Fixing a Touch ID keyboard after upgrading to macOS Sequoia
2024-10-14 | #macos #keyboard | @Acidus
I regularly use 2 Macs: a work laptop and personal laptop. All my peripherals are plugged into a monitor, and I have a single Thunderbolt cable going into a Mac. Switching between computers is as simple as unplugging the cable from one Mac and plugging it into the other.
Since both computers are usually in clamshell mode, I use a keyboard with Touch ID, plugged into the monitor via a wired USB connection.
After upgrading both machines to macOS Sequoia, I noticed that Touch ID stopped working. More specifically, it was as if the machines didn't even know I had a Touch ID keyboard at all:
- Touch ID wasn't an option for logging in.
- Touch ID was not offered when doing a password-protected task like installing an app.
While there are many articles on the enshitified web, they were either:
- AI-generated garbage.
- Pre-dated macOS Sequoia.
- Had crazy advice like deleting random plist files.
Turns out the actual answer, at least for me, was to power cycle the keyboard:
- 1. Turn off the keyboard power switch on the back corner.
- 2. Unplug and replug in the USB cable.
- 3. Turn back on the power switch.
I didn't do anything else with the Mac, and this worked. I locked the screen, and Touch ID was now an option to unlock it.
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