Your laptop is probably dirty. My laptop is probably dirty. At this point in the 21st century, it’s just about inevitable that we all have a speck of dust or two (or three) living where our fingers hang out every day. The good news is keyboards are one of the most modular pieces of modern laptops (with some exceptions, obviously), and are therefore not too difficult to deep-clean should the need arise.
The first question you should ask yourself is how thorough you would like to be. This process can be quick if all you need is a wipe down, or it can be incredibly lengthy if you have a tendency to eat nachos while you type or like to nitpick when you clean. We’ll go all the way to the nitpicky steps in this guide, but feel free to stop wherever you feel satisfied.
What You Will Need
- A laptop
- Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, preferably 90% or higher
- A microfiber cloth
- Cotton swabs
- Compressed air (or a cleaner alternative)
What You Might Need
- Opening Picks or something else to pry keyboard keys off your laptop
- Q-tips
Step 1: Shut It Down
You may think you can get away with keeping your laptop on while you do this, and you may be right—but believe us, this process is much easier with your laptop shut off.
Step 2: Loose Debris
This is hands-down the easiest step of keyboard cleaning. If you are a busy person, or just don’t have much patience for cleaning, this is still something you should do every now and then to keep larger pieces of gunk from seeping into places you don’t want them.
Take your open laptop and hold it upside-down, so the keyboard is facing the ground. If you have a friend nearby, ask them to hold it for you—it’s easier to see what you’re doing when you don’t have to hold and clean. Run compressed air or a microfiber cloth back and forth across the upside-down keyboard to dislodge any loose debris that may be hanging out around or under your keys. If you notice something is still stuck under a certain key, try tilting the laptop to different angles to get it out. Most laptop keys have tiny edges on them that can trap debris, making it hard for larger pieces to escape out the cracks you see between the keys and the chassis of your laptop. If there’s something under there that you can’t quite get out with compressed air, it’s time for brute force tactics—skip to “Icky Stic-keys” below. Otherwise, it’s time for a wipe down!
Step 3: Grease & Grime
In our experience, this is the most common type of laptop filth. It’s easy to forget about how grimy your keyboard is until someone else points it out, or one of the keys gets stuckkkkkkkkkk. The solution is simple: a little isopropyl alcohol! Wet a microfiber cloth or a cotton swab with the alcohol, and start wiping. You may have to go over trouble spots a few times, but you should be able to get rid of most residue (and bacteria!) this way. After this step, your keyboard should look good-as-new!
Note: Isopropyl alcohol over 90% is generally free of impurities, so you don’t need to worry too much about getting it where it shouldn’t be, but it’s still a good idea to be careful! Whatever you use to wipe the keyboard should be damp, not dripping wet.
Step 4: Icky Stic-keys
Update, May 2020: Since first publishing this post, we’ve learned a lot more about MacBooks sold between 2015 and 2019 with “butterfly” keyboards. These problematic keyboards can malfunction in ways that make them seem “stuck” or to have grit underneath, but without any real means of fixing them. We recommend checking Apple’s list for its Keyboard Service Program to see if your MacBook qualifies for a free keyboard repair—once Apple’s stores and repair centers are open again. Prying off butterfly-style keycaps should be approached as a last resort.
If you’ve got a sticky key or large debris stuck under one of your keys, find something thin that you can pry with (we use our Opening Picks, but other soft plastic or wood implements can work—just avoid metal). Techniques for prying vary from keyboard to keyboard, but even thin keys can come off in one piece if you are careful. The exception here is spacebar keys, which can be extremely difficult to pry off without breaking. Proceed with caution! Once you have the sticky key removed, use a Q-tip with some alcohol on it to carefully wipe away sticky residue where the key was, as well as any residue on the key itself.
