Arrow Key Issues

By Scott Duck, 24 August, 2021

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

A few months ago, I updated to Big Sur. Right after updating, I noticed that when arrowing through text character by character, it will occasionally skip a character. Also, in Numbers, when moving left to right, it will occasionally skip a column. This could be a hardware issue with the right arrow on my keyboard, causing it to register a double key press, but I don't think so, for two reasons. First, I didn't notice this problem until right after updating. Second, and more importantly, when it skips a character, VO will say the entire word the cursor is in, which would not happen with a double arrow key press. I have a 2015 MacBook Pro, bought new in late 2016. It's almost five years old but it has a keyboard design which is not known to be prone to problems. The keyboard problems didn't start until the 2016 MBPs. I am inclined to think this is a software issue, perhaps related to VO cursor tracking, but I'm not very familiar with the VO tracking options, as I have always used the default configuration with regard to tracking. I am curious if anyone else here has had a similar experience and if anyone knows how I might fix the problem. It's getting really annoying.

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Comments

By Kevin Shaw on Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 12:36

Try toggling Quick Nav on and off when this happens and see if this fixes the issue. I have the opposite issue where VO will read character by character if I'm navigating using option and the arrows to read word by word. I find this is a Quick Nav issue and toggling it on and off works to fix it.

If it persists, send a note to Apple aCcessibility and see if they can reproduce it with the same steps.

By Ekaj on Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 12:36

Hello Scott. I've experienced this too off and on starting only this year, but oddly enough I still have my mid-2013 MacBook Air. I've found that toggling QuickNav on/off with VO Q helps only some of the time.

By Scott Duck on Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 12:36

Hi Ekaj. Quick nav doesn't help the issue any in my case. I have found something interesting. I have a Apple bluetooth keyboard. It's the old style, the kind that uses double A batteries. I paired it with my MacBook and have been using it all afternoon. As long as I use it, I do not have the issue. When I use the MacBook's built in keyboard, the issue returns. I suppose that this would suggest a hardware problem but it still doesn't sound to me like a hardware problem. That's partly because I have a hard time believing that it is just a coincidence that this issue started right after the OS upgrade. I suppose it could still be a software issue and VO somehow handles the input from a bluetooth keyboard differently than from the built in keyboard. Or maybe I'm just stubborn and don't want to accept that my MacBook keyboard is toast. LOL. Do you have a bluetooth keyboard that you could try to see if it solves the problem for you? If it solves it for you too, then it is most likely a software issue.