I have experienced the exact same problem using my wireless keyboard as described in the initial posting of the subject. When using the screenlock password the box fills up with a stream of unknown characters and completly renders the keyboard useless. I have to restart the computer to put things tight again and, for a while, the screen lock works fine but then without warning the same problem occurs. I have reverted to a normal keyboard which I used used on my old Apple Computer and to date (the last 8 days) there has not been a problem logging in. My iMac 27" is a late 2013 model bought with wiresless keyboard and mouse and Trackpad, all have worked without fail until updating to OS X EI Capitan.
El Capitan problems with Apple Wireless Keyboard
I KNOW WHAT IS CAUSING THIS! I have done the many suggestions from these forums and have just had my keyboard replaced. The problem still occurred when waking up from sleep with my trackpad next to my keyboard.
If you go into System Preferences/General and untick the "allow handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices" the problem will go away!
I am running OSX 10.11.2, hopefully this will be fixed in the next release to give back the new functionality that we must now disable to fix this bug.
Bingo - I have now have my wi-fi back. Thanks and Happy New Year!
Hello Looperp55. I am still having the same problem but reading your response has prompted me to untick "allow handoff...." in the General Prefeneces. Not sure what the consequences of that will be elsewhere but it will be interesting to see if that resolves the problem for me.
I am one of those who also uses all three wireless devices, keyboard, trackpad and mouse and they sit next to each other on the desk in front of me. I have also lost contact with the mouse on ocassion but the track pad (so far) has never failed.
I will let you know after a while if the it has resolved the problem for me. Great Joy!!
Hello again Looperp55. Alas, having had a week or so of uninterrupted 'log ons' on my iMac the porblem has returned even though I followed your suggestion and unticked the "allow handoff.....". I hope that at next Apple update a solution will be found.
I do have a screw driver to hand and I am getting quite adept at disconnecting the batteries, reconnecting and back up and running in a short space of time, just becoming an annoyance now. This problem only happens at log in and never once the computer is up and running.
Keep calm and carry on!!
Still having this issue with OSX 10.11.4 beta 2 (15E33e). Very frustrating to take an hour or more to get the iMac and the keyboard connected again. Tried everything I can think of to isolate this somehow, but nothing seems to make any difference. I've tried all the suggestions posted in this thread, and nada. Normally, just turning the keyboard off and back on again will solve the issue, but not today. Once I turned the keyboard off, I could not get it to reconnect. Finally deleted the keyboard in Bluetooth preferences, then had trouble getting it to pair again. Finally, removed the batteries from the keyboard for an hour, then replaced them. The keyboard then tried to pair (blinking green light), and the iMac found it. What's up with this?????
> I have the same issue with my wireless keyboard adding random keystrokes to the password box after the Mac has been asleep and also being erratic (basically unusable) on occassion during normal working.
OK. I am having this exact problem too. Just upgraded my MacBook Pro to El Cap in the last week and it started shortly thereafter. Crazy wireless keyboard response when trying to login after sleep--slow response and tons of repeated keys for a single keystrokes. And this behavior continues even after I have logged in via the MacBook's keyboard.
As others have pointed out, it seems to be the wireless trackpad interacting with the wireless keyboard. Disconnecting the bluetooth trackpad fixes the wirelesskeyboard problem. Re-connecting the trackpad it starts the problem up again. Power cycling the MacBook Pro seems to be the only solution to have both the wirelss keyboard and trackpad working properly again.
Moving the trackpad to the side does not help. And even if it did, it would not be a good soluction since the trackpad needs to be near the keyboard to be useful.
Sounds like "If you go into System Preferences/General and untick the "allow handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices" the problem will go away!" has not been effective for all. And I too am leery of the futher impliatons of changing this setting.
Anything new on this? -a
Hello again, for those who have followed this, and other similar posts, on this subject it may be of interest to read my latest offering on this problem.
I have completly removed the 'Wireles Trackpad' from my workstation and reverted back to using just the mouse. The Trackpad, with batteries removed, sits forlornly at the back of the desk but the result has been that since removal, about 3 weeks ago, I have not experienced the problem at all.
I will give it another couple of weeks and the real test will be, when reconnected, whether the problems returns. If that is the case then that could be conclusive evidence of the cause.
Keep Calm and Carry On!!!!
I followed the suggestions of several posters and removed (actually turned off) the trackpad for several weeks. Today, I turned it on and left it on while the iMac went to sleep. Sure enough, on the very first time I woke the iMac, the problem returned. As I started to post this reply, I noticed the trackpad generating nondescript characters as I tried to type. Turned the trackpad off, and now I can type normally.
There is obviously some interaction between the wireless keyboard (version 1 with batteries) and the trackpad (version 1 with batteries) under OS X 10.11.X. I am running beta 7 of 10.11.4, loaded just last night, and this was a test to see if the issue had been fix. NO, it hasn't.
Not sure if this is an issue just with iMacs or does it apply to all Macs? Has anyone seen this behavior with a MBP or Mac Mini?
Thanks, Charles Johnson
Hi Charles, I reconnected my Trackpad 24 hours ago and the problem has immediately returned. I think that conclusively shows that the Trackpad is the cause - or ceratinly something that it intereacts with it to create the problem. I don't know what can be done about it but hopefully Apple will pick up on our conclusions and provide a solution. I am using OS X El Capitan version 10.11.1.
I guess for me it means that my system will have to do without the convenience of the Trackpad and I will just use the mouse (also wireless) and the keyboard.
Just Keep Calm and Carry On!!
I agree with you Llanilad, I hope Apple will pick up on this because it's so annoying. I've had this problem since going to El Capitan and I'm currently on 10.11.4 and it still happens. Based on history with Apple, I think we'll be waiting a while, but I hope I'm wrong.
I just upgraded to El Capitan last week; naively thinking that all the bugs would have been worked out by now - no such luck! My wireless keyboard has been intermittantly "broken" ever since, displaying all the erratic symptoms described in this thread. My solution for the last few days has been to shut down and reboot my iMac whereupon my keyboard miraculously returns to full working order. It was with some relief that I found this forum and discovered it's not just me. Following the suggestion about the trackpad perhaps causing interference, I have now removed it from my desk and taken out the batteries. I'll let you know how I get on.
It has now been a week since I disconnected my wireless trackpad and guess what ..... absolutely no problems whatsoever with my wireless keyboard; c'mon Apple when are you going to fix this!
I've noticed it happening increasingly lately (El Cap 10.11.4). Again, all I do is power cycle my keyboard. Irritating workaround, though.
hello i have a similar problem with the trackpad 1
it worked oke with an imac 2009 until i had to replace the batteries
then would not pair (os x 10.11.4)
it was still paired with an mac mini 2012 so the trackpad was oke
when unpaired it from the mac mini (osx10.11.4) it would be visible anymore
i tried the same thing with an old mac mini (osx10.7.4) and everything worked oke i can pair and unpair without any problem. I ordered a new trackpad 2 . This new trackpad worked fine on all configurations. So the problem is likely located in the last updat of osx 10.11.4
PS same probmen with wireless keyboard so i work with wired keyboard now
greeting
DocDavid
hello i having problems with the wireless keyboard and the trackpad 1
the new trackpad 2 worked oke in all configurations