Play/Pause media cannot be mapped anymore?

[stefangabos]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.64.1

Installation method

PowerToys auto-update

Running as admin

Yes

Area(s) with issue?

Keyboard Manager

Steps to reproduce

I have successfully mapped previously CTRL (left) + ALT (left) + F10 to "Play/Pause Media" but it stopped working since the previous release. If I use the same shortcut for "Next track" it works.

I also have mapped CTRL (left) + ALT (left) + F11 for "Previous Track" and CTRL (left) + ALT (left) + F12 for "Next Track" and these kept working throughout.

✔️ Expected Behavior

Having CTRL (left) + ALT (left) + F10 mapped to "Play/Pause Media" I am expecting for my Spotify (and/or YouTube) to stop/resume playing when the combination is pressed but nothing happens. This has been working before the previous release.

❌ Actual Behavior

Having CTRL (left) + ALT (left) + F10 mapped to "Play/Pause Media" I am expecting for my Spotify (and/or YouTube) to stop/resume playing when the combination is pressed but nothing happens. This has been working before the previous release.

Other Software

No response

[jaimecbernardo]

Just gave it a test on 0.64.1 and it's working for me. A /bugreport might help.

[ghost]

Hi there!

We need a bit more information to really debug this issue. Can you add a "Report Bug" zip file here? You right click on our system tray icon and just go to report bug. Then drag the zipfile from your desktop onto the GitHub comment box in this issue. Thanks!

[androidotai]

Same issue as @stefangabos.

PowerToysReport_2022-11-24-07-26-37.zip

This is my report bug.

I set:

• F9 as Previous Track
• F10 as Play/Pause Media (NOT WORKING)
• F11 as Next Track

[stefangabos]

Here's my zip

PowerToysReport_2022-11-24-10-53-10.zip

And here's my setup where F10 is not working

[jaimecbernardo]

In your cases, does it only happen for Play/Pause Media?
For example, if you do F11 for Play/Pause Media and F10 for the function you're exchanging it with, Play/Pause Media still doesn't work with F11 while the other function works with F10 ?
/needinfo

[stefangabos]

I changed it to F8 and still does the same. BUT it seems to be working fine if Microsoft Teams is not running (I have only 8 gigabytes of RAM and I shut Teams down when I don't need it) and this is how I discovered that it is working.

When Teams is running, even if I have Spotify as the focused window, the shortcut for Play/Pause is not working. Therefore, I am not sure if the issue is related to PowerToys...

[stefangabos]

this seems to be fixed in 0.65.0
@androidotai can you also confirm?

[androidotai]

Yeah, working as expected in 0.65.0. Thanks.

[carlosmatioli]

I updated to the currente version (0.65.0). It worked on the first day, but it stoped working today. When I close MS Teams, it works just fine. And the problem is only with the Play/Pause command.
The problem seems to happen only with shortcuts remaped. With remapped Keys is working just fine.

[stefangabos]

i confirm. it sometimes also works with teams but i haven't yet figured out the pattern

[stefangabos]

also, other strange things started happening as of lately - i use a lot "ctrl+fn+left" (where "left" is also "home" when used with "fn") and instead of going to the top of the page - like it did maybe 2 weeks ago - it doesn't do anything anymore.

if i close powertoys the correct functionality is restored

[carlosmatioli]

I don't know why, but when I remap a key (F10) to Play/Pause media, pressing just F10 it doesn't work (with MS Teams in tray). But pressing Win+F10 it works properly.

[echan1]

I'm running into the a very similar issue, except i bound F5 with Play/Pause. I am running MS teams in the background and playing Spotify.
Win+F5 works properly, as @carlosmatioli discovered (thanks for that!), but when i press F5, it plays the MS Teams ringing tone or does nothing at all.

[stefangabos]

So, I think the issue is not with the keyboard combination but rather with Teams hijacking the Play/Pause control

[stefangabos]

I am saying that because Win + F(anything) is not working for me. After the update to 0.66.0 it again worked for a while (a day) with Teams being on, but again I don't know what made it stop working

[stefangabos]

I just quit and restarted Teams and now play/pause is working as expected. I don't know yet what makes it stop working at some point

[echan1]

I found this workaround. So far it seems to have worked. I'll report back in a few days.
https://superuser.com/questions/1608218/how-to-avoid-microsoft-teams-to-act-as-a-multimedia-application

Start Teams with -disable-features=HardwareMediaKeyHandling

eg. C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\current\Teams.exe -disable-features=HardwareMediaKeyHandling

or C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe --processStart "Teams.exe" --process-start-args="-disable-features=HardwareMediaKeyHandling"

[echan1]

I should've read the comments closer - looks like this workaround no longer works as of Sept 2022 update

[stefangabos]

The above confirms that the issue is with Teams hijacking the Play/Pause button.

[stefangabos]

And finally, it looks like Play/Pause is not working after making a call in Teams. Therefore, restarting Teams after a call would keep things working until the next one.

Another solution involving changing hex values in the exe file can be found by reading on from here

[stefangabos]

I think we can close this one now. Thanks to everybody for the feedback I am glad we sort it out.

[carlosmatioli]

My company blocks a lot of file folders for non adm users, so I think I will stick to the Win+Functios key. But thank you very much.

[echan1]

I was too lazy to edit hex. I just bound F5 to Alt+play/pause and it appears to work consistently now

[stefangabos]

Alt-F10 in my case also works for play/pause so, yes, for now i can live with that

[cinnamon-msft]

Not able to repro this, going to close. Let us know if you see this again!