Why don't the keyboard shortcuts to switch Terminal tabs work anymore?

I cannot reproduce your situation (Ventura 13.4.1 (c) ). I Launch macOS Terminal. I create several new tabs. I hide macOS Terminal. I switch to other apps. I unhide macOS Terminal. Command-1, Command-2, etc... all works. I even tried creating a 2nd window with several tabs, and repeated the hide, play around, unhide, Command-1, Command-2, ... test in both windows, and it still worked as expected.

• The shell will not affect the GUI parts of macOS Terminal.

• The TERM=xterm-256color vs TERM=vt102 will not affect the GUI parts of macOS Terminal. All that this setting does is tell the programs you run how to move the cursor around and how many colors they are allowed to use. macOS Terminal always supports all the colors it is going to support, and if you select a TERM setting with less colors, you can still send the escape sequences to generate more colors. If you specify a less capable terminal type, such as vt100, you can still send macOS Terminal escape sequences for more advanced terminal types. And generally speaking, xterm-256color is the best choice so the programs you run will know they have a more advanced terminal emulator to work with.

Stupid Question? Do you use a 3rd party keyboard?

I use either my MacBook Pro keyboard, or a Apple USB extended keyboard, with and Apple Magic Trackpad on the side of it.

If you are using a 3rd party keyboard, that may be something to factor into the problem.

At work, I live in a terminal emulator. I happen to use iTerm2 (https://iterm2.com; free), but mostly because when it was Mac OS X 10.3, Terminal did not support tabbed windows, but iTerm did, plus iTerm had a few other features I found useful. Since the early 2000's Terminal has improved, and now includes many of the reasons I started using iTerm (and eventually iTerm2). But there are still a few iTerm2 features I am hooked on, so I stay with iTerm2.

iTerm2 also has the Command-1, Command-2, etc... tab switching feature as well.

I AM NOT suggesting you switch to iTerm2, I'm just pointing out there are alternatives.

I am going to suggest you experiment with iTerm2 to see if Command-1, Command-2, ... works correctly on your system. Because IF IT DOES NOT work correctly, then this would imply there is something interfering with both terminal emulators.

As I said, I live in terminal emulators, but I DO NOT use Command-1, Command-2, etc... I use a Magic Trackpad, and BetterTouchTool (https://folivora.ai; paid app) and I have mapped a 3-finger left and right swipe to move to the previous or next tab. I have also used BetterTouchTool to map Control-Page-Up and Control-Page-Down to move to the previous or next tab (I have an extended keyboard with Page-Up and Page-Down keys). This works for me. If I need to move to a specify tab, I use my mouse. I never got into the habit of Command-1, Command-2, ....

Would you be interested in posting the output from an EtreCheck run?

https://EtreCheck.com

Just the free version. You do not have to pay for any of the extras.

EtreCheck should show if you have any 3rd party additions that maybe you forgot about, or were unaware of.

I've been able to repeat this issue on Sonoma 14.3.1, and it is very annoying. Use these steps to recreate:

1. Start with a plain terminal (I deleted ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist)
2. Add new windows (I just used Cmd-N), add at least 3 (for a total of 4)
3. Use keyboard shortcut Cmd-Opt-1, Cmd-Opt-2, Cmd-Opt-3, Cmd-Opt-4. That should switch between each terminal window.
4. Hide the Terminal App (Cmd-H)
5. Got to any other app (Safari, Notes, etc.)
6. Go back to Terminal
7. Try redoing step #3, and it will not work

I think this is a bug that has existed since Sonoma, does anyone have a fix?

Test in Safe mode, as that will make sure any 3rd party additions are not active.

Boot macOS Safe Mode: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac

Nebusj wrote:

What is broken here and how long has Apple been refusing to fix it?

Works fine for me with Monterey and later. I can't tell you why it doesn't work for you.

Try booting into Safe Mode then restart normally. Sometimes that will fix anomalies.

Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

I just verified on my Ventura 13.4.1 personal Mac that macOS Terminal Command-1, Command-2, etc... switch to the specified Terminal tab number.

I would strongly suspect you have a 3rd party utility installed that is messing with macOS Terminal Command-1, Command-2, etc... key mappings.

Control + tab key should cycle through Terminal tabs in Ventura 13.6.4 just as it does in my Sonoma 14.3.1 Terminal. So does cmd+1, cmd+2, ... cmd+9. Something else is intercepting your keyboard shortcuts.

When you hide an app, you no longer have pointer or keyboard focus on it until you click on its Dock icon and restore those properties as it reopens. I just hid my Terminal app, clicked on Safari, then clicked on the Terminal app in the Dock to relaunch it and all of my keyboard shortcuts continued to work including jumping from tab 1 to tab 9 using cmd+9.

It was the act of hiding it, going to another app, then coming back to Terminal (with all the Terminal windows showing again), that led to the Cmd-Opt-# keys no longer allowing me to swap between terminal windows (steps 6 and 7 of my procedure to recreate the problem).

It sounds like you're able to confirm that you did all the steps of my procedure and were able to do #7 again with no issues? I.e., the Cmd-Opt-# shortcut to swap between specific windows still worked for you after hiding the Terminal app and then reactivating it again?

Drop the Option from your keyboard shortcut. It is Cmd+# where # is a number from 1 to 9.

Concur with Monterey (and) Ventura.

Nebusj wrote:

…once a Terminal tab is hidden its command-numeral key stops working.

I don't know what hiding a tab means.

It still worked for you even after you hid the Terminal app (step 4 in my procedure to recreate the issue)?

Hi VikingOSX,

It is the same result whether or not "Use Cmd-1 through Cmd-9 to switch tabs" is checked. Are you able to recreate this issue with the instructions provided?