How To Login To Your Mac If Your Keyboard Isn't Working

If your keyboard isn't working when you are trying to log in, there are a few things you can do, but no perfect solution. You can use another USB keyboard, but in some cases your wireless keyboard will work as a wired keyboard too. You can also set up an Accessibility function in advance to avoid the problem.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let me show you different ways that you can log on to your Mac even if your keyboard is broken.
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So let's say you're at your Mac's Login Screen, like this. You want to go into the password to login but your keyboard isn't working. How can you type in the password if your keyboard isn't working. Well, there are a few different methods that you can use. Now obviously if your keyboard is broken you're going to want to get it fixed. If it's a MacBook you're going to want to take it in and get it fixed. Just getting around and being able to login one time might be good for backing everything up or checking things one last time before you take it in to get serviced. So how would you go and do that? Unfortunately this could be difficult if you haven't thought of one thing in advanced. But if you happen to have a USB keyboard around then it's pretty easy. Just plug a USB keyboard into your Mac. Even if it's a MacBook you can plug a USB keyboard into your Mac. That USB keyboard will work and you'll be able to type. You may already have a USB keyboard from an old Mac or an old PC lying around. Or you may be able to ask a friend or neighbor. A lot of computer people have tons of old USB keyboards lying around. If you have no access to a USB keyboard at all you may want to get one just as a safety precaution in case this ever happens to you. The truth is you can get it even cheaper than $10. You can probably find them at yard sales and thrift stores. So keep your eyes open and maybe have a small little USB keyboard tucked away somewhere for an emergency 
Now if you have an iMac or some other Mac that has a  stand alone keyboard like this one you already have a wired USB keyboard. But wait! This is a Bluetooth keyboard, right. Well, it has a connection in the back here that you may think is just for charging it. But you could actually use that to connect this to your Mac and turn it into a wired keyboard. Just take the USB cable that came with it, or one that you use for charging your iPhone or iPad or something, take that, plug that into it and then plug the USB end to your Mac and it will actually use this as a wired connection to the keyboard. Now this may solve a lot of people's problems. If you're having trouble connecting to this keyboard using Bluetooth simply plugging it in not only will allow you to type on the keyboard but will often solve the connection problem. As when you connect your Bluetooth keyboard wire to your Mac it should remember the keyboard even when you unplug it and connect it to Bluetooth.
Now let me show you another method but one that requires that you set something up in advance. I'm going to go to System Preferences and then to Users & Groups. Then I'm going to go to Login Options and Authenticate by clicking the padlock and entering my password. Now I'm going to turn on Accessibility Options and Accessibility Keyboard. This will bring up the Accessibility Keyboard when you're on the Login Screen. Hit Apply. Now I'm going to logout to show you how it works. 
So you can see with the Accessibility Keyboard option turned on for the Login screen I get this onscreen keyboard here. I could make sure I'm typing in this field here and I can enter the keys to type in the password by clicking with my mouse. You do have access to the Accessibility Keyboard even if this is turned off. But only by using keys on the keyboard. You can use Command Option and F5. It will bring up options that will allow you to turn on the Accessibility Keyboard. You can see here Accessibility Shortcuts. You can turn on Accessibility Keyboard and this will happen even on the Login Screen. But, of course, your keyboard needs to be working in order to use Command Option F5. So it works in situations where maybe some keys on your keyboard aren't working and others are. As long as you can do Command Option F5 you can get to the Accessibility Keyboard. Once you have the Accessibility Keyboard up you can then type any character you want using your mouse. 
So to review the three things you can do if you can't use your keyboard during the Login Screen is:
1) Get a cheap USB keyboard. Plug that in.
2) Take the Apple keyboard you may already have and use the lightning connector 
      to turn it into a wired keyboard. 
3) You would have had to turn on the Accessibility Keyboard for the login screen
     before the problem happened.
There is another option. You can use Screen Sharing to have one Mac take control of the screen of another Mac. With that first Mac you can use the keyboard there to type in characters. But you have to have Screen Sharing turned on on the broken Mac first. It's easier just to turn on the Accessibility function to see the keyboard on the screen. That actually is a decent option if this occasionally happens to you. Like maybe you have a third party keyboard that sometimes doesn't work on the Login Screen. Having the Accessibility Keyboard means you could use your trackpad or mouse to enter your password and get to the settings you need to correct the problem. 
Hopefully at some point in the future Apple will add a feature to the Login Screen that will allow you to bring up the Accessibility Keyboard even if you didn't select that in advance.

Comments: 11 Responses to “How To Login To Your Mac If Your Keyboard Isn't Working”

Lali Raj

4 years ago

I want to know if I turn on the Accessibility Options and Accessibility Keyboard and leave it on permentaly every time when I login do I have to use Accessibility Keyboard to login? Are will I be able to login normally using keyboard. Please let me know. Thanks this video is especially very useful.

Gary Rosenzweig

Lali: Yes, you can use the physical keyboard too. Try it and see.

dan

3 years ago

My Bluetooth keyboard was not connected to the mac mini.
So when I turned the mac mini on, I couldn't login.
What can I do?

dan: So you have no other keyboard available? No USB keyboard anywhere? And if you turn on the keyboard it doesn't pair it? How about a mouse or trackpad? If you have one of those, you can bring up the on-screen keyboard.

Gwen Gaviola

Hello,
If I haven't set up those accessibility settings, how else can I log in to my Mac desktop? My mac wireless keyboard stopped working. I have it plugged in and it's still not being recognized with my Mac. I also plugged in another Lenovo USB keyboard and that's not working either. I'm stuck on the log in screen with no access to the accessibility keyboard.
Thanks for any help.

Gwen: If USB keyboards aren’t working, you have a more serious problem. Try a reboot. If that fails then try booting into safe mode. If that fails, try an nvram and Smc reset too. If all fails, Genius Bar time.

The accessibility keyboard work-around isn't working after restart. I can enable the accessibility keyboard while logged in and it works fine. It also works if I simply log out. But if I power down and/or restart, I can't access the accessibility keyboard at the login screen. Pressing opt+cmd+F5 enables voice over with no other options. I have selected "accessibility keyboard" under the User & Groups>Login Options>Accessibility Options. Is this just an OS version problem? Thx

I forgot to mention: 2017 macbook running big sur

jd: Sorry, I don't know why the Accessibility Keyboard isn't showing up for you when you restart.

Rob Fowler

Best bet is to plug the keyboard in using its charging cable AND have a wired mouse plugged in as well. You will only need these WIRED devices until you complete the log in. By that time, you will be able to use your mac mouse and your mac keyboard wirelessly.

Matthew Buchanan

Have people tried holding Caps Lock down while their Mac boots up? This has worked for me (to a point) or at least gets the keyboard/trackpad working but a Reset Password screen for my internal and external drives. Of course I don’t want to have to reset my password unless I have to. And why that screen I don’t know for sure but. This is a reoccurring problem. I just want to login into an external drive. Tips appreciated?

Comments Closed.

How To Login To Your Mac If Your Keyboard Isn't Working

Comments: 11 Responses to “How To Login To Your Mac If Your Keyboard Isn't Working”

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