It sounds like your machine may think the keyboard is ISO instead of ANSI. Some possible fixes for this problem can be found here.
Answer from Tom Gewecke on Stack ExchangeVideos
The < and > symbols are producing the ^ and ° symbols.
I can see in the keyboard viewer that the < symbol is mapped to a key that doesn't exist on my keyboard.
I briefly got it to work by using cabled connection and changing keyboard type to something different and then back to ISO, but as soon as I tried the bluetooth connection is went back to the wrong keys.
Anyone know why this is happening and how to fix it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
I received my keychron Q1 after waiting 3 weeks. I really like the keyboard to a point that I want to say I love it but the problems on Mac are very annoying.
1 - There is no way to use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys. Yes, I have this option checked in my settings and it still does not work. I am a web developer and I frequently need to use F10 and F11 keys for debugging. On this keyboard having to use those with fn key is such a pain to a point that I don't think it's worth switching to this keyboard anymore.
2 - Special features on F1 to F6 do not work.
The support responds once in 24 hours and they completely ignore parts of the email. Am I the only Mac user who has those issues?
(Thank you for the gold!)
Bit of a long comment as I spent a fair amount of time understanding how the Q1 and QMK functions on a Mac - the basic gist is that using Via or QMK will get you almost all of what you want, but it's useful to understand the reasons why you need to use it.
The reason that the toggle to use the function keys does not work on the Q1 is because Mac keyboards are (surprise) special snowflakes. On most keyboards, the `Fn` isn't actually a 'key' per-say, but switches the keys (or the layers) on a hardware level - the OS sees one key or the other, but has no idea that the FN key was pressed.
On a Mac though, the Fn key does function as a key - the media row of a Mac keyboard is always sent to the OS as F1, F2, F3 - but unlike a non-Mac keyboard, the OS is listening for the Fn, and uses that to determine to treat the keypress as a normal function key or as a media key. This is why the toggle in System Preferences does nothing regarding the Fn key for the Q1.
You can test this with your Q1 - open the Keyboard viewer. If you press the Fn key on a Mac keyboard, you'll see the virtual keyboard respond to the press, but the Q1 will not.
Only Apple keyboards can use the Fn key in the manner that macOS expects - but there is a hack around it. Many of Keychron's keyboards, Matias keyboards, and other Mac-specific boards change the hardware identifier in the keyboard to imitate a Mac keyboard - they use the same USB identifiers as Apple does, so the OS sees it as an Apple-sanctioned keyboard, and treats the FN accordingly.
However, Keychron does not do this on the Q1 because the firmware is QMT - and thus beholden to the QMT open source project. You can read the long PR here (https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/issues/2179) but QMK (fairly) does not want to do the Fn hack as other keyboards do in that they don't want Apple coming after them for misusing hardware identifiers. There are ways to do this but it requires custom forks of QMT.
It's not really Keychron's 'fault' that the Q1 doesn't function identically a Mac keyboard - it's an unfortunate side effect of using the QMK firmware (which, to myself and many other buyers, is a main selling point for the board itself).
The Mac layout should still work though - when in Mac mode, all of the media keys should function normally because the Q1 is sending generic keypress events for the media keys that are defined in the USB spec. If, without any keyboard software running, and in Mac mode, the Q1 doesn't control the brightness/volume/etc - you might need to flash the firmware.
But - getting to your original point of having the function keys be the default - you do need to go into Via for that. On one hand, it's a pain that you have to do modifications to get the board to work the way you like, but on the other, without Via support you wouldn't be able to do this at all.
Changing the layers within VIA in Mac mode so the Function row is the default would take about five minutes - and, unlike the solution you have now where you swap the alt/command key in the OS - the changes are saved into the board itself, so it will work as you intend on any Mac.
What Keychron should do is explain this in their support - the Fn selector in System Preferences won't work, here's why, etc. It's not a bug, it's a result of how QMK functions in the Mac ecosystem, and is largely out of Keychron's control.
Omg that sucks because that’s why I go for Keychron since I use mac and love the function row. Just making sure, the switch on the top is set to Mac mode?
Every time I plug in my keyboard I get the following message:
https://preview.redd.it/a2cshsm6f5n61.png?width=770&format=png&auto=webp&s=a7efb2f386164382bd72cbaf9bb59947df1813c1
My Keychron does charge, but when I put it in wired mode it doesn't type anything. I'm using an adaptor to go from USB to USB C since my Macbook only has USB C ports and the cable delivered with the Keychron is USB C to USB... I was thinking about buying a third-party USB C to USB C cable but I'm not sure if the adaptor is the bottleneck here.
I really love my Keychron but I do think it's a serious blunder when you market your keyboards as Mac keyboards but you don't even provide a cable that fits in the Mac without adaptors.
Edit
Based on some of the comments I can add some additional information
-
Bluetooth does work.
-
Switching USB C port does not solve the issue
-
Using wired mode on a different laptop with USB A does work
-
I'm using a Dell DA300 adapter
So I think the quick fix for me is just buy a third-party USB-C to USB-C cable.
Edit 2
I purchased a third-party USB C to USB C cable and everything works as expected now for me.
The function keys do work, however Shift-F6, Command-F6, etc don't work. These are very important to me because the IntelliJ IDEA IDE has quite a few such keyboard short cuts. Strangely Command-F6 doesn't work but Command-F12 does!
I can get to work by holding down Fn, but it is tedious. I looked for solutions in the user manual and searched online without any success. Is there a trick to this?
I have a Keychron V6 Knob version keyboard (Spanish ISO model) that I'm using on macOS, and I've run into a small issue that I hope you can help me resolve. The keys for the greater than (>) and less than (<) symbols, along with the keys for the characters º and ª, are swapped. My regional and language settings are all correct, set to Spanish from Spain.
I've tried some tools like Karabiner-Elements and Ukelele to try to fix it, but I can't even find these specific keys in their options, or I can't get the change to work.
Has anyone had this problem and knows how to solve it? Is there any firmware update I should try or a specific setting that works well with macOS? Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
I got a keychron keyboard with 4 layers of key settings. 0,1 for Mac and 2,3 for windows. I'm using it on a Mac but I really can't stand the Mac key bindings. is there a way to remap the keys with via so that it works like on windows?
Just took ownership of a new K3 Pro as my new daily and every time I plug it into my Mac, I have to go through this process. Is this normal, if not how can I get it to stop nagging me every time I connect the keyboard? I've got a few other keyboards of lesser quality ( rk61 ) that doesn't trigger this prompt.
I find that the longer I type on a mechanical, the harder it becomes to type on a MacBook keyboard.
I would love a mechanical that has the exact same layout as the MacBook keyboard.
This means a full-size right shift key. Small inverted T arrow keys below the right shift. And a `fn` key on the left. Also the alignment of the function keys is important.
The NuType F1 had a Mac function key at least - but not the rest of it. It's now discontinued. https://nuphy.com/collections/keyboards/products/nutype-f1
Is there anything else?
Would it be hard to DIY?