BetterTouchTool - Keyboard intermittently stops working

Tech Support
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I’m using the bettertouchtool trial exclusively for the capslock key as hyperkey feature. When it works, it’s great. Though there are few issues that will send me be back to Karabiner if I can’t figure them out.

  1. Sometimes I have to press caps lock + other key ( eg capslock + J for KM workflow ) several times before it works.
  2. Sometimes my keyboard stops working until I close BetterTouchTool. I’ll be typing and suddenly the system stops responding to keyboard input. cmd+tab , trying to type in any application, etc doesn’t work . My mouse works fine so I use it to close BTT. After that the keyboard works fine.

I really want to like BTT since it gets great praise on the MPU podcast, but it isn’t working so well for me.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? I have a lot of work on my plate atm, so I haven’t had time to see if I can manually recreate the issue to isolate the cause. Usually when it happens I’m trying get work done, then the issue occurs so I close BTT and get back to work.

Would the hyperkey still work if use BTT’s “disable for all apps” setting? It might be getting into some weird state where BTT is capturing keystrokes and waiting to receive some type of sentinel key to tell it to stop capturing the input. eg everything I type is going into a buffer instead of the target application, which is why it seems that the keyboard isn’t working.

Environment:
macOS: 11.2.3 ( soon to be 11.3 since that is out now )
BTT: v3.5.60(1700)
Logitech MX Keys Keyboard.

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I have the same problem with having to press the hyperkey several times before it works (your problem 1). Basically I have to hit caps lock + shortcut key twice every time before it works. It’s highly annoying and I’m also considering going back to Karabiner.

I’ve never had the problem where the keyboard acts up, though (problem 2).

Would be curious to hear if there’s a solution to this, because I do love BTT.

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Same here, pressing Caps Lock again fixed it for me. Hope they fix this with a software update soon.
BTT is a bit clunky and rough around the edges for sure.

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I switched back to karabiner-elements and I haven’t had any issues. My keyboard doesn’t lock up, and hyperkey + works 100% of the time.

Bettertouchtool sounded nice, but the execution was horrible.

karabiner.json file I used. works great.

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Same here: I had the same problem with Better Touch Tool and have switched back to Karabiner Elements (and now everything works as expected)

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Both of these happen to me on a weekly basis. I’ve no idea how to fix the second problem (where my Caps Lock just starts behaving like a Caps Lock again) except by restarting.

It’s the only thing I use BTT for because the install process for Karabiner was a pain. Looks like I’ll have to do that though.