Keyboard Shortcuts not working. All Apps

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Level 1

9 points

Keyboard Shortcuts not working. All Apps

So, I know that this has been posted many times before. However, I have a bit of a different situation. Most of the other discussions have been about a specific application. I am having trouble with many if not all of my applications. The Command+Q, Command+W, and the other common ones like copy and paste and undo are not working. I have tried going into the text and language settings and the keyboard settings in the control pannel but to no avail. I am still having problems. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 2.16 Intel Core Duo, ATI Radeon X1600

Posted on Jan 2, 2012 11:20 AM

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Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jan 2, 2012 11:42 AM in response to Mithrandir28

Create a new admin user account, log into it, and see if the problem persists.

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Answer 2

Mithrandir28 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 2, 2012 8:14 PM in response to baltwo

Yes, by creating a new account that did seem to make the keyboard commands work. However, it would be ideal if I didn't have to move everything from one account to the other and I'd rather like to keep my current one. Any thoughts?

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Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jan 2, 2012 11:08 PM in response to Mithrandir28

Since the issue is specific to your original user account, you can proceed in two ways. One is to log into your new account, make a list of the preference files (plists) located in /username/Library/Preferences/, including any in the ByHost subfolder, log back into the original account, move everything on that other account's list from the original account's Preferences folder into a newly created folder on the Desktop, log out and back in, and see if the problem goes away. If so, you can copy the ones in the Desktop folder (one at time) back into /Preferences/, restart, and see if the problem returns. If so, you've identified the corrupt/conflicting one. Continue with all of them until isolating the bad ones. That'll save you the trouble of resetting preferences.

The second way is much more detailed and I'll not burden you with the steps unless the above doesn't fix the issue.

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Answer 4

Mithrandir28 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 3, 2012 6:41 AM in response to baltwo

I'll try this when I get home from work and let you know how it goes.

Thanks

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Answer 5

Mithrandir28 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 13, 2012 11:52 PM in response to baltwo

Ok, so thanks for the tips. I tried what you suggested. Now some of the shortcuts work but not all of them. For example, I can close a window in Finder using command W and command Q with Mail, Safari, Photobooth, iCal, Photoshop, and Preview (those are just some of the ones that I have tried). Command Q still doesn't work with Google Chrome, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie (as far as I have tried). Any thoughts?

Thanks

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