Sometimes it happens that certain keys no longer work on your Mac (Book). If you have problems with a certain letter, it is often possible to continue working and use autocorrect. The Escape key is harder to miss, because if it doesn’t work, you suddenly notice how often you actually use it. For example, for closing active processes on the Mac or for use in shortcuts such as Option+Command+Esc. What to do?
- Escape key not working: a hardware problem?
- Escape key not working: a software problem?
- Assign escape key to other key
- Using escape key on virtual keyboard
- Replace Escape key with an app
Escape key not working: a hardware problem?
We’ll start by ruling out one possible cause, which is that it’s a hardware problem. You may have dropped your Mac and the key has been behaving strangely since then. You may also have spilled liquid on the keyboard or dropped something heavy on the keyboard. If this is not the case, then the problem usually lies with the software. The good news is that these problems are often easy to solve. A hardware problem sometimes requires parts to be replaced, and physical or water damage may require you to have your MacBook repaired. Water damage is not covered by Apple’s MacBook warranty. If you find repairs too expensive, you can assign the Escape key to another key. We will explain this later. You could also use an external keyboard on your Mac, such as a Magic Keyboard.
Escape key not working: a software problem?
Due to bugs in macOS, the Mac’s Escape key may no longer work properly. It may also be that there are processes running in the background that cause certain apps to hang or suddenly quit.
If you have not installed any updates for a while, it is time to go to > System Settings > General > Software Update to see if an update is available for you.
The next step is to restart your Mac. It’s very obvious, but it can often solve your problem in one fell swoop. If this does not solve anything, restart your Mac in safe mode to investigate the problem further.
A third option you can try is to see if Siri might be causing the problems. Some users reported that their Escape key is stuck since problems with Siri surfaced. You can temporarily disable Siri via System Settings > Siri. If this does not appear to be the problem, you can enable Siri again.
Assign escape key to other key
If you have a MacBook with Touch Bar, you may not have a physical Escape key at all. This is the case on MacBook Pro models sold since 2016. The Touch Bar replaces the top function keys. At the top left you will still find the Escape button on the Touch Bar, but it is not always visible.
With the tip below you can also assign the Escape key to a physical button. This is also the solution if your Escape key no longer works due to a hardware defect and you want to assign the function to another key if you have macOS Sierra 10.12.1 or newer.
The standard Apple keyboard has five special keys to which you can assign a different function, namely: Caps Lock, Control, Option, Command and Escape. For example, you can turn Caps Lock into the Escape key:
- Go to System Settings and look for Customize special keys (you can also open Keyboard and scroll to the feature, but it’s a bit hidden).
- If you use multiple physical keyboards, first choose the keyboard you want to customize.
- Choose the key you want to use, for example Caps Lock.
- Click the drop-down menu and choose ‘Escape’.
- The Caps Lock key now works like an Escape key.
In older macOS versions, go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Special Keys.
In a similar way, you can work around the lack of physical function keys on MacBooks with Touch Bar.
Using escape key on virtual keyboard
If you cannot get the Escape key to work and you are not (yet) able to trace the cause, you can use the virtual keyboard in the meantime. This gives you all the buttons at your disposal, including other buttons that are broken:
- Open System Settings > Accessibility.
- Choose Keyboard > Accessibility Keyboard.
- Press the Escape key on the virtual keyboard.
Replace Escape key with an app
If you don’t want a virtual keyboard on screen all the time, you can also use a separate app that replaces the Escape key. An example is QuitAll. This helps to shut down any process, even if it is running in the background. You operate this from the menu bar. You can also close multiple apps at the same time and distinguish between normal or forced shutdown. Furthermore, the app can show the CPU percentage of each process, so that you get an impression whether the non-functioning or slow functioning of certain buttons is due to processor overload. You will find QuitAll as part of SetApp, but you can also purchase it separately.
We have more tips for the keyboard on your Mac or MacBook. We have many more tips about keyboards:
- You can do this if your MacBook keyboard is having problems
- Touch Bar stuck? This is how you get it working again
- Open applications on your Mac from the keyboard in 4 ways
- Here’s how to enable Bluetooth on Mac without a mouse or keyboard
- Use keyboard shortcuts on Mac: Learn to work faster with shortcuts
