Jelly Bean update - Droid 4 physical keyboard problems

[CaptainPete]

After the recent update I have had a few problems with my keyboard. The first thing I noticed was when I slide the keyboard open and start typing for example a name, Andrew, i usually type in the first 3 letters and it brings up the names and I can go right to that person to text them. Now I slide it open and type the letters And, it isnt fast enough for me so it comes out nda, i have to put the first letter in and wait and see if the cursor is in front or behind the first letter. Frustrating. The other problem is the shift key on the keyboard, I used to be able to use the shift key for special characters above the numbers, now I have to hold the shift key for those characters. I tried it on my wifes Droid 4 and hers has the same issues.

[CharlesWalker707]

I've had Verizon send me out two new phones because of this update.  Before the update, my shift key works.  After the update, it doesn't.  To shift to special characters I have to use the virtual Qwerty.  I spoke to Tech Support and they stated that it was a known issue and that an update should be coming out for it but because the updates are controlled by the manufacturer, there's no way of knowing when it will be released.

[SuzyQ]

My Droid 4 Shift key works fine, except for the semi-colon and colon  - when I hit shift (or hold shift) I cannot type those two characters, I get the "<"  and ">" instead.  I just noticed that this morning.

I need to experiment, try typing texts, emails, web URLS, etc as the behavior seems to change based on what I am trying to do.  If there is any consistency to when it works and when it doesn't, that may be a clue as to why it behaves the way it does (or does not, depending on your perspective).

[CaptainPete]

I just tried that, I too cant shift for colon or semi colon, I get < and >, now we dont have access to those characters on our keyboards, does anyone from Verizon or Motorola read these?

[SuzyQ]

I switch back and forth between using the full keyboard and the virtual; I seem to have access to all the characters with the virtual but that is just a workaround... the full keyboard should work; that is one of the primary reasons I got THIS phone rather than others.....

[nightjackal77]

Same issue,  every key I hit is not the letter or symbol typed..very frustrating.  They need to fix this soon.

[BridgePeon]

This is a problem with the Jelly Bean update.  If you are experiencing the physical Keyboard not using predictive typing on text messages and get a greater than instead of a colon, do the following:

In Settings -> Language & input, go down to Physical
Keyboard, select omap4-keypad and uncheck all the languages. Now, it should be
set to Default and it should work well.

[SuzyQ]

Yay!  This works, but you have to uncheck ALL the languages so the selection says default. When I left English checked, I still got the wrong characters. It now toes what I am expecting.

Thank you!

[Droid4Life981]

Thanks, @BridgePeon! This issue has been plaguing me for months! Excellent solution, and thus my faith in things Android is once again restored!

[craigarj]

This does not resolve the keyboard problem on the Droid 4.  We should be able to click the shift key once to get capitals (or symbols like semicolon ) This "solution" merely requires that I hold the shift key.  This is not how this keyboard was designed to work.  It's merely a clunky workaround, not a solution.

I'm  disappointed Android developers and Motorola have been unable or unwilling to resolve this issue for nearly an entire year.