If you do now know already, figure out if you are using an Intel-based Mac or a Mac with Apple silicon.Simple restarting your Mac in Safe Mode can fix this problem. Click the Stop (X) button and select Force Quit.On your Mac, open Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities).To address this, force-quit Siri and ESC will start working again. More specifically, this issue may occur when Siri freezes. It appears that this escape key issue is caused by Siri. If there is an update or upgrade, click Update Now or Upgrade Now. You can update your Mac by going to System Preferences > Software Update. Update your Mac so that your Mac has the latest version of macOS. You can learn more about this problem here to determine if your computer may qualify. Please note that Apple offers a Keyboard Service program that will service eligible MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro keyboards, free of charge. You can take your device to an Apple Authorized Service Provider.You can make a Genius Bar appointment and take your device to an Apple Store.If your issue is a hardware problem, then your Mac may need to be repaired. You can turn on the Accessibility Keyboard by going to System Preferences > Accessibility > Keyboard > Viewer, then selecting Enable Accessibility Keyboard. If this is the case, see the following steps. If the ESC key on the Accessibility Keyboard is also not working, then you can rule out a hardware defect.

This will let us determine if this is a hardware problem. If the ESC is not working at all, you may want to turn on the Accessibility Keyboard and use its ESC key temporarily until you fix the problem. It is easy and may fix your problem so it is worth trying. However a software issue may also be the problem and you can fix a non-functioning ESC key on your Mac by following the steps below.īefore you do anything, simply restart your Mac. If this is the case, then the problem can probably be fixed by replacing the whole keyboard or the ESC key.

When the Escape key is not working properly, it is usually caused by a hardware problem. If you are having the problem, this means that you won’t be able to use the force-quit keyboard: Option-Command-Esc.

Restart macbook air keyboard