Underneath the key you’ll find the actuation hinge, (also known as a key retainer, or “that white plastic thing”). This hinge can also be a source of stickiness. If yours looks goopy, wipe it down with alcohol or soak it for a minute in some hot, soapy water—just make sure it’s dry before you put it back on the keyboard! If you do take out the hinge (or if it comes out with the key) make sure you take note of the way it is oriented in there—they can be a pain to put back if you don’t know how they are supposed to go in.
If you do happen to lose (or break) a key or a hinge during this process, don’t stress! It’s easy and fairly cheap to replace an individual key, or the whole assembly.
Step 5: Nitpick
When you popped your sticky key off, you may have noticed that it was like, really gross under there. Pet hair and small crumbs have a tendency to find their way under keys and go unnoticed for years. You may not care about this (remember, we did use compressed air earlier! No more dust!). Or, if you’re of the nit-picky population, it may slowly begin to eat away at you until you decide that something must be done. If you are ready to go all the way, set aside a couple hours and start prying those keys off, one by one. Make sure you keep your hinges and keys organized, and remember that compressed air and Q-tips are your friends!
We hope these tips help you feel empowered to exterminate the free-loading dust bunnies living in your laptop keyboard. If you got hung up somewhere along the way, you can try looking for a laptop-specific keyboard disassembly video online, or check out our iFixit guides that come with step-by-step photos and more precise instructions!
What fixes have you found for sticky, stuck, or crunchy laptop keys? Let us know in the comments, or tell us on our social channels: Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Got questions for Ask iFixit? Ask away! Leave them in the comments, or send them on social media with the hashtag #AskiFixit.
crwdns2944067:016crwdne2944067:0
So, at the moment isopropyl alcohol is in critical short supply but you think it’s a better use to clean a sticky keyboard than as a medical necessity? Some of us need alcohol multiple times of day to sterilize insulin injection sites. Or to sanitize our hands or to create hand sanitizer because that is also in short supply. Get your priorities straight I-Fix-It.
Steven Wymor - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Hand sanitizer is not in short supply. It was in early 2020. Then so many manufacturers came to the rescue, converting their distilleries, etc. Warehouses then filled with the stuff as people thought they’d make their fortunes. Nowadays you will find they are still trying to sell the surplus! in 2020 my supplier wanted $100 for 5 liters of 99.9% IPA. Now back to $30 as it was pre-Covid. No longer in critically short supply!!!
Lissajous -
What an idiotic comment. I know it's been 3 years but wow.
CapoFantasma97 -
This was written in 2018. Stop being a nit pick.
Doug - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Since this was written almost two years ago, use common sense and recognize that everything doesn’t immediately (or ever) get updated to be relevant to modern times. While repair *should* be ageless, societal trends can adjust priorities, as you know.
Clearly (or maybe not so much,) anyone is free to read/use/accomplish a task regardless of societal pressure. If you can spare a Q-tip dipped in alcohol to avoid a costly trip to the repair shop/Apple Store, you now have the inspiration. If you aren’t comfortable with that, use that gram of isopropyl elsewhere.
“Medical necessity?” Stay home right now and repair your stuff rather than expose yourself, and others, to what’s out there. That’s my vote.
Be well!
technicalmac - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
While this article was written before all this spread of the coronavirus, and yes, isopropyl alcohol is probably at a premium right now, I would think most of us have a bottle tucked away in a cabinet somewhere with enough in it to clean the keyboards. And since we are supposed to be very careful about washing our hands and disinfecting surfaces right now, I believe it is very important to clean our keyboards! We may have touched something unknowingly and now we sit down and start typing away on our keyboard… Get the picture? Cordless phones are another “need to clean” item that this method will work on, too. So thank you, iFixit, for putting this timely article out, once again!
lyndafreeman13 - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Please don’t suggest or support use of compressed air, which are huge greenhouse gas emitters. If you care that much about cleaning, get a small vacuum for the task.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_duster...
