Keyboard shortcuts not working for services

Have you perhaps found a solution in the meantime ?

Here same problem running MacOS Sierra 10.12.3.

Your workaround seems to always be solving the problem. Thank you for sharing.

And we all realize that the worksaround is cumbersome and not helping simplification and automation of the worksflow)...

MyKleHansen: "The keyboard shortcuts for services don't work in any given app *until* I open the Services menu in the menubar.

I don't actually have to run the Service from the menubar for the shortcut to start working. I just have to show the menu.

However, I have to do it once for each application that's open!"

Is this a long-living bug or are there new insights how to work with hotkeys and servics without getting the issue ?

Similar problem here. Version 10.8.3 won't let me save a shortcut key for my Outlook Applescripts. As soon as a program the shortcut and close the Settings folder, the shortcuts are deleted.

This seems like a glitch in the new 10.8.3 version.

For the original question, I have found I have to sometimes run the Service from the Services menu once before the shortcut will work.

For the second, no that's not a problem with 10.8.3. It is likely a corrupt plist.

Try deleting the com.apple.symbolichotkey.plist from your user/Library/Preferences folder.

Great reply. Thank you. My problem resolved after a reboot.

Wow! As ridiculous as it seems, after I ran the script via "Finder --> Services --> MyService" the keyboard shortcut started working. What an annoying bug!

Thank you Barney, for providing us with an answer!

I have the same problem on my mac mini with 10.6.8.

I have created a service in automator works without problem, saved it, found it in keyboard shortcuts and added a shortcut.

First of it didn't work, rebooted the mac and it worked fine, then I watched tv for a while got back tried the shortcut and its not working any more...standard shortcuts still work, tried deleting the plist and reboot, it worked first time I tried but then it stopped working again...***...

I am seeing similar whacky behavior. I had my newly created shortcut to an applescript service working fine and then all of a sudden it quit working on me.

Am I going to have to reboot just to get this to work?

I have done all of these things and nothing seems to fix it. The sevice I created in Automator works fine when started from the menu, but the shortcut keys assigned in keyboard preferences do not. I see a brief flash of the application name in the menu bar (as if it tried to activate the menu), but nothing actually happens. I've activated it through finder, I've rebooted, nothing seems to make it work.

I can confirm this is still a bug in 10.10.5 . The keyboard shortcuts for services don't work in any given app *until* I open the Services menu in the menubar.

I don't actually have to run the Service from the menubar for the shortcut to start working. I just have to show the menu.

However, I have to do it once for each application that's open!

I suspect that the OS X menu framework is somehow delaying the construction of the Services list for each app until the user looks at it, and the keyboard shortcuts aren't registered until that happens.

Soon I'll upgrade to the latest OS X and see if this is still an issue.

And, did an upgrade to El Capitan do it for you? Because for me it did not 😐. I still have to view the created service (running a terminal in my case) in the finder services menu before the actual shortkey works.

With all due respect, but how come Apple has not addressed such a seemingly trivial thing in the last couple of years?

I've got same issue, until I deleted all spaces in a service name. After that action script's name in Automator's header has been changed to my_service_name.workflow. Now it works perfectly. Hope it will helps You.

I don't have any spaces in my services names. Still face the issue (intermittently) of having to access the services menu once before they keyboard commands work.

Hello, everyone!

I faced the same problem on El Capitan. And I believe the MacRolands' answer helped me.
So I opened "Automator" and renamed my service "Launch iTerm" to "Launch_iTerm" and saved it. Then (just in case) I decided to run the service via Finder -> Services -> Launch_iTerm (before using a hotkey). Then I quited iTerm (Command+Q) and after that I tried the hotkey (Control+Option+T, in my case) and voila, iTerm was launched.

Hope this will help somebody.

Still no go. Getting very frustrated. 10.10.5. The Automator script is a very simple one for Numbers:

on run

set date_ to ((current date) as string)

set the clipboard to the date_

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using command down

end run

The script works from the drop-down menu, but the keyboard shortcut in System Preferences does not work.

If I'm supposed to "initialize" a script in order to then make the shortcut available, can someone please post a list of where/how I must first initialize the script? I get the impression it's:

1. Using Finder, run the script

2. Using the app you want, run the script from the menu

3. Close the app

4. Reboot the Mac

5. (then try the keyboard shortcut in the app)

Got it to work!

The shortcuts I was using—⌃+⌘+D and ⌥+⌘+D—were, unbeknownst to me, being used by something else, probably OS X for the Dock (I saw it move at one point when running the shortcut). I don't know why these conflicts didn't show up in System Preferences, Keyboard, Shortcuts, Keyboard…they are supposed to show up there. I never would have figured out it was a keyboard conflict except by trial and error.