Space bar won't open photos in Mojave

Hi Léonie! I´ve left only the "Open" shortcut defined...for some reason having a second shortcut stops the "Return" key from working. To close the preview I flick my middle finger down (towards me) on my wireless Magic Mouse, as if I had a scroll wheel...not ideal but it´s fast and easier than reaching up for the "Return" key! I imagine the majority of us use Photos for just that...photos...so I think Apple ought to give us back the Space Bar functionality for opening photos. I've sent them feedback. Regards, Ian.

Thank you, Ian.

That is what I finally did. I changed the "close" shortcut back to "return", and now I am mostly using a double tap on my trackpad to open and close photos. And use the spacebar to open the photos only on my old iMac, where I do not have a trackpad in the keyboard.

This works to open the photo, but it will not close it. Am I missing a step? Thank you for the help.

The update to macOS 10.14.2 killed the fix. It worked in the previous version of Photos, but no longer.

Am I the only one here who grew up using space bar to start and stop videos? When did this expectation change? (Maybe with the move from iPhoto to Photos..?)

Funny, I came here to find out why space bar wouldn't play videos in MacOS (Sierra) Photos and found that people were complaining of the opposite, as if space bar ALWAYS meant "preview/close" (it didn't - it used to mean "open/play/stop" and 'Esc' meant "close"). Weird ...

OMG Apple I am really starting to get annoyed with how bad you are. Your developers used to be the best in the world and now, literally everything... and I mean EVERYTHING you do has major bugs. Now add to the list that it' not just bugs, but intentional acts of stupidity.

So your developers think that spacebar should preview every file, including videos within the photos app and photos stored anywhere else on the Mac... and return should rename every file. Apart from when you want to preview a photo in the photos app - then suddenly, the shortcuts change. Why? It's not like it has another function, it just gives an error dong sound.

I don't care which key you settle on, whether it be spacebar or return but for gods sake make it consistent. This is one tiny issue in a list of maybe 100 other issues i have with your products, hence my frustrations.

If you want to charge several thousand pounds for your devices, in a market where everyone else is charging several hundred, you need to be perfect - no excuse. Or drop the prices, one or the other.

I tried this and it worked only for opening the photos with the Space Bar. For closing the same it does not work the same way. Shame on Apple for messing up years of intuitive interaction with the keyboard.

WHAT WAS THE NEED TO DO THIS??

Tell Apple what missing features you'd like restored or new features added in Photos via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html.

You can also use trackpad to preview or close a photo. Just double tap the trackpad instead of pressing the space bar. Perhaps Apple wants us to use more gestures instead of the keyboard.

Until Apple fixes this, upon loading Photos, just hit the Return key once, then the space bar will work. No need to use your mouse to invoke the image menu.

I'm experiencing the same thing. I have to click "IMAGE" before this shortcut will work. Small price to pay for a great fix to an otherwise stupid decision.

AGAIN, YES AGAIN, JUST CLICK ON YOUR RETURN KEY ONCE WHEN FIRST OPENING PHOTOS, THEN THE SPACEBAR SHORTCUT WILL WORK.

I like your comment about the spacebar being made 30 times less useful. It's true!!

Makes sense. Done.

Thanks for the help!!

It works now. I had Open Viewer and Close Viewer in all lowercase.

Thanks

works thx