I recently got a mechanical keyboard audit doesn't have the row of media keys across the top, so I'm trying to remap some of them using KM. I have managed to get keyboard shortcuts working for increase/decrease volume and mute using the simulate hardware keys actions (increase system sound volume etc). Volume controls work fine across iTunes/Spotify/VLC, etc
The issue I'm having is trying to get full functionality of play/pause, next track and previous track across different apps (mainly iTunes and Spotify). The dedicated media keys on the Apple magic keyboard let me perform play/pause etc across all media apps. When I do this is KM, I can only control iTunes.
Is it possible to have control for apps other than iTunes?
Otherwise any other suggestions for how to achieve this?
I would have thought that the simulated hardware keys would behave the same way as the regular hardware keys, and thus work the same. The simulated keys do not seem to work with VLC, but I don't have a keyboard with real keys to see if they work with VLC.
In any case, the simulated hardware key actions simply simulate those keys, so whatever happens after that is beyond Keyboard Maestro’s control I'm afraid - unless there are system configurations that can adjust the behaviour, you are probably out of luck.
I have this same question. Weirdly, on the keyboard I'm using, holding down the FN key gives me the functionality I want, but I'm attempting to use KM to have it be the keys' standard functions rather than FN function.
I use BetterTouchTool with Keyboard Maestro a lot. BetterTouchTool can recognize lots of different hardware keys, for example it can distinguish between the right control keys and the left control keys. I usually have BTT trigger a hotkey, and the hotkey activates a KM action. BTT also works with touchpad and Magic Mouse gestures as well.