Solved: CMD Key Combos Not Working with Logitech K850 and MacOS Monterrey

Earlier this year I did a blog post, Working From Home – Permanently, in which I recommend using a good keyboard especially when you have multiple computers.

Since upgrading to MacOS Monterrey I’ve had an issue where some of the basic command key combos, such as CMD+X, CMD+V, CMD+C, and more were not working from my Logitech K850 keyboard. However, when I press those keys directly on my MacBook Pro they worked fine.

For those unfamiliar with it, the Logitech K850 will let you bluetooth connect to three different computers. It has three buttons labeled 1, 2, and 3 that will switch the input to a different computer.

This seemed to occur when I first powered up my MacBook. I’d go to do something and find my often used command key combos (CMD+C, etc) would not work.

The fix turned out to be fairly simple, what I needed to do is switch the input to another computer (using the 1, 2, 3 buttons). Once the keyboard was connected to another machine, I could return to my MacBook and find that the CMD keys worked like they were supposed to.

I’m guessing the K850 must power up in some default state in which it doesn’t realize it is in “Mac” mode. It isn’t until you switch from some other computer to the MacBook that it realizes “oh, hey, I’m connected to a MacBook so I’ll switch to Mac mode” and make the CMD key combos work right.

But that’s just a guess on my part, the important thing is if you are having the same issue, just switch the keyboard input to a different computer then back to the MacBook via the 1, 2, 3 buttons and the CMD key combinations should start working.

Note, in my testing I had to switch to an input that was active (i.e. to a computer that was powered up). When I switched to an unused input (not currently connected to a powered computer) and back it didn’t always work right.