Opening an application via keyboard shortcut disables repeat for the key

Bugs or Unexpected Behavior
1

Hi, thanks for the wonderful software, I use it all day every day :slight_smile:

Describe the bug

I have a keyboard shortcut (option-j) that opens iTerm2. Whenever I use that shortcut, iTerm2 opens, but then if I press-and-hold the j key, just a single j will be output, rather than repeating the j key. This behavior is even "sticky" if I change applications. The only way to "reset" (?) is to ~press another keyboard key, e.g. if I press the k key. Then holding j will again repeat to create e.g. jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj.

This only happens when I use the BTT keyboard shortcut. Tabbing or clicking to iTerm2 does not have this same effect. And the behavior occurs even for different keys (option-k), target applications (Google Chrome), and modifier keys (cmd-shift-j).

The only workaround I've found is to, in BTT for the target keyboard shortcut, enable the "Repeat assigned action" option. Any nonzero config values for this option completely fix the issue (not experienced at all).

I really don't know why this might be happening! Would love your thoughts. Happy to provide screen recordings, diagnostic dumps, etc, please just let me know!

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

MacBook keyboard

Screenshots

Device information:

  • Type of Mac: MacBook Pro 16-inch, Nov 2023
  • macOS version: Sequoia 15.3.1
  • BetterTouchTool version: (please post the exact version - not just "the latest one") 5.200 (though I also experienced on a 4.x, I upgraded to 5.200 as a possible remediation and it did not help/change anything)

Additional information (e.g. crash logs, related issues, etc.):

2

I've just tested this and I can confirm that this is the exact behavior.

macOS Version 15.3.1 (24D70)
BTT Version: 5.204 (2025021705)

@hcgatewood , this is really good catch!

1 Like
3

I can reproduce this, thanks for reporting!

Could you check whether 5.205 alpha fixes this for you?

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4

@Andreas_Hegenberg it seems like 5.205 alpha resolved the issue for me, thanks so much for the fix!

If you have time I'd be so interested in a short tl;dr on what the issue was, I was really wondering :slightly_smiling_face:

5

nothing fancy I just forgot to reset a variable that’s usually used to prevent repeats on non-repeating shortcuts :wink:

I think the issue was introduced sometime in december

1 Like