Level 4

1,328 points

F4 Key on my MacBook Pro Late 2016 with TouchBar doesn't seem to work

I migrated to my new MacBook Pro and for some reason the F4 key doesn't seem to do anything. I first noticed it while trying to do something in a VMWare Horizon app where I had F4 mapped. But I now see it doesn't work on the mac itself. If I open the Keyboard Viewer all Function keys press the corresponding key on the virtual keyboard with the exception of F4. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12.2), MacBook Pro Late 2016 with TouchBar

Posted on Jan 3, 2017 12:42 PM

28 replies

Group33

Level 1

4 points

Jan 3, 2017 2:47 PM in response to Proggie

I was having the same problem and found out that iTunes was causing this to happen.

When I plug my iPhone7 into the USB-C port it launches iTunes. After that F4 will not work any longer.

When I end iTunes (double check that is not running via Force Quit) F4 will work again.

I'm guessing it's a bug, but I haven't had a chance to call support and report what I found.

Hope that helps you....

Proggie Author

Level 4

1,328 points

Jan 3, 2017 2:55 PM in response to Group33

In my case my iTunes was not running. I started it up and quit it again just in case. Also I unplugged my iPhone 6 and it made no difference. I have other dongles connected to my USB-C ports though (Ethernet/USB, and two DVI). I'm logged into my work account as I'm at work so will unplug everything and restart and see if it still happens after work (on both home and work accounts).

Proggie Author

Level 4

1,328 points

Jan 3, 2017 3:43 PM in response to Proggie

It seems to be some kind of conflict between one or more of the following: VMWare Horizon Client, Magic Mouse (and/or MagicPrefs), Safari. A couple of times I was able to fix it by quitting all the apps and turning off the MagicMouse and logging into my VMWare Horizon Client. And then it stopped working a few seconds later after I started either the MagicMouse or Safari. Could do this a couple of times, but then when I tried to narrow it down further I couldn't reproduce the "fix", so now it's not working again.

Not sure why it worked fine on the old MacBook Pro and only started behaving this way with the new one even though I'm running the same software.

Will play around with it more to see if I can narrow it down.

Proggie Author

Level 4

1,328 points

Jan 4, 2017 4:42 PM in response to Proggie

It's not specific to Safari either. I believe it's a WebKit issue, because I can reproduce it in a Fluid app that I created for Google Inbox (that's how I narrowed it down to google). I haven't tried if it also happens in the google app page loaded in Chrome.

Proggie Author

Level 4

1,328 points

Jan 4, 2017 8:19 PM in response to Proggie

It doesn't happen in Chrome. And for me, when you open google.com in Safari, you don't have to be logged in, and just the google search page will trigger this issue, so I don't even have to go to inbox/gmail,etc. When I close the tab with google search, 20 seconds later F4 works again.

ckckckck

Level 1

8 points

Jan 27, 2017 8:16 AM in response to brown.stone

For me it's iTunes as well. I independently figured this out before I found this thread.

Once you close iTunes, you can wait about 45 seconds and F4 will start working again. This didn't happen on my mid-2015 MBP, it only started happening with my new 2016 15" MBP with TouchBar.

This is super-annoying, because I use F4 constantly in my Parallels VM when doing software development.

Feb 10, 2017 2:16 AM in response to Proggie

Apparently this has something to do with touchbar driver. There is a process called 'NowPlayingTouchUI' launched, running at background, when iTunes is started. When you press F4 key, you can see this message in the console:

NowPlayingTouchUI

wrote view description of <NPUNowPlayingPopoverViewController: 0x6000000ec700> to (null)

When iTunes exits, NowPlayingTouchUI exits as well, thus F4 key is working again.

I can't seem to find a way to customize iTunes' touch bar. If there is a way, maybe we can adjust the setting there to make it work.

com64

Level 1

4 points

May 8, 2017 3:44 AM in response to Proggie

I called Apple Support regarding this and the following solved the issue:

Power off mac

Hold down the keys Command, Alt, P, R. While holding down these keys press Power button briefly. Keep holding Command, Alt, P, R for 30 secs. (screen flashes briefly)

Restart mac

Jun 8, 2017 6:38 PM in response to Proggie

This impacts more than just F4 - I find that with the now playing framework active the ⌥⌘D shortcut to hide/show the dock doesn't work either (although the key does appear to be pressed in the keyboard viewer). That one has been occasionally bugging me for months, I'm glad I found this thread!

Jan 5, 2017 1:41 PM in response to Proggie

I have the same problem. I don't use safari at the moment, just chrome. For me, it's the iTunes that cause the F4 to stop working. However, Alt-F4 seems to register as F4 whenever F4 is not working.

Proggie Author

Level 4

1,328 points

Jan 5, 2017 1:42 PM in response to brown.stone

Thanks for the Alt-F4 trick! Works in my case too!

ckckckck

Level 1

8 points

Feb 6, 2017 7:44 AM in response to ckckckck

Apparently this bug has been reported multiple times. My bug report was closed as being a duplicate

of existing issue 29791643.

jkbrz

Level 1

4 points

Feb 26, 2017 3:28 AM in response to Proggie

F4 doesn't work for me at all on Touch Bar MBP. No matter what apps are running.

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F4 Key on my MacBook Pro Late 2016 with TouchBar doesn't seem to work