# Lost the"magic" alt key



## JohnNewman (Aug 14, 2015)

Hello all

First post here. Just a query I'm wondering if you can help me with. I've been used to using the alt key on my 17" Mac laptop when adjusting shadows/highlights/black and white points as well as for masking when sharpening.

This no longer seems to work and I think it happened when I upgraded the OS to Yosemite. I'm aware I can use the "J" key to switch clipping warnings on and off, but I miss using the alt key especially when sharpening.
Do I need to find and amend something elsewhere (i.e. Apple or Lightroom preferences?

Thanks in anticipation of any advice.

John.


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 15, 2015)

Hi John, welcome to the forum!

That's an odd one... it's still working here.  In Preferences > Performance, is the graphics processor checkbox turned on or off?  Resetting LR's preferences might not be a bad idea http://www.lightroomqueen.com/commu...etting-the-lightroom-preferences-file-updated


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## JohnNewman (Aug 15, 2015)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Hi John, welcome to the forum!
> 
> That's an odd one... it's still working here.  In Preferences > Performance, is the graphics processor checkbox turned on or off?  Resetting LR's preferences might not be a bad idea http://www.lightroomqueen.com/commu...etting-the-lightroom-preferences-file-updated



Thanks Victoria

I feel a bit of a fraud as I was doing all sorts of checks last night and found that one of my Alt keys just wasn't working. On my laptop the Command and Alt keys are duplicated on the right side of the space bar. The left Alt wasn't responding but the one on the right (which I never use because it's a bit awkard) worked perfectly! So it's a hardware problem, not software.

So thanks so much for your reply but it's me that's an idiot  for not doing the obvious check.

Regards,

John


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 17, 2015)

LOL  Thanks for the update John.  Trips us all up at times.


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