Keyboard play/pause key only works when Win key also pressed

[Balakay08]

I have a Keychron C1, Tenkeyless keyboard, but that is irrelevant.

 

The issue, as the title says, is that the play and pause key on the keyboard doesnt play and pause my media unless i also press the windows key at the same time. The other media keys work just fine as normal.

Ive tried resetting the keyboard and some basic things like windows troubleshooting, but the keyboard itself isnt the issue, because when i plugged it into my laptop it worked just fine, so its something to do with Windows on my PC.

Cant find anything else online about this, and im not reinstalling windows just to fix this.

 

Anyone know what might be causing this?

 

Thanks

[DoctorNick]

32 minutes ago, Balakay08 said:

I

So let me get it straight holding fn dosen't work?

[Balakay08]

1 hour ago, DoctorNick said:

So let me get it straight holding fn dosen't work?

correct, beause you can have the top keys set to F1-12 or multimedia (like 2 layers you switch between, layer one being F keys, layer 2 being media and others (see image for how you switch between those))

i have it set to multimedia so holding the fn key at the same time is just like pressing F8

 

 

[DaKoning]

Hi! I have the exact same problem. @Balakay08, have you managed to solve it yet? I am using a Keychron K2 and I have the function keys set to be used normally (not multimedia), and I use Powertoys to remap the F7 - F9 keys to previous, play/pause, next. The previous and next functions do work, but the play/pause only works when holding the Windows key (+F8). This is the same for all programs (I have tested Spotify, and YouTube in Firefox). If I change the function keys to the multimedia layer (Fn+X+L), play/pause doesn't work at all. Does anyone know a solution?

[PayMyWrent]

I had the same problem. If you have any phonecall software, I would advise closing it on control panel, test if working when closed and then running again. (eg. 3cx (VoIP)). Some people have also had the same issue with Skype.

[CorneliousJD]

I had the same issue and saw this thread linked here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/playpause-and-stop-media-keys-not-working/d26b166d-87bd-4d9e-9406-45a59ea1c1cc

 

For me it ended up being Microsoft Teams... we use MS Teams phone system and with Teams opened after making or receiving a call, then the play/pause and stop keys stop working, but last/next track still does.

 

As soon as I close Teams, it's fine again, and stays fine if I reopen teams until I make/get another phonecall. Bummer, as I use Teams M-F 8a-5p and regularly use it for phone calls. 

 

Now I'm wondering if there's any fix to prevent Teams from hijacking my buttons.

[55jeb]

If you're up for registry edits: you can disable auto-start within teams, create a new startup registry entry, and pass it the -disable-features=HardwareMediaKeyHandling arg. Microsoft teams is an actual virus.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msteams/forum/all/teams-and-media-keys/136320bb-7af0-4bdc-8743-56608ff576b2?page=2

[CrashAnimus]

Stumbled upon this while troubleshooting the same issue with having to use SHIFT or WIN with media controls.  I did see tons of mentions of Teams, but I don't have Teams on my PC.  For me, the issue was having iTunes running.  Seems that iTunes is another app that hijacks media key inputs. 

 

Windows really shouldn't allow apps to hijack media controls like this, media controls should be tied to the last in-focus media player...that's my opinion anyways.