Global warming
Difluoroethane (HFC-152a), trifluoroethane (HFC-143a), and completely non-flammable tetrafluoroethane (HFC-134a) are potent greenhouse gases. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global warming potential (GWP) of HFC-152a, HFC-143a, and HFC-134a are 124, 4470, and 1430, respectively.[7] GWP refers to global warming effect in comparison to CO2 for unit mass. 1 kg of HFC-152a is equivalent to 124 kg of CO2[8]
JOHN GEAR - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Well I have seen some hysteria written, but this is like claiming cats bark louder than dogs.
Compressed air is just that. Air that you and I and all the good folk of this world breathe each and every day. It is exactly the same air that you put in the tyres of you Auto or your Bi-cycle, Foot Ball, Basket Ball, Party Balloons etc. Also if you are into SCUBA Diving you breathe Air under water.
The key here is AIR. Non toxic , free. Compressed to different pressures depending on the required purpose like those just mentioned.
The Hydro- Fluro - Carbons you quote here as bad, are bad gasses which depleate the earths Ozone Layer; used for refridgeration, eg, Air conditioning for homes, offices and Autos.This gas is a product from Oil, containing a percentage of oil to lubricate the compressors, the heart of Air Conditioning Units. If you were to spray this gas on your keyboard , it’d look and feel like it was used as a plate to hold the pizza, and would attract dust like flies to a trash can.
Jocko -
You shouldn't use a vacuum to clean electronics, as far as I'm aware they cause a build up of static, which can affect electronics. You should clean electronics by blowing not by sucking, And as for the gasses they use in "Compressed Air", yes I agree they do contribute to global warming but there is a good reason those chemicals are used instead of actual compressed air. Take a look at compressors at the hardware store and you'll find they're made of solid steel. Actual compressed air is not suited to be used in small cans, you would never be able to clean anything with the amount of compressed air you would be able to fit in those small cans.
Joshua -
Hi everyone. My laptop spacebar is really not working please can someone give me some tips. I’m10 yrs old and i need my laptop for school. I dont want to pester my parents for fixing this spacebar because the laptop has already been fixed 2 times. Please suggest some things i can get at home. The only way i typed this was by copy - pasting .Thank you.
Aadrita Roychowdhury - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Hi Aadrita, were you able to figure out your sticky key? If not, try posting this question on our answers forum. ifixit.com/answers/ask Let me know if you need help!
Amber Taus -
Take a photo of your key board before doing any thing. If more then one pop’s off or has to be removed it can be a real nuisance to get them all back in the correct place.
Ira levine - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
I just read a few of your cleaning of keyboards by the use of “90% alcohol” comments. WOW, people get a grip. Stop and think for just a minute about getting COVID, a cold, the flu or any number of germs that are found on surfaces we touch everyday without thinking about. We then transfer those germs onto our keyboards. We lick our fingers because we got some Doritos on them and continue typing, using the mouse, mouse pad or tapping the screen. ICKY. Use those alcohol wipes you've got laying around. Dig deep in your medicine cabinet for the 15 year old bottle of alcohol you forgot about. Probably could get by with some vodka (high alcohol level) or gin. Clean up all those forgotten surfaces you touch at home or work or store everyday. Phones, door knobs, refrigerator, stove, micro, steering wheel, keys, bottles and cans from the grocery store are loaded.
All these germ infested items just need a good swipe with some alcohol. Ta da! All clean, easy peasy.
Maggie Zimmerman - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
if you need to test your keyboard as in everyday use i would suggest the sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." go ahead and try on this comment.
Caleb - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
I spilt some port wine on my keyboard... I panicked, thinking I had buggered it... Tried to turn it on the next day and it worked... No worries... Now some of the keys are sticking, and I feel and hear a crunching under the keys... I imagine the wine has dried... Should I try to take the offending keys off to clean, or is it best to take it to a repairer... Please HELP... Many thanks
Judy Thompson-Hurley - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0
Does this work on a 2023 Macbook Pro?
Micah Hall - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0