Don't try to use ⌘ ⇧ ⌥ ⌃ . for a macro Hot Key

Special tip, especially for all those "hyper-key" folks out there, but good for everyone to know…

I tried to assign command+shift+option+control+period as "Cancel All Macros" for Keyboard Maestro, and couldn't get it to work.

I didn't get an error or a system beep, it just appeared as if nothing had happened. But something was happening in the background, it just took several minutes before it became apparent.

Turns out that command+shift+option+control+period is a macOS reserved shortcut which will produce a "sysdiagnose" file in /private/var/tmp/ (mine was 350MB, compressed).

As far as I can tell there is no way to override or re-define that keyboard shortcut.

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This goes back to 2014, but is the best explanation of "sysdiagnose" I could find:
10.9: Run sysdiagnose with keyboard shortcut

Starting with macOS Mojave, you can't override system shortcuts.

What do you mean by "system shortcuts"?

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Which shortcuts? This sysdiagnose is a low level feature, it is not meant to ever be invoked except in weird debugging situations. Unfortunately the concept of a Hyper key made this a poor choice of keystroke, but it is understandable in the absence of the Hyper key to make it as complex as possible.

There are a few other hard-wired shortcuts, like Command-Tab (which Keyboard Maestro goes way out of its way to work around). But I don't see any that can't be changed in Mojave that used to be changeable…?

Yeah, I can remap things like "Save As…" and "Lock Screen" so I'm not sure what was meant by bot being able to override system shortcuts.

Well, actually I was thinking of a statement by you a few months ago, to the effect that some "system shortcuts" could not be over-ridded. Perhaps my memory is faulty. :frowning:

@peternlewis, I finally found the statement you made about this:

Yes, in Mojave you cannot trigger a hot key using a simulated key (eg Type a Keystroke) if the key is an arrow or a function key (although weirdly it works for regular keys).