

You wouldn’t be blamed for not being able to tell which version you have.

There are different types of butterfly keyboards, and it’s not like Apple’s updated MacBook keyboard - dubbed the “Magic Keyboard” - has a ton of key travel to it. Those in the know can instantly recognise a butterfly keyboard, but it’s also easy to overlook. How do I know if I have a butterfly keyboard? These keyboards are unintentionally designed to fail. While the new design helped, it couldn’t stop the inevitable, as iFixit discovered in their testing.

With later butterfly keyboards, Apple did try putting a band-aid over the problem by adding a membrane on top of the switches, in an attempt to stop debris from getting in. You caan imaagine how aannoying thaat could be. Some keys, you type and nothing happens others, you type double letters. But the new butterfly design was fundamentally flawed and allowed dust and dirt to get underneath the switches, causing a frustrating “sticky” feeling, in addition to causing typing errors. If the only issue with these keyboards was their lack of travel, the story would likely end here. That meant a smaller form factor, but a typing experience that wasn’t for everyone (personally, I’ve always enjoyed typing on mine, but it’s a polarising subject). Part of that thinness came from the new keyboards, which were designed with a “butterfly” mechanism that allowed for significantly reduced keyboard travel. Apple began producing these keyboards in 2015 with the revamped “MacBook,” which the company touted for its thinness and portability. No keyboard is perfect, but Apple’s butterfly keyboards are especially imperfect. What’s the problem with Apple’s butterfly keyboard? And even though it doesn’t make headlines as much these days - Apple largely fixed the problem and moved on - many of us haven’t yet gotten past it. If you have friends who bought a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro in the past year or two, they might not be able to sympathise with your woes. You’re not alone, as this is a common problem with a particular kind of Apple keyboard. You press another key and it enters that letter twice. You press a key on your MacBook and nothing happens.
