How to troubleshoot a non-working keyboard shortcut?

I'm trying to make a set of keyboard shortcuts to control Sketch.app and am having trouble getting a few Menubar shortcuts to work. Weird, as some work, but not others.


The first one (Fit to Parent...) works, but the second one (Reset...) does not.

I've tried many permutations and troubleshooting steps including:

  • triple checking spelling
  • trying to use with the context menu
  • adding wildcard characters
  • checking for existing app shortcuts
  • checking for system keyboard shortcuts
  • disabling all plugins that might interfere
  • restarting BTT, Sketch.app, my Mac

Is there away to detect what a menu item is called on the backend, encodings and all?

  • perhaps the visible "name" isn't what the computer reads

Is there a way to override existing app shortcuts like in macOS > System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts?

  • some shortcuts I made did not work in BTT but work fine when set in System Preferences.
  • ALSO using a Sketch.app plugin called "Sketch Plugin Monster" works just fine for the "Reset..." menu item.

You can try to reference problematic items by their position in the menu e.g.
Plugins;Automate;Symbol;(3)

This would trigger the third item in the symbol menu.
If you are not sure about special characters you can also use the * wildcard for parts of the path (e.g. Reset* )

BTT will always override existing app shortcuts, but it won't change the displayed shortcut in the menu like System Preferences can.

Thanks @Andreas_Hegenberg!

I was able to finally figure it out through LOTS of trial and error.
What works is:
Plugins;Automate;Symb*;Reset to Original Size

Something about the 'ol' it doesn't like - I'm wondering if the 'ol' is interpreted funny, like as an ordered list <ol>?

I'm a hack at best when it comes to scripting, but do play in the Terminal quite often. Many moons ago I used a console to sniff out active UI sheets to make Applescripts...

Anyone know of any "listener" to watch UI event logs?

  • semiconducted