Keyboard shortcuts conflict with Alfred

Note: Before bug reporting, please make sure you have tried the latest (alpha) version of BetterTouchTool and that you have already tried to restart your system :-). If you encounter a crash, please attach a crash log from the macOS Console.app from the "User Diagnostic Reports" section.

Describe the bug
I created two global keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+P and Ctrl+N:

But in Alfred result list, these shortcuts can't work normally sometimes.

Affected input device (e.g. MacBook Trackpad, Magic Mouse/Trackpad, Touch Bar, etc.):
Keyboard

Screenshots
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Device information:

  • Type of Mac: MacBook Pro
  • macOS version: 10.15.4 macOS Catalina
  • BetterTouchTool version: 3.365(1582)

Additional information (e.g. StackTraces, related issues, screenshots, workarounds, etc.):

Is there any resolution to this? I used to have four shortcuts (CMD+1 to CMD+4) for views in Keynote which I defined in system preferences, but decided after an OS reinstall to implement them in BTT instead (partly so that I wouldn't have to set them up every time I did a reinstall of Mac OS). The problem is if I bring up the clipboard viewer in Alfred and try to use the cmd+numeral to paste a result. For CMD+1 to CMD+4, it activates the BTT shortcut instead. I could add in another modifier key to my shortcuts but I've been using them for years so I'd rather not if I can avoid it.

Unfortunately I don't know of a way to detect when Alfred is active. Maybe you can ask in the Alfred forum whether there is a way to be notified when alfred is shown / hidden, then BTT could listen to that.

I didn't find any way to fix it, restart BTT will help.
And this issue has disappeared on the newest version.

Thanks for your reply.

OK. Thanks, I'll ask the devs.

Meanwhile I'll add in another modifier key and try to retrain myself.

I'm running the newest version (3.604) and still having this problem when using the clipboard viewer. Restarting BTT doesn't change it.

Response from Andrew, Alfred's dev:

You have a few options, the easiest being setting Alfred's Appearance > Options > Focusing into Compatibility Mode, which will make Alfred operate like a standard window (instead of floating panel). BTT should be able to know Alfred is visible.

Secondly, you can make Alfred publish events when things happen by enabling his "Press Secretary". Take a look at my post here which discusses how it works, and what is posted:

[WIP, POC] Spotlight like rich preview pane for alfred workflows - Share your Workflows - Alfred App Community Forum

I've implemented compatibility mode and it's resolved my problem immediately. It might be interesting for you to look at Alfred's 'press secretary', though, to see if it's useful in relation to BTT.

1 Like

ha...this Options menu of Alfred is so unimpressive. I think that Compatibility Mode is a good method to solve keymapping problems.

Thank you for your research and information!