Pro 2015)

As soon as i press space bar, the shift buttons become locked on, and i can't turn them off,

i have tried resetting smc which had no effect. i can't boot into safe mode (possibly due to the keyboard issue??) and i can't reset nvram (possibly due to keyboard issue)

[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: WIERD KEYBOARD ISSUE - MACBOOK


sounds like a hardware issue...


you can reset NVRAM from the Terminal.app copy and paste:

sudo nvram -c && reboot


(Please note: your psswd will not echo, type it in anyway, to proceed use the enter/return key)


<ignore nvram Error(s) this is to be expected, not all nvram is meant to be cleared, computer name, etc.>



On an Intel Mac or older macOS, copy & paste:

sudo nvram boot-args=”-p -r” && reboot


ref:

How to clean the keyboard of your MacBook or MacBook Pro


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MacBook Pro 2015 keyboard locks shift after pressing spacebar

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