Your MacBook keyboard works fine — keys press, letters appear — but the wrong characters come out. You hit the double-quote key and get an @. The # is where the £ should be. Or an accent floats over the next letter instead of typing. This is almost never a broken keyboard. It is a software layout / input-source problem, and every fix below takes seconds — no repair, no parts.
First: confirm it is a layout problem, not hardware
Open any text field and type this exact row: 2 3 ' " @ (the number 2, number 3, apostrophe, shift-apostrophe, and the key labeled @ on a US board). If the printed characters do not match the key legends on your physical keyboard, your Mac is set to the wrong input source — a US Mac driving a British layout, or vice-versa. That is a 10-second fix. If a key produces nothing or the same key repeats, that is a different problem — see MacBook keyboard not working instead.
Fix 1 — Switch the input source back (fixes @ and " swapped)
The classic symptom — Shift+2 gives " instead of @, and @ and the double-quote are swapped — is a US vs. British layout mismatch.
- Open System Settings > Keyboard.
- Under Text Input, click Edit… next to Input Sources.
- Add ABC (or U.S.) if it is not listed, then remove British (or whichever layout does not match your physical keys).
- Set the correct one as the only source, or use the Globe/Fn key (bottom-left) to toggle between them instantly.
Tip: turn on Show Input menu in menu bar in that same panel. The little flag at the top of the screen tells you at a glance which layout is active — most people who "randomly" get wrong symbols bumped Control+Space and flipped layouts without knowing.
Fix 2 — Stop the accidental layout toggle
If your symbols flip mid-sentence, a keyboard shortcut is cycling your input sources. Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Input Sources and uncheck "Select the previous input source" (Control+Space) and "Select next source in Input menu" (Control+Option+Space). With only one source installed, there is nothing to toggle to.
Fix 3 — Dead keys: an accent hovers instead of typing
If pressing a letter shows a floating accent (´ ` ¨ ^) that only lands when you press the next key, you are on a "U.S. International — PC" or ABC – Extended layout, which treats ', ", and ~ as dead keys for building accented characters. Switch to plain ABC (Fix 1) and the apostrophe/quote type normally again. If you actually want accents on demand, keep ABC and hold Option — Option+e then e gives é — without breaking everyday punctuation.
Fix 4 — One app types wrong, everything else is fine
If only Chrome, Slack, or a game shows wrong characters, the app has its own layout or a stuck modifier. Quit and reopen it, and check the app's own language/keyboard setting. A physically stuck Caps Lock, Option, or Command key also changes what every keystroke produces — press each modifier a few times to release it, then retest.
Fix 5 — Autocorrect and text replacement changing your words
If whole words change (not single symbols) — "teh" becomes "the", a name gets rewritten — that is autocorrect or a text-replacement rule, not a layout issue. See Mac text replacement and autocorrect to tame or turn it off.
When it is NOT the layout
A few symptoms that look like wrong-character typing are actually hardware or a different setting:
- Keys repeat or double-type — that is the butterfly-keyboard / mechanical fault, covered in keyboard not working.
- Function keys do the wrong thing (brightness instead of F1) — see Fn key not working.
- You want Caps Lock or Ctrl remapped on purpose — see remap modifier keys.
If a key is genuinely broken
If, after fixing the layout, a specific key still prints the wrong symbol or nothing at all — and it is a 2015–2019 butterfly-keyboard MacBook — a repair can run $400–$700 because the whole top case comes with it. At that point a clean, tested MacBook from our Apple clearance section often costs less than the fix, and you can put the old one toward it with a trade-in quote even with a bad keyboard. But try the layout fixes first — nine times out of ten, the keyboard was never broken.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my MacBook typing @ when I press the double-quote key?
Your Mac is set to a British input source while your keyboard is US (or the reverse). On a British layout Shift+2 is " and @ sits by the Return key. Switch to the ABC / U.S. input source in System Settings > Keyboard and the two swap back.
Why does an accent appear before my letter types?
You are on a dead-key layout (U.S. International or ABC – Extended). Those turn ', ", and ~ into accent builders. Switch to plain ABC and punctuation types normally; hold Option when you actually need an accent.
My symbols suddenly changed mid-typing — what happened?
You almost certainly pressed Control+Space, which cycles input sources. Remove the extra layout or disable that shortcut (Fix 2) so there is nothing to toggle to.
Is typing the wrong characters a sign my keyboard is failing?
Rarely. Wrong symbols for the right keys is a layout/input-source setting. Failing keyboards usually show dead keys or repeating keys instead — a different problem.
How do I reset my MacBook keyboard to the default US layout?
System Settings > Keyboard > Text Input > Edit…, add ABC, make it the only input source, and remove the rest. Restart the app you were typing in if it does not update immediately.