Helper edit: See the comment below for how to fix this issue.
-On Mac, the way to use F3 is to press Fn+F3+(whatever you're trying to enable e.g. Fn+F3+H to turn on advanced tooltips)
-No matter how hard I try it won't turn on
-Reset key binds multiple times
-Randomly turned off one day a year or so ago and haven't been able to turn it back on since
-Looked it up and found no results and searched through bug reports
-Effects multiple versions of my game (I haven't thoroughly searched through every version, but it doesn't work in at least 1.19.4 and above)
Really there isn't much more to say, I haven't been able to replicate it on my brothers computer (which is the exact same as mine) and I've pretty much explained it in as great detail as I could but I'm really confused why its not working anymore
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Comments 2
This is not a hardware issue, rather it’s due to Apple’s extremely trollsome approach to function keys and keyboard shortcuts. Allow me to explain.
On macOS, function keys have both a “system” function and a “standard” function. The system function (or rather, the default system function at the time the computer was manufactured) is shown as an icon on the key itself, and is activated by simply pressing the key. The standard function is activated by holding down the Fn/Globe key while pressing the key, and falls through to the application level rather than being intercepted any the OS. There is a (somewhat hard to navigate to) system setting called “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys“ to reverse this behavior, which allows you to enable the debug screen in Minecraft by simply pressing F3, but makes it so that you must press Fn+F3 to activate Mission Control. If you do not have this setting enabled, you must press Fn+F3 to use debug features in Minecraft. However, someone at Apple, with whom I would like to have a strong word, decided that certain macOS keyboard shortcuts should be activated with the Fn/Globe key, the most notable being Quick Note (Globe+Q) and Show Desktop (Globe+H). Although the latter does nothing when the app is in macOS full screen, the H input is still intercepted by the OS, meaning the application (Minecraft) does not receive it. Even worse, this particular shortcut appears to be hardcoded- unlike Quick Note, there is no indication in System Settings that it exists.
There are three options for dealing with this, but please just go with Option 1 because it will make things work exactly as you want them to.
Leave “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys“ disabled and install Fluor. Launch Minecraft, then go to Fluor in your menu bar and select “Running applications…”. Scroll down to “Java” and change the selection from the equals sign to “fn”. This makes it so your function keys are in standard mode when Minecraft is the active application and in system mode otherwise- so you can just press F3+H in Minecraft, without holding Fn/Globe, to enable advanced tooltips.
Go into System Settings and turn on “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys“. This allows you to use debug features in Minecraft without holding Fn/Globe, but if you wish to, say, activate Mission Control or change the brightness or volume, you must hold Fn/Globe to do that, regardless of which application you’re in.
Leave “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys“ disabled, but go into System Settings → Keyboard → Modifier Keys... and change the Globe key from Globe to No Action. This will make any keyboard shortcuts which include the Globe key impossible to input, so you can press Fn+F3+H without attempting to show the desktop and Fn+F3+Q without creating a quick note.
This is a hardware problem.