Blog
Guides on diagnosing and fixing keyboard shortcut conflicts on macOS.
- Conflict diagnosis ·
The 10 Most Common Keyboard Shortcut Conflicts on Mac (and How to Fix Each)
Most shortcut conflicts on a Mac come from the same short list of collisions. Here are the ten you're most likely to hit, which app wins each one, and the one-line fix for each.
- Open source / behind the scenes ·
How to Read Every App's Keyboard Shortcuts on macOS with the Accessibility API
macOS has no public API that lists the keyboard shortcuts in use. Here's how HotkeyClash builds that list anyway: walking menu trees with AXUIElement, decoding the menu modifier bitmask, and parsing the symbolic hotkeys plist.
- Tool ecosystem guides ·
How to Set Up a Hyper Key on Mac with Karabiner-Elements
A Hyper key turns Caps Lock into ⌘⌃⌥⇧, which gives you a whole keyboard of shortcuts almost nothing else uses. Here's the setup, the few combos to avoid, and how to keep it conflict-free as it grows.
- Tool ecosystem guides ·
How to Put Raycast or Alfred on ⌘Space (Without Fighting Spotlight)
Moving your launcher to ⌘Space takes two steps, and people usually skip the first one. Here's how to hand the shortcut over cleanly and check that nothing else still wants it.
- macOS shortcut tips ·
How to Reset Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac (System, App, and Third-Party)
Resetting shortcuts on a Mac happens in three separate places, and the Restore Defaults button only covers one of them. Here's how to reset each layer, with a backup first.
- Conflict diagnosis ·
VS Code and JetBrains Shortcuts Not Working on Mac? It's Usually macOS
When an IDE shortcut does nothing on a Mac, the editor is rarely the problem. macOS system shortcuts and global hotkeys take the keystroke first. Here's how to find which one and get it back.
- Conflict diagnosis ·
How to Find Conflicting Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac
Keyboard shortcuts that silently fail are almost always conflicts. Here is every way to find them on macOS — the manual methods, their limits, and the one-scan approach.
- ShortcutDetective migration ·
ShortcutDetective Is Dead. Here's the Modern Alternative
ShortcutDetective never made it past version 1.0, has no Apple Silicon build, and crashes on modern macOS. Here is what it did well, why it's gone, and what to use instead.
- macOS shortcut tips ·
Why Your Mac Keyboard Shortcut Stopped Working (And How to Fix It)
A keyboard shortcut that worked yesterday and is dead today almost always has one of seven causes. Work through this checklist in order and you'll find it.