Why don't the F10 and F11 keys control volume anymore?

just make sure that box is unchecked. If there's a check mark on it that means the keys will work as "standard functions", it says right there that if the box is checked you need to press the "fn key" to use the features printed on the keys (volume control, brightness, etc) but if the box is unchecked you won't have to worry about pressing the "fn key" and f1-f12 should work just fine on their own.

Hopefully you can get your sound back by restarting your Mac.

Regarding F10 and F11, check System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts. I believe this is the default:

Try unchecking the F10, F11, and F12 settings. You might restart your Mac once again.

cam812 wrote:

When I pushed the fn key I lost all sound. Maybe Linc will see this and help?

When you press the fn key together with F10 key it mutes the sound, repeat to unmute. Press fn/F11 to reduce sound and fn/F12 to increase sound. (These keys will vary according to OS X version). Also, if you like, you can go to System Preferences/Keyboard and uncheck the box for "use all F1, F2 keys etc as standard function keys." Then you do not have to use the fn key with F9, F10, F11 to control the sound.

Message was edited by: Cunnla

My volume keys will stop working and there's nothing that helps. I've tried all the (MANY) suggestions here and if one does work, the "fix" doesn't last. Can someone please explain why this happens, why it continues to happen, and what Apple is doing to stop it from happening. This never happened until I upgraded to Yosemite. I'm losing patience, truly I am, and I'm normally a very patient person.

Still not working. fn is supposed to allow volume change but it does nothing with Snow Leopard and the small "Magic" keyboard. It does work with the extended keyboard, which makes no sense. The small keyboard is new and the other one is old. Maybe that's it. I have an old Steve Jobs keyboard that works and a Tim Cook one that doesn't. Apple has fallen pretty low when users have to do research just to get their keyboards to work.

On my MBA (late 2010) it is done by pressing the function (fn) key at the bottom right of the keyboard at the same time as the F10 or F11 key.

Message was edited by: Cunnla

make sure that box is unchecked and restart your mac. after restarting it the keys should work as intended.

Correction. I should have said the keys will vary according to laptop version. On my MBA (late 2010) the sound keys are F9,10, and 11 but on the Macbook Pro (mid-2012) they are F10,11, and 12.

Thank you for the good hint! It worked immidiately.