Swapping modifier keys by keyboard doesn't work.

Yesterday I plugged one Microsoft USB keyboard for the first time ever to my MB Pro at the office and operated my laptop lid down. I swapped the Control and Command keys as it felt more natural to press Ctrl on a PC keyboard than Windows or Alt keys. I unplugged the keyboard (still lid down) and went home.

Today I have been facing this same problem. No matter what I do (reboot, adjust the keyboard modifier keys settings etc.) the Cmd stays in the Ctrl key and vice versa on my laptop keyboard.

Very annoying, I have not invented a cure. Can anybody point me to the preference file that should have this setting recorded? I'd like to try to delete it.

What I am going to do next is to go back to the office, plug the keyboard on again and try adjusting these keys back to original. My theory is that the MS keyboard driver has messed something on a "deeper level" or done it in some non-standard way, but I have no access to that setting until there is a MS keyboard plugged in that activates the driver and meddles with the settings in that way again. I will report my findings.

Any suggestions at this stage?

Yup... I'm seeing the same problem. I haven't isolated a cause for it yet. However, I do have two manufacturer keyboard driver sets loaded (Microsoft's and Logitec's). This problem of changing the mapping of a distinct keyboard is a problem I encountered yesterday when I bought a cheap USB keyboard to use at the office. The keyboard itself works fine, its just the ability to map the Command and Options keys from their Windows based ordering to a Mac based ordering.

I've done it before and it worked fine.

Symptoms observed:
1. Only way to effect mapping of the option and command keys is if "All" is selected.
2. (single occurrence so far) Logitec drivers failed to recognize my Logitec keyboard at home (reboot seemed to correct this for now)

Other than this... I'm in investigate mode on this one.

Further info:
Tried deleting the prefs file with no change in behavior. The only thing I noticed is that my MB wanted me to re-ident my keyboard when I plugged it in.

Mildly annoying problem... but ultimately something that can be worked around for the short term... or can be solved by only buying keyboards from mfgs who provide drivers for mapping the key correctly (like Logitec or Microsoft [ones I've actually tested and work]) or buying actual Mac keyboards (like Apple's or Keyspan's).

Okay... so the problem "seems" to have straightened itself out after the following:
1. Removing the unused Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse Pref Panes with their related drivers.
2. Rebooting
3. Correcting some pref settings in the Keyboard & Mouse pref pane ( seems that after removing the Microsoft pref pane the Apple Keyboard & Mouse setting were all cockeyed. )

Now, my MB recognizes my external keyboards correctly and remaps the keys automagically like it used to. I am now back to not having to think about which keyboard is plugged in, I can simply plug and go.

Oh, I left the Logitech pref pane installed as it seemed well behaved and everything works like its supposed to, even the media control keys on the cheap Radio Shack "Gigaware" media USB keyboard. (+Play works, volume works, mute, next, prev all work correctly+.)

I'm having the same problem on the MBP's internal keyboard -- the Keyboard / Modifier Keys dialog doesn't seem to have any effect. (I previously used it to swap Command and Option, but changing them back doesn't have any effect.)

How can I troubleshoot this?

Thanks,
Arya

Same problem, 2 week old MBP15 configured to work with illuminating Logitech keyboard... now the modifier keys cant be changed for the internal Optio/Command keys.

Cant even find the pref file for it.. its not com.apple.keyboard for a start

I think I fixed this on my MacBook.

Problem : I plugged in a Saitek keyboard, then changed the key modifiers for all configuration, and couldn't change them back when I was at home without the Saitek keyboard.

Solution : Plug back the keyboard, select which keyboard you want to change the settings for and simply reset the settings. Worked for me!

I second to this.

I finally did what I told I would a few posts above: I went back to the office, plugged the original troublemaker MS keyboard on my Mac, pressed reset to default. Now my laptop keys are back where they belong. Problem (sort of) fixed.

However, for the record, I just also tested if the modifier keys edit panel works (no external keyboard attached, just my laptop keyboard). I tried to swap Cmd and Ctrl, but nothing changes. Apparently the external keyboard driver has somehow messed the whole system, as I presumed before.

Till there is a fix, I strongly suggest everybody to revert all modifier keys back to defaults before unplugging external keyboard.

Here's what worked for me:

.Plugged Microsoft keyboard back into my macbookpro
.Go into System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard
.Click on Modifier Keys (You should see a "select Keyboard" up top)
.Select the Apple Keyboard from the drop down and make your choices
.Select the Microsoft Keyboard and make your choices
.Don't touch "All"
.Your laptop and 3rd party keyboard should be able to coexist peacefully

Jimmy,
Thank you. This fixed my problem. I have a Microsoft Keyboard at home, an Apple wired keyboard at work, and I often use my MBP without the keyboard. At one time, my computer would remember the settings. But then it stopped remembering them and I would have to change them when I went from the Microsoft keyboard to no keyboard. This worked for awhile. But then they got stuck with the setting for the Microsoft keyboard (option and command keys reversed). I could not change them in system prefs and resetting PRAM had no effect on this problem. But as you suggested, plugging the Microsoft keyboard in, and then clicking "restore defaults" button, then unplugging the Microsoft Keyboard, made the defaults stick when no keyboard was connected.

This really needs to be fixed by Apple.

Removing the logitech dongle fixed it for me

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10094990&#10094990