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Zoom Stealing Keyboard Focus for Keyboard Shortcuts

ProfessorWoland
Newcomer
Newcomer

I have been using Zoom professionally for about half a decade now and I love it.

I am a professional technical consultant and show control programmer for theatre, dance, art installations, and remote performance.

The software I use is called Isadora and two very important keyboard shortcuts are Cmd+3 and Cmd+4. Without them, I can only work at one tenth the speed I normally do.

 

I use Zoom to meet remotely with clients, I have them screenshare, then I request remote control so I can work on their Isadora files in-situ (with their hardware, media, the real production computer, etc). 

 

My problem is that sometimes I can use the keyboard shortcuts in Isadora sometimes, but occasionally, (and I cannot for the life of me figure out why), Zoom starts stealing the keyboard focus and eating the critical keyboard shortcuts Cmd+3 and Cmd+4, leaving me completely unable to work remotely.

 

Instead, Cmd+3 does nothing and Cmd+4 brings up this "Scale your business" ad: Screen Shot 2025-11-23 at 8.21.20 AM.png - Google Drive

 

Other keyboard shortcuts like copy and paste still work in Isadora, and system keyboard shortcuts like taking a screenshot on their computer (Cmd+Shift+3 and Cmd+Shift+4) still work.

 

I have tried going into Zoom > Settings > Keyboard shortcuts and have removed every single keyboard shortcut that I'm allowed to. I do not have, and have never had, any global keyboard shortcuts enabled.

 

Unfortunately it seems that the offending keyboard shortcut is not one that I can change or clear. It seems to be Zoom > Settings > Keyboard shortcuts > General > Move to specific tabScreen Shot 2025-11-23 at 8.22.35 AM.png - Google Drive 

 

This Zoom behavior was so disruptive to my workflow that I needed to stop working on a critical file with a paying client mid work-session last night for a presentation he's doing on Monday because it was not feasible for me to sit there and ask him to press the keyboard shortcuts I needed every 5-10 seconds for hours (which is what I would have needed to do in order to work effectively).

 

The only way I can currently see in order to preserve my workflow is to pay €250/year for TeamViewer or something similar and have that running at the same time as Zoom whenever I'm working. Is there a different way to stop zoom from bringing up this infuriating ad when I press this keyboard shortcut? Perhaps Zoom could make it possible for the user to disable this particular keyboard shortcut, (like one can with many other Zoom keyboard shortcuts), that I never want to use so that I don't have to pay for another software just so I can use two critical keyboard shortcuts?

This is driving me up a wall and, as I said, has been hamstringing my ability to work on projects professionally using Zoom.

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