F Keys On Mac Not Working

I have a fairly new Macbook pro and have noticed that the f keys do not work as they are supposed to in renoise. For example f9 does nothing and the other ones just perform their mac functions (brightness adjustment etc). Does anyone know of a fix for this? Any help would really speed up my workflow!

This is a Mac thing.

There’s a “fn” key in the lower left. Press it at the same time as F9.

Another way is to invert the default behaviour in Apple -> System Preferences -> Keyboard.

Thanks for the reply but I am sorry to say that neither of those is working…

Do you have something like DoubleCommand or KeyRemap4Macbook installed?

These are known to cause problems.

Also, what are you expecting F9 to do? Have you tried other function keys to make sure?

Well, what I mean is that it works fine on the two Macs in my apartment.

I find it unusual that it does nothing for zardoz. I’m asking him to try again and explain in more detail just to make sure it’s not a misunderstanding.

I know that in the pattern editor the f keys are supposed to be able to take you to different places on the pattern ex: f9- to the top, f10- 1/4 the way up etc. When I press those all that happens is the normal mac functions (brightness, volume adjustments). I got this mac new and never installed either of those programs…

Does using the fn button change the behavior of the function keys? In normal circumstances, it acts as a toggle, changing between function keys (F1-F12) and the mac function keys (brightness, etc.)

I just bought a wireless mac keyboard, and there were bugs with the function keys. I needed to download a driver update from the apple website. You may have to do the same thing.

What version of MacOS are you running? Have you installed all available updates in the Software Update?

The fn key is not helping unfortunatly. If I press it and then try to use an F key it does nothing, and If I hold it and then press it it just performs another mac function. I have all the updates and my version is 10.6.8 Im guessing I should give the old geek squad a call… ;(

zardoz -

Are you absolutely positive you have the checkbox conner has circled in red checked? When that is checked, none of the apple-y commands printed on the function keys will be triggered unless you are holding the Fn key. Period, it’s that simple.

Is this occurring on the MBP keyboard or are you using a kb plugged into the MBP? Can you try plugging in a standard mac kb and try there?

To use the F12< keys you’ll want to change the expose shortcuts to something other than the function keys… System Prefs>Expose&Spaces

Otherwise I would zap pram (cmd+option+P+R on reboot till it chimes twice), and maybe try a disk repair and repair permissions.

I have checked that box and still no luck. I am using the keyboard built in (its a macbook pro) I dont exactlly understand the last two possible solutions you talked about. Are these things that could mess other stuff up if I do them wrong?

Thanks for the help though.

You may have a faulty kayboard with a stuck fn key, if you try an external USB mac keyboard and disable your internal, you can exclude your internal keyboard if it doesn’t work.
But attaching an external keyboard does’t bring more light into the matter, i would walk back to a Mac store with it and let them look into the matter.