Alt+CMD+Space no longer usable as a key binding?

[voxmjw]

Just upgraded to V and very happy so far, minus one annoyance. In V1 I used CMD+Space as my Alfred Hotkey, and Alt+CMD+Space as my File Selection Hotkey (for Open Terminal Here, etc.). 

 

Since upgrading to V2, I can no longer use Alt+CMD+Space as key binding. I've tried out Alt+CMD+Space for Alfred Hotkey and File Selection Hotkey, neither will register.

 

Is this a bug, or is there some new limitation that means we can no longer use this binding? I haven't had a look in the plist yet, but anyone know if I may find some joy in manually setting the preference?

[voxmjw]

Sorry about the extra post. Just had a go at manually changing the preference and it worked. Here's the guide for those (very few ) people that really want to use Alt+CMD+Space as a key binding.

 

Find your Alfred settings directory. Easiest way is to open Alfred Preferences, go to "Advanced" and click "Reveal in Finder".

Right click on the "Alfred.alfredpreferences" file, choose "Show Package Contents".

Navigate to preferences -> features -> filesearch -> actions.

Open "prefs.plist". This file contains the binding preference for File Selection action. I used the Xcode editor.

Navigate to Root -> finderSelectionHotKey. Set the keys as follows:

key = 49
mod = 1,572,864
string = Space

Save the file. Restart Alfred. Check the File Search binding preference. The binding should show up as Alt+Cmd+Space. Give it a try.

 

Usual advice about making backups of preferences before editing applies.

 

Hope that helps anyone else with the same problem.

Edited July 5, 2013 by voxmjw

[jdfwarrior]

Sorry about the extra post. Just had a go at manually changing the preference and it worked. Here's the guide for those (very few ) people that really want to use Alt+CMD+Space as a key binding.

 

Find your Alfred settings directory. Easiest way is to open Alfred Preferences, go to "Advanced" and click "Reveal in Finder".

Right click on the "Alfred.alfredpreferences" file, choose "Show Package Contents".

Navigate to preferences -> features -> filesearch -> actions.

Open "prefs.plist". This file contains the binding preference for File Selection action. I used the Xcode editor.

Navigate to Root -> finderSelectionHotKey. Set the keys as follows:

key = 49
mod = 1,572,864
string = Space

Save the file. Restart Alfred. Check the File Search binding preference. The binding should show up as Alt+Cmd+Space. Give it a try.

 

Usual advice about making backups of preferences before editing applies.

 

Hope that helps anyone else with the same problem.

 

You shouldn't have to do this. Cmd+alt+space can be set as the hotkey with no issues. Typically, if you run into an issue where you can't set a hotkey, there is usually something causing some kind of conflict with it. Was Alfred 1 still running by chance? Either way, glad you were able to get it figured out.

[Andrew]

Just upgraded to V and very happy so far, minus one annoyance. In V1 I used CMD+Space as my Alfred Hotkey, and Alt+CMD+Space as my File Selection Hotkey (for Open Terminal Here, etc.). 

 

Since upgrading to V2, I can no longer use Alt+CMD+Space as key binding. I've tried out Alt+CMD+Space for Alfred Hotkey and File Selection Hotkey, neither will register.

 

Is this a bug, or is there some new limitation that means we can no longer use this binding? I haven't had a look in the plist yet, but anyone know if I may find some joy in manually setting the preference?

 

cmd+alt+space is used by Spotlight by default, so Alfred won't be able to use this key unless it's disabled in OS X's preferences > Spotlight > Search Results (down at the bottom, "Spotlight window keyboard shortcut"). It could also be used if you have multiple keyboard layouts setup in OS X's preferences > Language & Text > Input Sources > Shortcuts.

 

If these had been set in v1 quite some time ago, they may have been set before OS X was using them. Setting them in fresh in v2 would be prevented unless you unset them being used by OS X.

[voxmjw]

Thanks for your replies.

 

I had a look through and confirmed that Language & Text -> Input Sources -> Keyboard & Character Viewer are unbound, that the Spotlight shortcuts (Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts) are bound to something else and disabled, and Spotlight is disabled (Spotlight -> Search Results).

 

I also restored my Alfred V1 app and re-bound the Finder Selection action to something else, still no success setting the binding from Alfred V2 prefs.

 

If no one else has this trouble it must be a peculiar binding conflict on my machine. 

[desertman]

I had a similar problem with "double tap Control" as hotkey for Alfred 2. This hotkey worked for a long time in Alfred 1, but I could not set it in Alfred 2. Finally I booted my Mac into Safe Mode, and here I was able to set "double tap Control" as hotkey. Maybe that works for you, too.