Clean apple pro keyboard dishwasher

How to clean a Mac keyboard, display, and more

It’s not difficult to do, but keeping a clean Mac can help it run smoother, and keep you from getting sick as well. Here are a few ways you can keep your Mac looking new and fresh.

Clean that keyboard

It’s fair to say that the dirtiest part of your Mac is its keyboard. Even if you wash your hands every time you sit down to type, the keyboard collects the germs and sweat from your fingers, and the dust in your room or office. This can make for sticky keys and transfer viruses, or worse.

First, unplug your keyboard from your computer or, in the case of a wireless keyboard, remove its batteries. (If you’re cleaning a laptop keyboard, shut down the computer and unplug the power adapter.) Blow out the dust and, if necessary, vacuum the space between the keys (or under them, depending on the type of keyboard you have).

Next, clean your keys with disinfecting wipes. (Apple recommends Lysol and Clorox Kitchen disinfecting wipes.) Since the alcohol evaporates, there’s no risk of liquid damaging the keyboard. Still, make sure to squeeze out sopping wipes.

If you don’t have wipes, put a drop of standard dishwashing detergent in a glass of water. Soak a soft cloth in this concoction and then wring it out until it’s barely damp. Now wipe the cloth over the keys to get rid of the grime. Rinse the detergent out of your cloth, wring it out, and then finish up by wiping your keyboard off again. Be very careful not to get water under the keys. You should do this regularly, to make sure that no germs fester under your fingers.

Prevent the keyboard from getting dirty

If cleaning your keyboard proves a mighty chore, or if you have a new one you want to protect from pet hair, cookie crumbs, and the like, you might want to use a keyboard protector, such as the iSkin ProTouch, a silicone keyboard protector that’s easy to wash (about $20). An even thinner option for MacBooks is the Moshi ClearGuard.

Get rid of dust

While most Macs today are designed so you can’t open them, the Mac Pro remains the one model that’s easy to get inside. Unfortunately, because of the way it’s designed, it also collects a lot of dust. I had a pre-2013 Mac Pro (the original “cheesegrater” case) for several years, and found I had to clean it every few months.

It’s okay to vacuum the outside of your computer with a standard vacuum, but you want to avoid using it on the inside of your Mac because of the possibility that static electricity from the vacuum could zap its electronics. Instead, purchase a vacuum specifically designed for electronic components or use a battery-powered vacuum. Alternatively, haul the computer outside and blow the dust out with compressed air.

I open my Mac Pro—after turning it off, of course—and vacuum out dust from some parts of it, notably the CPU and RAM areas. Slide out the hard drives and you can get further inside the Mac Pro and get dust out of the nooks and crannies. I use a can of compressed air can help get dust out of the tightest corners.

Other Macs are harder to remove dust from. The iMac, for example, has inputs below the display and a large exhaust at the top, behind the display. If you have a powerful vacuum cleaner, you can suck some dust out of the bottom, but it’s not easy, and probably won’t help much.

The Mac mini doesn’t seem to collect a lot of dust, but you can open the round bottom cover and check inside to see if there’s an accumulation of dust, pet hair or anything else that your vacuum can remove.

Clean the screen

I keep a microfiber cloth—the kind you use to clean eyeglasses—handy to clean my Apple display. Apple recommends that you use a soft, slightly damp, lint-free cloth to clean screens more thoroughly.

I’ve never used any special monitor cleaning solutions on my Macs, though if you spill something on your laptop, for example, and get something really icky on its screen, you may need to go that route. You can buy many kinds of monitor wipes, pre-treated with appropriate cleaning solutions, and these might be worth keeping around in case of a disaster. Check iKlear and RadTech for options.

Clean behind the screen

I had an iMac that went for service and when it returned, I thought it had a dead pixel. Looking closely, though, I realized that there was a bit of dust behind the screen; actually, between the display’s plastic cover and the actual display. To my surprise, on older iMacs, it was easy to remove the front cover to clean this out. Note that this can only be done on iMacs before 2013. iMacs after 2013 have a laminated screen.

Find a suction cup, at least a couple of inches wide. Press it onto the black bezel near the top of the display. (Don’t worry, you can wipe off any marks from the suction cup later.) Pull gently, and you’ll find that the plastic cover of the display comes right off; it’s held onto your Mac or your display by magnets. Clean off the inside of this cover, with a soft cloth, and put it back in place starting from the bottom edge, then let the magnets do their work. You can watch a helpful video of this process here.

While you don’t need to be obsessive about cleaning your Mac, these simple tips can help you spruce it up regularly—that’s an especially good idea if you have a laptop that you tote around wherever you go.

[Editor’s note: This article originally posted in 2013.]

