Guide
Fix Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Not Working
Updated
A Mac shortcut that stops working is almost always one of four things: another binding has claimed the same chord, the wrong window has focus, a required permission was revoked, or a custom shortcut’s menu title doesn’t match the command exactly. Work through them in that order - it’s roughly the order of likelihood, and each check is quick.
1. Is something else claiming the chord?
macOS resolves a keypress in priority order, and system-level shortcuts are resolved before the app ever sees them. So if you bind ⌘⇧4 inside an app, macOS’s screenshot shortcut takes it first and your app binding simply never fires. Nothing warns you.
Where to look, in order:
- System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts. Walk the categories: Mission Control, Spotlight, Services, App Shortcuts. macOS flags a duplicated chord with a yellow warning triangle.
- The app’s own settings. Many apps ship a shortcut editor with their own conflict warnings.
- Menu-bar apps with global hotkeys. This is the hard case: there’s no system-wide registry of global hotkeys you can inspect. Quit your menu-bar apps one at a time, retesting after each.
A useful shortcut to this hunt: open the app’s menu and look at the command. If the shortcut is printed there but pressing it does nothing, the binding exists and something upstream is intercepting it. If the shortcut isn’t printed there, it was never bound.
2. Does the right window actually have focus?
Shortcuts go to the frontmost window. Focus moves more easily than people expect - clicking a palette, a sidebar, a notification, or a background app is enough. If a shortcut works intermittently, this is usually why.
Click directly into the main content area of the window and try again. If it works, it was focus.
3. Have permissions been revoked?
Any tool that intercepts, remaps, or synthesises keystrokes needs Accessibility access, and frequently Input Monitoring, under System Settings → Privacy & Security. This covers Karabiner-Elements, text expanders, launchers, window managers, and automation tools.
macOS updates reset these regularly. The failure mode is nasty: the app launches, its interface works, its settings look correct, and it receives no key events at all.
If toggling the permission off and on doesn’t fix it, remove the app from the list entirely and re-add it. A stale permission entry survives a toggle but not a removal.
4. Is a custom shortcut’s menu title wrong?
If you added the shortcut yourself in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts, the most likely cause is that the Menu title doesn’t match the app’s command exactly. The match is case-sensitive and punctuation-sensitive: ellipses must be three plain periods with no spaces, submenus use ->, and a trailing space breaks it silently.
The full rules for creating a custom shortcut cover this in detail.
Less common causes worth knowing
- A remapped modifier. If you’ve changed modifier keys under Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Modifier Keys, or you’re running Karabiner-Elements, the chord reaching the app may not be the one you pressed. Check whether the remap is per-keyboard - an external keyboard can carry different settings from the built-in one.
- The app draws its own menus. Some Electron apps and games don’t expose commands as standard macOS menu items, so App Shortcuts can’t bind them at all.
- A different input source. With multiple input languages installed, ⌃Space and ⌘Space can be reassigned to switching input sources, which is the classic reason Spotlight “stops working.”
- Function-key behaviour. If F-key shortcuts stopped working, check Keyboard → “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys,” or hold Fn.
- Hardware. Rule it out cheaply: open a text field and type the key on its own. If the character doesn’t appear, it’s not a shortcut problem.
The underlying reason this keeps happening
Every app binds the same small set of chords independently, and nothing coordinates between them. There are only so many combinations of ⌘, ⌥, ⌃, and ⇧ with a letter, and each app claims them without knowing what else is installed - so collisions aren’t an anomaly, they’re the default state of a Mac with a dozen apps on it.
That’s the argument for putting your own shortcuts on a hyper key: ⌃⌥⌘⇧ together is a combination essentially nothing else claims, so bindings on it don’t collide with anything - and one that’s scoped per app and website can reuse the same key without conflict at all.
If you’re trying to work out what a chord you’ve seen actually is, the Mac keyboard symbols chart decodes ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧, and the app cheat sheets list the defaults each app ships with.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find which app is stealing my keyboard shortcut?
Start with System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts and walk the categories - Mission Control, Spotlight, Services, and App Shortcuts are the usual culprits, and macOS marks a duplicated chord with a yellow warning triangle. If it's not there, the thief is a running third-party app with a global hotkey: quit your menu-bar apps one at a time and retest after each. There is no single system-wide list of every registered global hotkey on macOS, which is exactly why this is tedious.
Why did my shortcuts stop working after a macOS update?
Usually permissions. Any tool that intercepts or sends keystrokes needs Accessibility access, and often Input Monitoring, under System Settings → Privacy & Security. Major macOS updates frequently reset or invalidate these, and the app can look like it's running normally while receiving no key events at all. Toggle the permission off and on again, then relaunch the app - a stale entry often needs removing and re-adding rather than just re-checking.
Do keyboard shortcuts work differently in full screen or on a second display?
The shortcut itself doesn't change, but which window has focus often does. A shortcut goes to the frontmost window, and clicking a background app, a floating palette, or a different Space can move focus without it being obvious. If a shortcut works sometimes and not others, focus is the first thing to suspect - click directly into the window's main content area and try again.
Why does the same shortcut do different things in different apps?
Because app shortcuts are per app by design - each app binds the chord to its own command, and nothing coordinates between them. ⌘K is a hyperlink in one app, a command palette in another, and clears the screen in a terminal. That's not a bug, but it is the reason people cap out at a handful of memorised shortcuts. Scoping one chord deliberately per context is the other way round to solve it.
How do I reset all keyboard shortcuts on a Mac?
System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts has a Restore Defaults button, which resets every category at once - including any custom App Shortcuts you added. It's a blunt instrument, so note down your custom entries first if you want to put them back.