M2 MacBook Pro 14" F6 key

Question

M2 MacBook Pro 14" F6 key

This might seem like a dumb question, and I thought I had a decent grasp of Apple hardware. But on my new M2 14" MacBook Pro, the F6 key has the half-moon icon. I assume it's something to do with Focus/Do not Disturb. I believe it should really be labeled "Does not do Anything". What is the purpose of this key, and how can I change this to make it useful, rather than simply taking up space? I can't find anything on-line related to this. If it does control Focus, then how does it? I have "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" enabled in System Settings. Pressing Function + F6 does nothing, and pressing simply F6 also does nothing. I also have "Move focus to the floating window" Control+F6, enabled in System Settings. I'm more of a keyboard person than a mouse person and would like to have keys perform a useful function. F6 is DOA. Does "Full Keyboard Access" have to be enabled? What am I missing here? I'm using an M2 14" MacBook Pro running Ventura 13.5.1.

thanks,

Michael

MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Sep 6, 2023 7:50 PM

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Answer 1

May 10, 2024 11:26 AM in response to Michael Force

Hello,

I was having the same issue but, it was easy to fix. I just activated "Do not disturb" from the control center, and then, I deactivated it using the F6 key, after this, you will be able to control the Do Not Disturb function using only the keyboard, (F6)

I hope this might help you :)

Cheers!

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Answer 2

jmarse1

Community Specialist

Sep 7, 2023 3:01 PM in response to Michael Force

Hi Michael Force,

This key enables and disables your Focus. For information on using the function keys, follow the steps outlined in How to use the function keys on your Mac - Apple Support

If you've done that and still have issues, reach out to Apple here for more support: Get Support

Cheers.

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Answer 3

Sep 9, 2023 9:04 AM in response to Michael Force

I have just discovered another user posted the same issue in the MacBook Air community forum 4 September 2022 M2 MacBook Air - fn keys - Apple Community. Using Fn-F4, Fn-F5, Fn-F6 do not activate the secondary function as marked on the key. The function does work when I de-select the option "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" in Keyboard Shortcuts in Keyboard System Settings. It would appear this broken "feature" has been around for a while with no resolution. I also do not see a workaround. I prefer to use Fn-function key and have been for decades on my old Intel MacBook Pro, but now have to disable this. Why have this option available if it only partly works?

Thanks,

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Answer 4

Sep 7, 2023 11:55 PM in response to jmarse1

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond. I had already seen that Apple support page, and have been using Function keys on my Apple laptops for a couple of decades. I am puzzled that F6 does nothing at all. Perhaps because it's controlling a lame duck feature ported over from iOS. Perhaps F6 isn't for me since I have zero use for "Focus". It's as useful on my MacBook Pro as it is on my iOS devices—not at all. I think I understand now. Assign F6 to another operation. Thanks for the feedback.

Michael

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M2 MacBook Pro 14" F6 key

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