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Question: Q: how can i clean the white keys on my keyboard

How can I safely clean my iMac keyboard? The white keys look disgusting.

Posted on Apr 21, 2012 10:03 AM

Helpful answers

I use a baby wipe, keep water and any other liquids away from the keyboard or you risk killing it. You can also create a solution of 1 part vinegar for 4 parts water, dip a rag in it and wring it as hard as you can to get as much moisture out of it as possible. Then clean the keyboard while keeping a dry rag at hand.

Apr 21, 2012 10:06 AM

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Apr 21, 2012 10:05 AM

I use a baby wipe, keep water and any other liquids away from the keyboard or you risk killing it. You can also create a solution of 1 part vinegar for 4 parts water, dip a rag in it and wring it as hard as you can to get as much moisture out of it as possible. Then clean the keyboard while keeping a dry rag at hand.

Apr 21, 2012 10:06 AM

Lightly run the white side on your keys and the icky dirt comes off rather easily. I use it dry, and I lightly rub repeatedly, I don’t use a ton of pressure. DISCLAIMER: I’ve started using this recently, so I don’t know if repeated uses will eventually wear the lettering off. So please proceed carefully! Also, I assume that the regular Magic Eraser would work too, but use it DRY.

Jun 12, 2012 10:55 AM

We npticed that too. My wife discovered this trick. Use CLR. that cleaner that removes shower grunge from shower heads. with a cotton swab. Dip the swab in the fluid and then gently wipe against each key on the keyboard. We’ve done this a few times and it works just fine.

Jun 29, 2012 9:01 AM

I have just used Astonish — ‘The great household cleaner’. I used some barely damp jay cloth with Astonish on each key and it worked a dream — they have no more grunge and they feel lovely and smooth again 🙂.

Aug 22, 2012 8:55 AM

Some folks pop the keys off and wash them with soap and water or dishwasher top shelf. Google for videos or printed instructions.

Aug 22, 2012 9:00 AM

Don’t EVER use glass cleaners. I did it once, and the white plastic turned a little bit orange. For ever 😟.

Dec 3, 2013 4:54 PM

And just another little hint is to hold the keyboard upside downwhile doing anything with a damp anything to reduce the chances of any liquid running down the sides of the keys.

Mar 13, 2014 3:20 AM

Very good advice Iain!

And so is this: unplug it first! 🙂

Mar 13, 2014 3:42 AM

Cotton Bud, lightly dampened (but not wet) with white vinegar.

Mar 13, 2014 4:04 AM

I use a white vinyl eraser to clean the keys and canned air to blow off the eraser grunge. Turn off the keyboard first.

Mar 23, 2014 12:16 AM

I just cleaned my white key board and wanted to share. I used Pledge multi purpose and microfiber cloth. This worked better than a baby wipe & lysole wipes. It even cleaned the metal part in between the white keys which I did not think was dirty. Overall, my key board look brand new. I just spray a little pledge on the cloth, and with one fingure, rub the keys in a circular motion and done, fast and easy.

I am obsessed with this product, I even use pledge multi surface on my glass mirrors, stainless steel fridge, and bmw LOL. Cuz it works that good.

Jun 8, 2014 9:28 AM

I just tried the Mr Clean Magic Sponge. I dampened it just enough to activate it, rung it out and gently stroked it across the keyboard and it sucked the dirt right up. Keyboard looks like new.

Oct 7, 2014 7:05 PM

Hi everyone. I do not recommend the Magic Eraser or products like that. While they do work great to remove the grunge, they damage the keys and eventually the letters wear away. I have tried almost all suggestions here and still can’t find anything that works. And the instructions to be found on the Apple site are no good — a lint free cloth and water won’t remotely touch the grime. I will try the CLR, but any more suggestions are welcome.

Nov 25, 2014 3:07 PM

I Used rubbing alcohol, which is a great solvent, a q-tip and micro fiber cloth. Worked like a charm.

Mar 26, 2015 10:48 PM

Question: Q: how can i clean the white keys on my keyboard More Less

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How to Clean a MacBook Pro Keyboard the Easy Way with Keyboard Cleaner

Cleaning the keyboard on a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air is a necessary chore from time to time, but it can also be more challenging than expected as anyone who has done so can attest. The moment you start wiping down the Mac keyboard, it’s inevitable for keys to be pressed, and as a result, things are typed, applications are accessed, messages are sent, improper code is written, gobbledegook is made, amongst other potential mishaps. Of course with a desktop Mac, you can simply disconnect the keyboard, but that isn’t possible on any laptop in the MacBook line. You can’t put the Mac to sleep because then hitting a key would wake it up, and you don’t want to shut down the Mac because aside from being inconvenient, you almost certainly want to clean the power key as well.

