MacOS 26 and BetterDisplay 4.0.4 Build 45613: Keyboard shortcut for brightness on screen with with mouse cursor or focus does not work

[tjdomsalla]

Hi,

on my PowerBook M4 and macOS Tahoe 26.0 the keyboard shortcut for setting the brightness of the monitor with the mouse cursor or focussed window does not work anymore.
Pressing the brightness function Keyes on the Apple keyboards always sets the brightness of the internal monitor only.

With best regards,
TJ

[waydabber]

Hi there - this seems to be a permissions issue, maybe something was messed up during the update. Try to remove BetterDisplay from Accessibility permissions list and then re-add the app.

Let me know if this does not work.

[tjdomsalla]

Hi,

thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, this did not work. Ending the running app, removing it from the permission list, starting it again and … no, that did not do the job.

However, after deleting the BetterDisplay application from my computer and cleaning its settings, I reinstalled it (v4.0.4). Now it works fine again.

Thanks a lot for your support! :-)

[david-benes]

Same issue here. Except that it still does not work. I uninstalled the app, removed ~/Library/Preferences/pro.betterdisplay.BetterDisplay.plist, installed again with brew, reset permissions and set them again. None of that helped.
What could be relevant is that the option: "Brightness Keys ... Affect >All suitable screens" does not work either.

[waydabber]

Do you see permissions ok in the app and the app thinking that it listens to brightness keys?

Do you see the brightness OSD appearing under the Control Center icon or the app's icon like this?

[david-benes]

I see permissions alight. I had to reapprove them after reinstalling the app.

The brightness OSD in the picture would be the "Custom OSD" feature, right? I haven't been using it yet so I gave it a try to simulate what is in the screenshot. And surprisingly, mouse focus miraculously started to work. It keeps working even after I disabled the Custom OSD. I suppose it must be somehow tied to the mouse detection and that was why you asked.

Something strange is going under the hood, but the issue is resolved for me and I am very thankful.