Some Gboard users suddenly can't type capital letters

There are a few things you expect from a smartphone keyboard, beyond just being able to type a capital letter. Autocorrect can misbehave, predictions can get weird, and voice typing can occasionally hear something completely different, but the Shift key? That should just work. Unfortunately, some Gboard users are discovering that even this seemingly bulletproof button can break.

Several users have reported that Gboard’s Shift key suddenly stops responding, leaving them unable to capitalize letters manually. A recent Reddit thread has attracted multiple people experiencing the same problem, while other reports today show the issue cropping up on Pixel and Xiaomi devices, though the issue could potentially affect other brands too.

The annoying part is that the usual fixes don’t seem to stick. Force-stopping Gboard, clearing its cache, restarting the phone, or changing keyboard layouts can get the Shift key working again, but several users say the problem returns hours later or within a day or two.

One Android Authority staff member ran into the same bug yesterday. Clearing Gboard’s cache and force-stopping the app fixed it at first, but the Shift key stopped working again today.

There may be one useful clue here. Our affected device is running the Gboard beta, and at least one Reddit user who is experiencing the problem has also confirmed they are enrolled in the beta program. Meanwhile, we haven’t been able to reproduce the issue on the latest stable Gboard release. That doesn’t prove the beta is responsible, but it makes it a plausible suspect.

For now, affected users in the beta may want to leave the program and switch back to the stable release to see whether that prevents the problem from returning.

We’ve contacted Google to ask whether it is aware of the issue and whether a fix is on the way, and we’ll update this article when we hear back.