Option + Left/Right Arrows Randomly Stop Working on MacOS Sequoia 15.5

BlueFox95 wrote:

I found the culprit. I use the Insta360 Webcam for meetings and it's paired with their Insta360 Link Controller app. In this app's settings, it specifies Hot Keys (that aren't listed in Apple's Keyboard Settings). The app has specific Hot Keys that override the existing behavior described in the original post.

By killing the Insta360 Link Controller application, the issue goes away.

Appreciate the help!

Good computing BlueFox95 ! appreciate the followup

BlueFox95 wrote:

The Option + Left/Right Arrows• on the keyboard randomly stop working. I rely on this shortcut for quickly navigating between words in any text area or text field.

If I restart my MacBook, the keys work again for a while, but after a few hours they randomly stop working. It happens system-wide across all applications I use daily (not just in one app).

I’ve checked:

No conflicting keyboard shortcuts that might be overriding this ability.

• I always use the same apps each day

macOS is updated to the latest (Sequoia 15.5• )

Has anyone else run into this? Are there ways to fix it without restarting each time?

You do not say what exact mac is this, internal keyboard / external keyboard(?).. hard to speculate.

Never once have I heard this shortcut— certainly have never used it in all the decades of MBP use...

I tested in TextEdit.app plain txt file and it seem to work as you describe.

ref: Mac keyboard shortcuts - Apple Support

what I can say—

A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

You can Login and test, but most importantly Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.