How to reattach a key to the F16 keyboard

Framework 16 user here. During my attempt to clean the keyboard from some post-christmas “debris” (aka cookie crumbs), I semi-accidentially removed the “d” key from the keyboard. The “d” key itself still works just fine (as proven by the ds in this post) but I am at a loss at how to reattach the key cap to the keyboard. The plastic parts seem to be still ok and I can see that they latch at different positions of the board, but a tutorial or something like that that explains how to reattach a key would be very helpful

Would you be able to get a good picture of the back / underside clips?

Not certain about the FWL16, but other laptop keys I’ve seen usually go on bottom then top. You tilt the bottom inwards and slide the key upwards / towards the laptop screen in order to hook the bottom latches, then when they feel hooked you press the whole key down to click the top latches in, making sure the key is as upwards / towards the screen as it goes, before & during pressing the key down. Pressing the key down to click the top should take firm but not excessive force, more than you’d use just typing.

But a picture is worth a thousand words, you should absolutely watch some youtube “how to reattach laptop keys” videos first. I imagine there has to be some videos.

Also, for the future, do note that Framework staff has said that the keycaps are not meant to be removable, it risks breaking them. This is the same as all laptops afaik. Despite the fact that some people do remove laptop keys, and can get away with it if they are very careful, it’s still a risk, they’re not officially removable for any laptop I believe.

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well regarding the removal, the D key stopped working so the choice was essentially “do nothing” or "risk it :sweat_smile:
However, for some reason, I have not thought about just looking for youtube videos (looked for step-by-step text descriptions but came up empty.) With some random video showing me the general way of attaching a key, I was able to reattach my D key now. Thank you very much for that help!

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I’ll attempt this, let me know if this is helpful or not.

So on the keycap that you removed there’s typically two different types of attachment: hooks and clips.

What you need to do to attach the keycap properly is first slide the keycap to attach the hooks, then press it to attach the clips.

If the hooks are at the top side of the keycap, then you put the keycap slightly higher than it would normally sit attached on the keyboard and slide it downward while slighly pressing on the top side of the keycap. Then you press with a bit more force on the lower part of the keycap until you perceive a click from the clips attaching.

The typical mistake is to try to press the hooks as if they are clips - just straight down. This would likely cause the hooks to be damaged irrepairably and the key not able to be attached fully back. (In my experience.)

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thank you. I believe I already broke it when I released it, will probably just replace the keyboard as I sometimes have stuck keys elsewhere as well (I emptied Stuff over it once, so that’s on me). thanks anyways for the good explanation!

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