How do I turn off Caps Lock on my Chromebook?

Tips
1

Caps Lock suddenly turned on while I was typing on my Chromebook, and now every letter is in uppercase no matter what I do. I’ve tried the usual keyboard keys I’d use on Windows, but nothing seems to work. Can someone explain the correct way to disable Caps Lock on a Chromebook and if there’s a setting I should change to avoid this happening again?

2

On Chromebooks Caps Lock is a bit weird compared to Windows, so you hit the same confusion a lot of us did.

Quick fix:

  1. Press Alt + Search (Search is the key with the magnifying glass where Caps Lock is on normal keyboards).
  2. That toggles Caps Lock on and off.
  3. You should see a popup on the screen saying Caps Lock is off.

If you want a “real” Caps Lock key:

  1. Click the time in the bottom right.
  2. Click the gear icon to open Settings.
  3. Go to Device.
  4. Click Keyboard.
  5. Next to “Search” pick “Caps Lock” from the dropdown.

Now the Search key acts as a Caps Lock key, and you tap it to toggle uppercase like on Windows.

If nothing works, try:

  1. Log out then log back in.
  2. Or press Ctrl + Shift + U and type some letters to see if they still come out all caps. If everything is caps in every account or after restart, check if a key is stuck or the keyboard is damaged.

99 percent of the time though, Alt + Search fixes what you hit by accident.

3

This tripped me up too when I first used a Chromebook.

@vrijheidsvogel already covered the main shortcut stuff, so I’ll throw in a few other things to check that sometimes get missed:

  1. Check the status indicator

    • Tap the Search key once.
    • Look in the bottom-right corner (where the time is).
    • If Caps Lock is on, ChromeOS usually shows an indicator there or a little toast popup.
    • If it never shows anything, Caps might not actually be on and something else is forcing uppercase.

  2. Try a guest session

    • Click your profile picture in the bottom right.
    • Choose Guest (or log out and use Browse as Guest).
    • Type in the browser’s address bar.
    • If it types normally in Guest but ALL CAPS in your main account, it’s probably a profile / extension issue, not the key itself.

  3. Check extensions or web apps
    Some web apps fake “all caps” with CSS or JavaScript:

    • Try typing in the ChromeOS Settings search bar or in Files app file name box.
    • If those look normal but your website or editor is yelling in caps, it’s not real Caps Lock.
    • In that case, look for:
      • Editor settings like “All caps” or “Uppercase style”
      • Browser extensions that mess with text (accessibility, theming, etc.)

  4. Confirm Shift is not stuck
    I know you said you tried the usual keys, but on Chromebooks I’ve seen:

    • A physically stuck Shift key can make everything look like caps.
    • Try slowly pressing and releasing both Shift keys a few times.
    • If possible, plug in a USB keyboard and test typing.
      • If USB keyboard works fine and built-in is all caps, that’s a hardware issue.

  5. On-screen keyboard test

    • Go to Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard and text input.
    • Turn on On-screen keyboard.
    • Click in a text field and type using the on-screen keys.
    • If on-screen keyboard types normally but your physical keyboard shouts EVERYTHING, again that points to a physical keyboard problem.

  6. Check input methods
    Rare, but if you’re using another keyboard layout / input method:

    • Settings → Device → Keyboard or Input methods / Languages.
    • Temporarily switch back to plain US keyboard and test.

If after all that every account, every app, and even guest session are stuck in caps with the physical keyboard, I’d honestly suspect hardware, not some secret ChromeOS caps feature. At that point, external keyboard as a workaround or have the Chromebook keyboard checked.

Also, tiny disagreement with @vrijheidsvogel: remapping the Search key to Caps Lock is handy, but if you like using Search to open apps, I’d leave it alone and just memorize Alt + Search as your “real” caps toggle. Otherwise you lose that quick app search which is actually one of the few nice things ChromeOS did right.