This is where a little app that has been around for ages called Keyboard Cleaner comes in to play, it locks down the Mac keyboard and rejects all input (aside from the quit command) so that you can press as many keys as needed as you wipe down and clean the keyboard. Once you’re finished, you leave the app. Easy. So, let’s walk through how to use Keyboard Cleaner in Mac OS X to properly clean the keyboard on a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air.

Cleaning MacBook Keys by Locking Them Down with Keyboard Cleaner

Technically this app works on any Mac keyboard at all, but we’re focusing on the MacBook Pro and MacBook line since they can’t simply disconnect the keyboard for cleaning purposes. Instead, we’ll lock down the keys and prevent input and improper text entry with the help of a free little app.

Download Keyboard Cleaner app from here (a similar app is here), decompress the archive, then right-click and choose “Open” to get around Gatekeeper (the app is from ’06, but still works great)

When the screen turns to all black and says “Happy Cleaning”, you’re ready to clean the MacBook keyboard:

Now lightly* wet a cotton cloth or rag (not the type that sheds or pills) so that it’s ever so slightly damp, and wipe down the keyboard on the MacBook Pro

When finished cleaning the MacBook keyboard, hit Command+Q keys to quit out of the Keyboard Cleaner application and enjoy your nice clean keyboard

Works wonderfully, doesn’t it? No more shutting down the MacBook, and no more pressing a gazillion keys into who knows what application as you clean the keyboard. Just launch Keyboard Cleaner, clean up the keyboard, quit the app, and you’re good as new again.

I recommend using water only to clean the keyboard, but if you have stubborn grime, gunk, or some other mystery crud on the MacBook keyboard, you may want to use a small amount of isopropyl alcohol solution. You can also use small amounts of isopropyl alcohol with a cotton swap like a q-tip to clean the area between keys on the keyboard as well.

If you plan on doing this often, you’ll probably want to keep the Keyboard Cleaner app handy in the /Applications/ folder for future usage.

* Be absolutely certain the cloth rag is not too damp, it should be just slightly wet to the touch. If you can squeeze any water out of it whatsoever, it is too wet and you need to use a different cloth. Liquid or water getting in between the keys or other surface crevices on the Mac can cause liquid damage to the Mac and you want to avoid that.

Know of any other tips or tricks for cleaning keyboards? Let us know your key cleaning secrets in the comments.

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How to properly clean any Mac computer’s keyboard

Just two weeks ago, it finally came time to replace my seven-year-old MacBook Pro. I’d lost hours of work watching the spinning wheel of death, but the last nail in the coffin was my D, F, and C keys becoming unresponsive.

I had to jam the keys down with brutal force to get the letters to appear on screen, a battle I waged for all of an hour before throwing up my hands and heading to the Apple Store.

I know the unresponsive key thing was probably my fault; knowing I’d be replacing the MacBook sometime this year, I had given up on cleaning it long ago, so I can only imagine the buildup of dust and crumbs permeating the keyboard.

Now that I’m typing away on a brand new MacBook Pro, I’m committed to cleaning the keyboard at least monthly. Sure, a weekly cleaning might be even better, but let’s be realistic here.

Check out the products used in this article:

MacBook Pro (From $ 1,299 at Apple)

How to clean any Mac computer’s keyboard

For an ideal Mac keyboard cleaning, you will need a can of compressed air , a vacuum with a soft bristled attachment, and a few clean lint-free cloths.

1. Power off your Mac and remove any cables or hardware connected to the computer.

2. Hold the keyboard upright at a 75º angle (with the keys slightly facing the ceiling, not the floor), with the long axis of the device parallel to the floor.

3. Spray the compressed air along the keys. Make sure you hold the can upright, as it will expel cold fluid if turned, and keep the nozzle about one inch from the keys. Spray consistently from right-to-left or left-to-right, moving from the upper rows to the lower rows.

4. Now turn the computer screen vertical and/or keep the keyboard at a 75º angle, then spray from the «top» to the «bottom» (the end with the Escape, Caps Lock, and Function keys down to the arrow and Enter key side, e.g.) using the same method.

5. Place the computer or keyboard on a clean, flat surface, and lightly run the vacuum over the keys using the soft bristled attachment. Follow a pattern from right-to-left or left-to-right, top-to-bottom.

6. Lightly dampen a portion of cloth with water, then gently pass it over a portion of the keyboard in a steady, single-direction motion. Make sure to use several cloths or different portions of the same larger cloth to clean the keyboard to ensure the dirt, dust, and grease are removed, not merely moved about.

And give your computer a few minutes to fully dry after cleaning it before you power it on.

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