Low Level Key Remap

Thanks! That's exactly what I'm trying, I quit Karabiner but I still see some process running (karabiner_grabber, Karabiner-EventViewer, Karabiner-VirtualHIDDevice-Daemon, org.pqrs.Karabiner-DriverKit-VirtualHIDDevice). I'll try uninstalling and see if that makes a difference.

Edit: one more thing that's simply not working right now are the Fn-arrow key combinations for Page Up/Down, Home, End, or to change Backspace to Delete. I'll update here if uninstalling Karabiner fixes that as well.

@Andreas_Hegenberg fully uninstalling Karabiner didn't help with either issue; I don't really know what else to try. Do you have any ideas?

I remapped Brightness to Right Ctrl, but the media keys can't be remapped.

Hi @Andreas_Hegenberg Unfortunately it does not work for me.

I was looking forward to that feature as i got a new keyboard, and the right option and cmd keys switched places and now have a fn key between them (mx keys s).

I tried to switch them out, From Key: right_option, To Key: right_command, but it does not work. Now the right option key does not trigger anymore but the right cmd key doesn’t do its job either.

I also tried a simple a > b remapping, but that didn’t work either, not on the integrated Macbook PRO keyboard nor the USB one.

Any idea how i can debug that?

Cheers and thx for such a great tool, couldn’t work without it :smiley: and i am only using a fraction of its functionality ;p

p.s.: in the Current Keyboards dropdown, when i select my current keyboard, it just blinks the name once and then the field is empty again.

are you on some older version of macOS? (there were some that didn't allow the low level key remap)

:grimacing: eeeerrrm, weeelll, i am still on Ventura. Please don’t tell me i have to update now :sweat_smile:

Am afraid of the clutter ;p

I didn’t think of that actually…

Guess i have to update to Sequoia then…

Thank your @Andreas_Hegenberg

unfortunately yes, Ventura was the one that had the bug that prevents this from working ;-(

@Andreas_Hegenberg can you check if this works for you? Alternatively, do you know if there’s a safe way to try a fresh BTT config temporarily?

I think I might not understand, the low level key remap feature can only remap single keys, so remapping combinations like fn+ arrow won't work with that (use BTT's standard keyboard shortcut feature for such). Or did I misunderstand?

I mean the standard Fn key combinations on Mac OS (Fn+Up Arrow = Page Up, Fn+Left Arrow = Home, Fn+Backspace = Delete, etc.) I expected that remapping Right Command to “standard globe / fn / function as modifier” would allow me to trigger those.

ah yes, that works. There are however multiple types of FN keys available in the remapping list - it only works with one of them as far as I know. I'm currently not on my Mac, can check tomorrow!

Thanks! I haven’t been able to make it work (I’m now using a fresh config), and the issue of not being able to retrigger custom shortcuts (e.g. Fn + O to show/hide Safari) remains: I need to release the remapped key before I can trigger the shortcut again.

Please let me know what you can find.

Edit: maybe another option for me is to just not remap right command to fn at all, and just change all my Fn mappings to use right command (e.g. Right Cmd + O to show/hide Safari) and simply recreate those Mac OS defaults (Right Cmd+Up Arrow = Page Up, etc.) I just highlight the current situation because it almost works perfectly for me, and I’m used to mapping Fn+ to show/hide my most used apps.

@Andreas_Hegenberg were you able to take a look into this? Thank you in advance

I’m also finding the mapping is unresponsive. However, I do acknowledge that I likely misunderstood the implementation of, “The predefined action "Remap Keyboard Key (Low Level)", especially when accompanied with the below image in the initial post.

Here's what I've tried thus far:

And here's the config:

[Remap Keyboard] exported_triggers.bttpreset (3.4 KB)

I just reinstalled the app due an unrelated bug too.
BTT V: 5.800
MacOS Monterey 12.7.6 (21H1320)

Thank you in advance!

@eli5 what are you trying to achieve? and which version of BTT / macOS are you running?

//edit: ah I just saw 12.7.6 - this feature probably doesn't work on this old macOS version (the APIS where available but broken and I think Apple never fixed them on these versions). AFAIK it requires at least macOS 15

@Andreas_Hegenberg I tried remapping Caps Lock to Fn. It works as expected when pressed on its own (it shows the Emoji picker) as well as when using it to trigger another BTT action that has Fn + Ctrl + A as its trigger. However, it doesn’t work with my trigger Fn + Ctrl + Up Arrow. When recording a new trigger, Fn + Ctrl + A (using CL as Fn) is correctly recognised, but Fn + Ctrl + Up Arrow is recognised as just Ctrl + Up Arrow. Do you happen to know what’s the problem there?

I also noticed that the same behaviour occurs when Caps Lock is remapped to Fn using the System Settings.

the problem is that the arrow key implicitly already contains the function key modifier on macOS, however it should still work - it will then record like this:

It's important to select the correct "standard globe / fn / function as modifier" remap:

Thank you so much for the quick reply!

Oddly, if I remap CL to Fn for all keyboards (by leaving the optional field empty), on the internal keyboard of the MacBook CL + Arrow works like and is recorded as Fn + Arrow (as you say), but on my external keyboard (where the default FN key is not passed to the OS) CL + Arrow is recorded only as the arrow key.

I noticed that the “Home”, “End”, “Page Up” and “Page Down” on my external keyboard work the same as Fn + "Left Arrow”, “Right Arrow”, “Up Arrow”, “Left Arrow”, respectively. So Ctrl + Fn + Up Arrow on my internal keyboard is the same as Ctrl + Page Up on my external keyboard. That’s quite unintuitive, but very good to know. Now I can continue using my existing triggers on my external keyboard without having to reassign them.

@Andreas_Hegenberg just wanted to reach out again and confirm that remapping a key to “standard globe / fn / function as modifier” does work with built-in MacOS combinations (Page Up, Delete, etc.) What I’m still seeing is that if I map Fn+ to a BTT action, and then I trigger that action, then BTT behaves as if I had released Fn, even if I haven’t, so I can only trigger a single action while holding the modifier.