# Hold down "Esc' when flashing the Atreus to let it get into bootloader mode

**URL:** <https://community.keyboard.io/t/hold-down-esc-when-flashing-the-atreus-to-let-it-get-into-bootloader-mode/4163>\
**Category:** Help and Getting Started\
**Created:** [October 6, 2020, 12:02pm UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/hold-down-esc-when-flashing-the-atreus-to-let-it-get-into-bootloader-mode/4163 "2020-10-06T12:02:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![drrjv](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.keyboard.io/drrjv/32/3471_2.png) [@drrjv](https://community.keyboard.io/u/drrjv)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2020, 12:02pm UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/hold-down-esc-when-flashing-the-atreus-to-let-it-get-into-bootloader-mode/4163/1 "2020-10-06T12:02:09Z")

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Just got a new Atreus and tried to update firmware on a MacPro running Big Sur beta with the ‘Error flashing the firmware’

Would someone provide a solution please

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**Author:** ![jesse](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.keyboard.io/jesse/32/361_2.png) [@jesse](https://community.keyboard.io/u/jesse)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 5:16am UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/hold-down-esc-when-flashing-the-atreus-to-let-it-get-into-bootloader-mode/4163/2 "2020-10-07T05:16:54Z")

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Hi,

I don’t know that we’ve spent any time with Big Sur yet.

If you hit control-shift-i, you should be able to open the dev tools. Once you do that, what do you see in the console tab?

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**Author:** ![drrjv](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.keyboard.io/drrjv/32/3471_2.png) [@drrjv](https://community.keyboard.io/u/drrjv)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 11:29am UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/hold-down-esc-when-flashing-the-atreus-to-let-it-get-into-bootloader-mode/4163/3 "2020-10-07T11:29:00Z")

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Thanks Jesse,

I tried it on a MacBook running Catalina and had the exact same issue.

I saw the support doc on checking permissions but didn’t understand which file to check or where to go.

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**Author:** ![jesse](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.keyboard.io/jesse/32/361_2.png) [@jesse](https://community.keyboard.io/u/jesse)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 8:41pm UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/hold-down-esc-when-flashing-the-atreus-to-let-it-get-into-bootloader-mode/4163/4 "2020-10-07T20:41:47Z")

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Ok.

When you’re trying to flash the firmware are you holding down the Esc key on the Atreus before clicking the Update Firmware button?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![drrjv](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.keyboard.io/drrjv/32/3471_2.png) [@drrjv](https://community.keyboard.io/u/drrjv)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/hold-down-esc-when-flashing-the-atreus-to-let-it-get-into-bootloader-mode/4163/5 "2020-10-08T13:09:43Z")

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Using ESC key worked. Thank you!

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**Author:** ![cro](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.keyboard.io/cro/32/2809_2.png) [@cro](https://community.keyboard.io/u/cro)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 11:21pm UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/hold-down-esc-when-flashing-the-atreus-to-let-it-get-into-bootloader-mode/4163/6 "2021-01-12T23:21:33Z")

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I had a firmware flash failure also, and discovered it seems to be because I moved my Esc key from the default lower-left-corner spot. If I reprogrammed that key to be Esc, then I could flash. I just moved it back afterward.