Surface Pro 9 won't enter tablet mode after disconnecting the type cover

Question

So it's been two days of back and forward with customer support and cannot get a resolution on this issue. Bought a brand new Surface Pro 9 and out of the box have had issues with basic functionality. Initially we thought that the auto rotation was janky but eventually discovered that we could boot up the device without keyboard attached and tablet mode worked great, but once we connected the type cover keyboard and then removed it, the device stays in desktop mode. I've reinstalled a fresh version of the OS three times, run all Windows updates, downloaded and installed the Surface Pro 9 drivers from the Microsoft site, done the 20 second power down... none of it makes any difference.

Anyone have any advice? If I can't solve this I will need to return and repurchase etc, which means I may just go elsewhere, this has been a pretty poor user experience and I was pretty excited for this purchase. Hoping to get some help, much appreciated 🙏

Answer 1

Hi Wayne Strydom,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community and apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you.

Just to make sure: this happens every time you detach the typecover, right? or there are times also that when you detach the typecover, the device is able to detect it and automatically goes to tablet mode? or if you do a re-attach and detach several times, would the device eventually detect it and goes to tablet mode or not at all and you would need to restart the device without the typecover attached for it to go to tablet mode?

Tablet mode in Windows 11 no longer exists as a specific mode. The device should automatically go to tablet mode whenever the typecover is detached. See: Frequently Asked Questions: Windows 11 - Microsoft Community for more details. Considering that a reinstall of Windows were tried already and still issue persists, this seems to be a hardware issue already on the connectors of the device where it is unable to detect that the typecover is being detach and thus, it does not go to tablet mode, but can you please try these steps below first then let me know how it goes:

Detach the typecover (device stays in Desktop mode due to the issue)

Open Device Manager

Click on Action

Select Scan for hardware changes

Check if the device detects that the typecover is detached and goes to tablet mode

Kind regards,
Marrion

Answer 2

Hi Marrion,

Thanks for the reply. I have already sent the unit back, but would have loved to have tested your steps. Basically, the unit would enter tablet mode if booted up while disconnected from the keyboard type cover. Once the cover was connected, it stayed in desktop mode regardless of whether the typecover was removed and/or replaced. It seems that it never detected (or responded) to the typecover being removed so it could return to a mobile-respnsibe state.

Answer 3

Hi Wayne Strydom,

Thank you for the response. Glad to hear that you were able to send the device for service. Hopefully, the issue would be resolve after service but just in case, you may try the steps suggested and create new post if further assistance is needed.

Thank you also for spending time here with us in the Community.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 4

Same problem over here in germany. Will try the suggested steps tomorrow.

I'm so disappointed and think about sending it back.

Answer 5

Marrion,

I am experiencing the same issue and followed your troubleshooting steps but I was not able to get the rotation lock issue to disappear.

I have found a way to bypass the the issue but it is extremely annoying.

If you have the keyboard connected the rotation lock is greyed out. If you disconnect the keyboard the rotation lock continues to be greyed out and does not go away.

If you then press the power button to put the surface to sleep and then press again to wake while the keyboard is disconnected the surface will wake in tablet mode and rotation works as expected. The keyboard appears when you click into a box and you can rotate the display as expected.

If you then reconnect the keyboard the rotation lock once again is greyed out.

Regards

Aidan