Why Doesn't My iPad Keyboard Make a Clicking Sound?

Speed up your typing with keyboard click feedback

By
Daniel Nations
Daniel Nations
Daniel Nations
Writer
  • University of Texas at Arlington
Daniel Nations has been a tech journalist since 1994. His work has appeared in Computer Currents, The Examiner, and other publications. He is a developer who has published apps in the Apple App Store, Google Play marketplace and Amazon Appstore; he also has worked as a data analyst and DB administrator.
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Updated on April 3, 2020

Is your iPad's keyboard silent? By default, the iPad's on-screen keyboard makes a clicking sound every time you tap a key. This sound isn't just to make it seem like you are typing on a real keyboard. If you are trying to type quickly, audio feedback lets you know that you actually tapped the key. If your iPad keyboard is silent, here's what you can do to fix it.

How to Change iPad's Sounds Settings

If you have searched through your iPad's keyboard settings looking for a way to turn this sound back on, you've been looking in the wrong place. Apple decided to put this particular setting in the Sounds category, even though it might make more sense for it to be in the keyboard settings. 

  1. Go into your iPad's settings by launching the Settings app. (Look for the gear icon.)

    Screenshot of an iPad home screen with the Settings icon highlighted

  2. Tap Sounds in menu at the left side of the screen.

    A screenshot of iPad settings with the Sounds heading highlighted

  3. Next to Keyboard Clicks, located near the bottom of the list of Sounds, move the slider to the On/green position.

    Screenshot of iPad sounds settings with the Keyboard Clicks slider highlighted

What Else Can You Do From This Screen?

While you are in the Sounds settings, you might want to take the time to customize your iPad. The most common sounds tend to be the New Mail and Mail Sent sounds. These play when you send or receive mail through the official Mail app.

You can also change the alert sounds for Calendar Alerts, Reminder Alerts and AirDrop.

Where Are the Keyboard Settings?

If you want to tweak your keyboard:

  1. Open the Settings app on the iPad.

    Screenshot of an iPad home screen with the Settings icon highlighted

  2. Choose General in the left panel.

    A screenshot of iPad settings with the General heading highlighted

  3. Scroll down and tap Keyboard. It is just under the Date & Time settings.

    A screenshot of iPad General settings with the Keyboard heading highlighted

  4. Move the sliders next to the keyboard features you want to activate to the On/green position. They include:

    • Auto-Correction
    • Check Spelling
    • Smart Punctuation
    • Auto-Capitalization
    • Split Keyboard
    • Predictive

    This is also the place to turn on Dictation, if you plan to dictate to the keyboard, and to select alternate keyboard layouts.

    List of Keyboards options in iPad Settings

You can make a lot of changes here. One great trick is to set up text replacement shortcuts. For example, you can set up "gtk" to spell out "good to know" and any other shortcut you want to put into the settings. Taking a moment to read more about the keyboard settings might just save you a lot of time.

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