No shortcuts shown? Check permission and the active app

Quick answer

Check Accessibility permission, the selected app and its menus. An empty reference does not necessarily mean the application has no keyboard shortcuts.

About 2 min readDocumentation reviewed Sources
On this page
  1. Check Accessibility permission
  2. Check which app is selected
  3. Check what the app exposes
Diagram Check each layer to narrow down the problem.

Check Accessibility permission

macOS Accessibility access applies to the process that is reading menus. Showing a permission prompt does not grant access immediately.

Confirm that you are running the intended KeyboardShortcuts.pro build. Complete the native permission flow if you want menu discovery, then reopen the reference. Do not treat another process’s permission status as proof that this build has access, or edit the Accessibility database to bypass the normal setup.

Check which app is selected

  1. Read the app name in the bottom picker. Check whether Auto is following the active app or a manual selection is keeping another app selected.
  2. A process that is no longer running cannot provide a live menu. Try an app with ordinary menus and reopen the reference. Pins only reorder the picker; they do not decide which apps can populate automatically. Pinning cannot create bindings that an app does not expose.

Check what the app exposes

Some applications expose incomplete or context-dependent menus. Private dynamic branches are excluded, and menu discovery cannot promise every internal command or extension action.

Retry once while the app is in a stable state. If the reference remains empty, report its visible status, app version and selection mode. Leave private document labels out of the report. Source-based guides are useful separately, but should not be presented as a successful live read.

Sources and corrections

Based on the official documentation below. This is not a claim of hands-on testing.

Review details and corrections

Codex — primary-documentation and editorial review. Report a correction with the app and macOS version. Leave private document names out.

Related shortcut guides

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See shortcuts for your active Mac app.

Open the menu-bar reference with a click or your configured keyboard trigger.

Explore KeyboardShortcuts.pro