Command - Tab shortcut not working

Question

Level 1

7 points

Command - Tab shortcut not working

My command - tab shortcut stops working after a random period of time and I have to restart my MacBook to get it working again. Any idea what could be causing this keyboard shortcut to fail? I tried killing and re-running the Dock but that does not fix it. A refuse to reboot my Mac everytime it happens (this is not Windows...) Any ideas on what might be causing the problem?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Feb 11, 2009 3:22 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 11, 2009 5:04 PM in response to pmcdonn1

Hello,

Try repairing disk permissions ...
Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select FirstAid, then click: Repair Disk Permissions. Quit DU when it's finished and reboot.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

Feb 16, 2009 3:07 PM in response to pmcdonn1

I have the exact same computer and the exact same problem.

Were you able to solve this? 😟
Anyone?

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Answer 3

pmcdonn1 Author

Level 1

7 points

Feb 17, 2009 4:06 AM in response to Ricardo Seixas

Actually, I figured this out. Since my MacBook is my work PC I had added to SMB drive mappings to my login. When I was not connected to the network and these drives could not mount was when I lost the ability to task switch. I removed the automounts from my Mac login and the problem went away.

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Answer 4

fbg00

Level 1

9 points

Feb 22, 2009 1:14 PM in response to pmcdonn1

I have the same problem, but I do not have any automounts and have tried repairing file permissions as one user described.

Anyone else have any ideas?

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Answer 5

fbg00

Level 1

9 points

Feb 22, 2009 1:20 PM in response to fbg00

Actually I just researched this further and found a solution here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1830738&tstart=0

+Open the activity monitor and look for something like the "ScreenSaverEngine" - the process should be marked as "not responding" (written in red)+

+End this process and Command+Tab and other shortcuts will work again!+

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Answer 6

fbg00

Level 1

9 points

Feb 22, 2009 1:21 PM in response to fbg00

Also if you don't know how to open the activity monitor, just go into spotlight and type "activity monitor" 🙂

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Answer 7

buchacho

Level 1

0 points

Mar 10, 2009 10:35 PM in response to pmcdonn1

I also have this problem with a MacBook Pro (Early'08). The four finger gesture still works to switch apps. I do not have a screensaver process running. Any ideas?

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Answer 8

Apr 8, 2009 2:38 AM in response to fbg00

awesome! Problem solved... I have been bored for several months...

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