Issue with "Move Window One Space/Desktop Left/Right"

I've been having some issues with certain apps not working with the "Move Window One Space/Desktop Left/Right" shortcuts. Specifically I've noticed this with Slack and most JetBrains products. Interestingly just clicking on the menu bar and pressing "Ctrl+Arrow button" also does not work for these apps, unless I slightly drag the menu bar a pixel or two first with the mouse, then
that system shortcut consistently works. If I click and drag slightly before triggering the BTT shortcut it also works.

So far I've only been using this with a Logitech Master Mouse 3 and an external keyboard (I don't ever use the laptop with the lid open), but it seems to have the same issues there in any case. I currently have a Macbook Pro 16" 2021 with a M1 Max running Ventura 13.5.2. I'm running BTT 4.306, but I've seen this behavior consistently over the last several months across multiple versions of BTT. Honestly I don't think this is an issue with BTT directly, but it seems like something happened on the Mac side (I don't recall if it started right after an update, but it could have). Regardless I think this may be solvable by BTT if there's a way to force that slight click and drag before the shortcut fires.

I have this exact same issue with Slack and Jetbrains products, where I've programmed keyboard shortcuts to "Move window to desktop X". I thought Slack used to work, but maybe I'm misremembering.

I use BTT 4.333 on MacOS Sonoma 14.1.1.

I don't follow you when you say "drag the menu bar a pixel or two..." Which menu bar? A screen shot would help a lot here.


When I say drag the menu bar, I mean the menu bar for PyCharm or Slack or whatever. So in the screenshot i would just click somewhere on the gray bar, probably in the lighter colored area, then while still holding the mouse button down, just slightly drag the whole window a fraction, then while still holding the mouse button down, trigger the move to another desktop (either via keyboard or mouse shortcut), and then it works. This is far from ideal, but still faster than the alternative.

facing same issue with Intellij. Unable to move window to other space using either keyboard or trackpad shortcuts

For intellij you might need to adjust the x/y position where BTT tries to drag the window using this terminal command:

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "{130, 5}"

(With this it will try to drag at 130 pixels from the left and 5 pixels from the top - you might need to adjust this)

Thank you for the reply. I have tried this and getting 'parse error'

Could not parse: {130, 5}.  Try single-quoting it.

Tried different combinations with quotes but no luck.

 defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "{130, 5}"
 defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "{130, 5}"
 defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij '{130, 5}'
 defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij '{'130', '5'}'
 defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "{'130', '5'}"
 defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "{130, 5}"

any suggestions?

also tried,

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij {'130', '5'} 

error:

parse error near `}'

weird, this seems to be new.
Can you try this?

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{130, 5}'"

good one! :smile:
This one didn't throw error and seem to perform some action.

After running the above command in terminal and use the keyboard shortcut to move the Intellij window to another space, in the navigation bar, dropdown gets opened. Attached the screenshot for reference

So I tried the following:

  1. Tried different values.
  • From {120,05} onwards the first drop down is getting opened
  • For {335,05}, the second dropdown, is getting opened
  • For x values < 120, nothing is happening
  • Tried other random values 600, 700 etc, the window is not moving

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{130, 5}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{130, 3}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{130, 10}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{130, 40}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{160, 5}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{190, 5}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{135, 35}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{135, 35}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{135, 0}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{135, 80}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{135, 5}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{135, 8}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{135, 20}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{135, 100}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{235, 05}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{835, 05}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{335, 05}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{335, 35}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{435, 05}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{635, 05}'"

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool space-switch-xy-com.jetbrains.intellij "'{335, 05}'"

  1. I tried disabling 'New UI' in the Intellij preferences just to check whether it works.

It is working with the old UI.

I am using the new UI in intellij. Tried with enable new ui and disable compact mode as well. Please let me know if there is anything else I can try with? :pray:

Thank you

just an fyi, you can find more info on intellij new UI here if it helps:-
https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/new-ui/?utm_source=product&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=new_ui_release}

Could you check whether dragging the IntelliJ window and simultaneously executing the macOS space switch action (I think ctrl+arrow by default) works? (That's basically what BTT does, the point specifies the position where BTT tries to drag the window )

tried the above (dragging the IntelliJ window and simultaneously executing the macOS space switch action (ctrl+arrow)). It is working with intellij new UI and old. Other windows are also getting moved. But the shortcut from BTT is not working

Just to weigh in, I also tried running the "defaults write" with a variety of values without success (but for jetbrains.pycharm instead of jetbrains.intellij). If i do the click and drag then execute the shortcut it works, but otherwise not. I'm also using the New UI in PyCharm.