iPhone keyboard missing or not appearing? How to fix it!

iPhone Keyboard Missing

There’s nothing more disappointing than realizing the iPhone keyboard has disappeared right when you want to use it.

From what I’ve gathered, the problem can occur due to a variety of reasons, but most notably these three: the iPhone is still connected to some Bluetooth keypad, there’s some problem with an app, or an ill-fated software update.

There are some tried and true solutions that can help you bring back the missing keyboard on your iOS device. Let’s give them a go… cut to the chase!

3 Ways to fix iPhone/iPad keyboard missing or disappearing

  1. Hard reset your device
  2. Switch off Bluetooth
  3. Restore Your iOS Device

1. Hard reset your device

The first thing you should try to resolve a missing iPhone keyboard is rebooting your device. For iPhone 6s and earlier (and iPhone SE), simply press and hold the Home and power ON/OFF buttons at once for about 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo on the screen.

To hard reset your iPhone 7/7 Plus, press and hold the volume down button and ON/OFF button simultaneously. (Related: How to reboot iPhone/iPad without power On/OFF button.)

To reset your iPhone 8/8 Plus or later, press and release the Volume UP button, press and release the Volume DOWN button, and then press and hold the side button.

2. Switch off Bluetooth

If you connected your iPhone to a Bluetooth device – notably an external keypad – and then didn’t disconnect it, there’s a strong chance that the iPhone still thinks that it shouldn’t show the keypad, resulting in the keyboard not appearing.

The one way to fix this is to switch off your Bluetooth connectivity. Reboot your iPhone afterwards, just to be sure. Does this fix the issue? If not, try the third solution.

3. Restore your iOS device

If none of the above solutions worked in resolving the problem, restore your device using Finder or iTunes. Make sure to back it up before going in for the kill.

Connect your iPhone or iPad to the Computer → Launch Finder or iTunes as appropriate → Select the device → Click Restore iPhone/iPad and confirm.

Click-on-Restore-Backup-in-Finder-in-macOS-Catalina

In most cases, a missing iPhone keyboard is fixed just by rebooting the device. I hope you have found success with this little trick itself.

Have any feedback for us? Feel free to share it with us in the comments below!

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Author Profile

Marcus is a freelance tech writer/editor with a focus on succinctly explaining consumer devices and their software. His previous work has been published on MakeUseOf where he covered everything from iOS to Git and UI design.

1 comment
  1. Great advice, I had FitPro app and that Bluetooth connected to device. I did not realize that it could affect keyboard getting disappeared from gmail / chrome etc.

    Disabling Bluetooth connection to device fixed it.

    Thank you

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