RIP Butterfly Keyboard: Apple Finally Completes Transition to Magic Keyboard

Monday May 4, 2020 5:55 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

After years of complaints over sticky or unresponsive keys, Apple has finally finished transitioning its notebook lineup away from its issue-prone butterfly keyboard.

With the new 13-inch MacBook Pro featuring the same scissor switch Magic Keyboard as the 16-inch MacBook Pro, Apple no longer sells any new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air models with a butterfly keyboard. If you are browsing Apple's refurbished store, however, be aware that many of those models are still equipped with the butterfly keyboard.

ifixit base 2019 13 inch macbook pro keyboard

Image: iFixit

First introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro last year, the Magic Keyboard features a redesigned scissor mechanism with 1mm of key travel, an inverted-"T" arrangement for the arrow keys, and a physical Escape key next to the Touch Bar.

Models with more reliable Magic Keyboard:

2019 16-inch MacBook Pro
2020 13-inch MacBook Pro
2020 MacBook Air

Apple's butterfly keyboard suffered from issues with sticky, repeating, or nonfunctional keys. The company continues to offer free repairs to affected customers as part of its worldwide service program, and it even apologized over the matter last year, although it downplayed the issue and said that only a "small number" of customers were impacted.

Tag: Butterfly Keyboard Issues Guide

Popular Stories

Here's What Apple's Apps Look Like on the iPhone Duo

Tuesday October 20, 2026 11:12 am PDT by Juli Clover

With just three days to go until the iPhone Duo is released, Apple is getting ready for the launch. Behind the scenes, the App Store now has screenshots of Apple's built-in apps running on the Duo. We've seen some apps in marketing materials, but images of the ones we haven't seen give us an idea of what it will be like using the iPhone Duo day to day. Many apps are shown in landscape...

• 116 comments

Apple Pulls Keynote, Pages and Numbers From App Store [Update: Back]

Thursday October 22, 2026 11:01 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple has temporarily removed Keynote, Pages, and Numbers from the App Store, just after releasing an update that added iPhone Duo support and a new Intelligent Assistant. It is not clear if the apps were removed intentionally, or if it is a bug. Apple has not said when the apps will be reinstated, but if it was in error, they should return soon. Update: The Mac versions are back without...

• 64 comments

RIP, MacBook Ultra

Monday October 19, 2026 9:37 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Apple today sent out invites for an experience in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28, and the "Pro and tell" tagline on the invitation likely means that the rumored MacBook models with touch-enabled OLED displays will stick with MacBook Pro branding instead of the once-rumored "MacBook Ultra" name. The long-rumored "iPhone Ultra" ended up being named iPhone Duo, so speculation that Apple...

• 165 comments

Top Rated Comments

Skeith

85 months ago

Thank you for beta testing everyone.

Score: 63 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Blackstick

85 months ago

I manage a small IT department, on a population of 2200 Macs, we had 378 keyboard (top case) repairs logged through GSX in 2019. Don't buy butterfly keyboard Macs, folks. On a population of 6300 Dell Latitudes, we submitted 41 keyboard repairs for 2019, respectively.

Hoping these Magic Keyboards take us back to 2015, 12 MacBook top case repairs out of ~900 Macs - for the year.

Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)

joelhinch

85 months ago

You won’t be missed.

Score: 44 Votes (Like | Disagree)

sofila

85 months ago

I just recall a long list of forum members explaining us why this keyboard was incredible and any issue mentioned was just a form of unjustified hatred. "Mine works perfectly" attitude.

Now I wonder, what weight should I give to them from now on?
All this arrogance, all these irrefutable certainties thrown into the toilet.

Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)

dguisinger

85 months ago

I honestly think most of the naysayers didn’t actually own one. I owned all three generations of the keyboard and never had an issue. None of my coworkers who have various iterations of the keyboard have had issues. I’m not saying issues didn’t exist, but like most issues reported in this forum, I highly suspect they’re massively overblown.

Apple apologists never stop twisting themselves into pretzels trying to defend what after 3 years was clearly one of the worst and most expensive decisions in the company's history. I find it utterly amazing that there are still people who try to act like those of us who had multiple keyboard/topcase replacements were just loud and obnoxious and didn't own them. My 2017 MBP was in need of its 3rd keyboard replacement when i traded it in for a 16" MBP -- and I have owned a MB Air (with the same keyboard design) since my MBP's keyboard first failed on a business trip and I needed a computer while Apple repaired it. Sure, I could have returned it within 30 days and not gotten stuck with the expense, but given all the reports it was a good decision, seeing the keyboard failed two more times. But having to buy a backup to a brand new $3500 laptop just so I can keep typing means YES, I am going to complain like hell about the issue.

Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)