The F5 and F6 keys on my (older) Magic Keyboard are not assigned any functions beyond “F-keys”:
The All of the other “F-Keys” have additional functionality, even without pressing the fn key, but these two only seem to be active when using fn.
Keyboard Maestro does not seem to recognize them either as keypresses or as USB keys.
Anyone know how I can use the F5 and F6 without also needing to press the fn key?
Answer: I was able to use Karabiner (which was already installed for the Hyperkey functionality) to re-assign F5 and F6 as I had wanted.
Was going to suggest opening Karabiner events, glad it works.
It looks like you got it working using Karabiner but I believe there's a native solution as well that allows you to use those keys without pressing the function key. Just uncheck the box in the keyboard preferences as seen in the screenshot. At least this is what I do to use F5 and F6 as hotkeys without needing to press the FN key.
I have that unchecked as well, but it still wasn't allowing me to assign F5 and F6 via Keyboard Maestro. It just didn't see any key as being pressed.
That is very strange indeed, and I’m not sure why that would be happening. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.
