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BlueberryMac

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 25, 2009
73
13
For some reason, in the last couple of days, command-option-F no longer works to start a search in Safari on my Mac running Ventura; if I press the key combination in Safari, nothing happens.

I realize that I use that command all the time (!) and want to find a way to get it working again.

Is there a general Safari pref file I can delete to get the standard functionality back?

Anyone else run into this problem? Any ideas?
 
If you open the Edit menu and hover over Find, you will see all of the available search shortcuts. Cmd-opt-F is for starting a web search. For me, DuckDuckGo is my search preference. Yours might be different. Check your Safari settings to see what you're using. Maybe you can reselect it.

Screenshot 2023-05-16 at 3.44.23 PM.png
 
If you open the Edit menu and hover over Find, you will see all of the available search shortcuts. Cmd-opt-F is for starting a web search. For me, DuckDuckGo is my search preference. Yours might be different. Check your Safari settings to see what you're using. Maybe you can reselect it.

View attachment 2202614
Weird!

If I select the action via the Edit > Find menus, it does work, but it just doesn't do anything when I press the actual key combination. I even tried changing to a different search engine option and it didn't work for those either. It just worked a couple of days ago!

I thought maybe when I installed the Consent-o-Matic Safari extension a couple of days ago, maybe that is what borked it, but I just uninstalled that, restarted Safari, and there's no change.
 
Did you set cmd-opt-F to do something else in the keyboard shortcut settings? Have you tried logging out and back in? Rebooting?
 
Did you set cmd-opt-F to do something else in the keyboard shortcut settings? Have you tried logging out and back in? Rebooting?
I've re-booted and I ran ONYX, which also requires a re-boot. No change.
 
command-F doesn't work? it's always worked here (& still does)...
Command-F is for searching for text within a page,

Command-Option-F takes a user to the URL field window to enter text,
the URL field in Safari, working as a text field for a Google (or other search engine) search.

So, if you're on any webpage in Safari and want to search Google for something,
you just hit Command-Option-F,
type the search terms [ex: ted lasso all episode names], and hit return.
 
Command-F is for searching for text within a page,

Command-Option-F takes a user to the URL field window to enter text,
the URL field in Safari, working as a text field for a Google (or other search engine) search.

So, if you're on any webpage in Safari and want to search Google for something,
you just hit Command-Option-F,
type the search terms [ex: ted lasso all episode names], and hit return.
ah.... got it. this used to work? it doesn't here currently...
 
you can use the accessibility keyboard to check wether the hardware key is working - it should show you wether hardware keys you press are registered.

What Mac/keyboard model (cable, bluetooth, ..)?
I turned it on, and yeah, the key presses are shown—so something (either bad prefs, or maybe a glitching Safari extension) must be interfering with that signal being "seen" by Safari...
 
I turned it on, and yeah, the key presses are shown—so something (either bad prefs, or maybe a glitching Safari extension) must be interfering with that signal being "seen" by Safari...
SOLVED IT!—it was a recently installed Safari extension; I turned it off, and without even quitting Safari, Command-Option-F worked again! Yay!

I'm contacting the developer so they know of the problem.
 
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SOLVED IT!—it was a recently installed Safari extension; I turned it off, and without even quitting Safari, Command-Option-F worked again! Yay!

I'm contacting the developer so they know of the problem.
Just a followup, I heard back from the developer of the Safari extension, and he's going to try to work a fix into a new version that should release in next few days.
 
Out of interest, what's the difference between cmd-opt-f and cmd-L? They both seem to do the same in that they take you to the address bar where you can type in a search.
 
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Out of interest, what's the difference between cmd-opt-f and cmd-L? They both seem to do the same in that they take you to the address bar where you can type in a search.
I think Command-L may do the same thing, but Command-Option-F is so ingrained idea-wise:

Command-F to find-in-the-page, and
Command-Option-F to find-on-the-internet...
 
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