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User profile for user: Decemoto
Decemoto Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Full Keyboard Access not working in some sections, any ideas?

I am running a late-2009 iMac at home with Lion, and at work we have a late-2007 iMac also running Lion. On both, I like to use the "Full Keyboard Access" option, so I can tab through menus, press buttons and checkboxes with the space bar etc.


This is all working well at home, but at work some of the options seem to be forgotten in certain sections. Most notably in the print dialog it used to remember the last highlighted section as "copies", so I could quickly hit 2 or 3 and press Enter to print a couple of copies of the document. Now it doesn't remember, so I have to tab through to the entry box before I can type in my selection.


Also, when I go to shut down the computer and get presented with the shutdown dialog box, it used to have the dreaded "Reopen windows when logging back in" option highlighted, so I could quickly tap space to clear that checkbox, and then Enter to shut down my computer. Now, keyboard control seems to be disabled completely on this section, so I have to use the mouse to click on the checkbox.


This may all seem rather trivial, but for me it's a niggling little problem that interrupts my workflow. I've tried disabling and re-enabling keyboard control, and dumping a few seemingly relevant preference files, but nothing seems to have worked so far. Does anyone have any ideas please?

Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jan 21, 2012 4:58 AM

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10 replies
User profile for user: Community User
Community User

Aug 24, 2016 5:52 PM in response to Decemoto

I'm having the exact same issue on my Mid-2010 MacBook Pro. It was working fine up until I did a clean re-install of Lion. Now, for the Full Keyboard Access controls to function on any of the Shutdown or Reboot dialog boxes, I must first disable and then re-enable Full Keyboard Access using CTRL-F7 (or by changing it manually in System Preferences). I've searched high and low on many forums without finding a solution. Very frustrating as this works fine on my Mac Mini with Lion.


The only references I have found is that this seems to be an issue for anyone who performs a "clean install" of Lion. If you upgrade to Lion, it doesn't seem to occur.


Any direction to a plist or other config file which can fix this issue would be helpful!!!

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User profile for user: Decemoto
Decemoto Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Jan 30, 2012 7:55 AM in response to Community User

Good to know I'm not the only one experiencing this issue (or at least being bothered by it!). In my case both systems were upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard, so it seems that it does happen for upgrades too.


I might try a bit of plist watching when I have some time, just seeing which ones are updated when I change keyboard settings. Might be something there. I'm sure it's just a preference that isn't being written somewhere, but I've had no luck so far.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User

Aug 24, 2016 5:52 PM in response to Decemoto

Good luck, I spent several hours fiddling with fseventer trying to figure that one out. Based on my findings, I thinkg there's an undocumented setting somewhere with a bad permission so the setting doesn't stick after a reboot. Today, I finally gave up and put together the following applescript which I complied and have load in my "login items" to force the setting back on every login (even though the setting shows correct in System Preferences, it doesn't work...but for whatever reason, this applescript corrects it...) Perhaps Apple will fix this bug, but at least I don't have it irritating me on every reboot now...


tell application "System Preferences"

set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"

end tell


tell application "System Events"

tell tab group 1 of window "Keyboard" of process "System Preferences"

click radio button "Keyboard Shortcuts"

end tell

delay 1

tell radio group 1 of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard" of process "System Preferences"

click radio button "All controls"

end tell

end tell


tell application "System Preferences"

quit

end tell

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User profile for user: Watcher_as
Watcher_as
User level: Level 1
23 points

Apr 12, 2012 8:40 AM in response to Decemoto

After a Google search I found these commands that really helped me to solve this issue;


Please follow below steps to solve your issue, previously I'm also facing the same issue:-


Run those command in Terminal


===============
+++++++++
Ben-MacOSX:~ Ben$ defaults read -g AppleKeyboardUIMode
3
+++++++++


But when I'm using sudoer to check the result was set to "0" means disable:-


+++++++++
Ben-MacOSX:~ Ben$ sudo defaults read -g AppleKeyboardUIMode
Password:
0
+++++++++


So what I do for the workaround/fix is by the set value to enabled it using root access level or sudoer:-


+++++++++
Ben-MacOSX:~ Ben$ sudo defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleKeyboardUIMode -int 3
+++++++++


Once done do reboot your Mac & check the result in Terminal should shows as below:-


+++++++++
Ben-MacOSX:~ Ben$ sudo defaults read -g AppleKeyboardUIMode
3
=========
Ben-MacOSX:~ Ben$ defaults read -g AppleKeyboardUIMode
3
+++++++++
===============
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User profile for user: Community User
Community User

Aug 24, 2016 5:52 PM in response to Watcher_as

WATCHER_AS, I can confirm this finally fixed the issue for me. Once I corrected the setting under NSGLOBALDOMAIN as root, everything works as it should. No need for my silly AppleScript on login.


Thanks for digging up this solution, I guess your Google Fu is better than mine :-)

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Full Keyboard Access not working in some sections, any ideas?

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