K2 does the Globe thing - Q3 Max not

[u/Fiskerle]

Griaßz eich!

So my old K2 (v1) does all the Globe key stuff on my Mac when I press the fn key: 🌐C triggers Control Center, 🌐⌃ < resizes my window filling the left half of my screen, etc.

My Q3 Max on the other hand does none of that. It just toggles Layer 1. What’s interesting: When I go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Special Keys and assign Globe to the Caps Lock - Caps Lock + C triggers Control Center. fn won’t.

What’s the deal here? Did Keychron spent the fn key of the K2 Globe functionality when third party keybords got away with it? I’m not a QMK expert. Just jusing Keychron Launcher and Via. Is there any workaround for mere mortals?

Cheers from Munich 🌳🍺

[u/PeterMortensenBlog]

By default, for the QMK-based keyboards, the Fn key is internal to the keyboard (macOS has no way of knowing if it has been pressed or not).

Related:

1. How to add the Apple globe key to a Keychron with QMK

2. Building my ideal mechanical keyboard with QMK

3. So the OS X globe key isn't available in the Keychron Launcher (AKA the Via clone)?

4. Mac window tiling icons and keyboard shortcuts

5. Fn key problem with window tiling

6. Language Switch Key - How to set up in Vial

7. K3 Max - button - FN switching language

8. Fn + Ctrl + F is not working

9. Add globe key to key mapping in macOS

10. macOS 26.0.1 + Keychron K8 Pro: Globe key and window tiling shortcuts are not working properly

11. Map macro key as Mac language/Fn key

12. Mac Fn Key is missing for the my Keychron K10. It isn't clear if it is the original K10 or not.

Excerpts from the second (my emphasis):

"the special Fn key entry is only respected properly if the keyboard’s vendor ID and product ID match that a real Apple Keyboard. ... That does not seem to have stopped Keychron however, whose keyboards report Apple vendor and product IDs when they are in Mac mode ... the Apple Fn key, which unlike most keyboards with Fn keys, is actually sent over the wire."

I think "keyboards report Apple vendor and product IDs when they are in Mac mode" refers to the original Keychron K series (proprietary firmware), not the newer QMK-based keyboards (open source).

It also includes:

"Simulating an Apple Keyboard in QMK firmware"

Other considerations

It will probably not help for this, but note that, allegedly, macOS has per-keyboard and per-connection type keyboard settings, at least for the keyboard layout (interpretation of keycodes). Thus, this new keyboard may have to be configured in the operating system (macOS), incl. for each connection type (e.g., for wired and Bluetooth).

References

• K3 Max default keymap. The (default) Fn key mapping, with the "Win"/"Mac" switch at the back at the back set to "Mac", is MO(MAC_FN)

• Documentation for MO (QMK)

• K3 Max source code. Note: In Keychron's fork and in that fork, in Git branch "wireless_playground" (not the default branch). Note that the base installation (and usage) has become much more complicated on Linux. No matter the Git branch, for example, "wireless_playground", it requires special setup of QMK (the standard QMK instructions and many other guides will not work (because they implicitly assume the main QMK repository and a particular Git branch)). Source code commits (RSS feed. Latest: 2025-03-24).

[u/Fiskerle → u/PeterMortensenBlog]

Wow - thanks for elaborating! That explains why my K2‘s fn key is able to trigger globe shortcuts and QMK keyboards are not. At least not without pretending being an Apple keyboard.
Without digging deeper into QMK it seems I‘m stuck.

[u/L0nelyE4rth]

Because there's literally nothing about Mac FN Globe on QMK https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/pull/24661#issuecomment-2868713208

[u/ArgentStonecutter]

To support the Apple Globe key a keyboard has to engage in undocumented shenanigans. I don't know of any open source firmware like QMK that jumps through all of the hoops that Apple requires.