Can't bind cmd+\ to "Move focus to next window", but I can bind it to other actions... why?

I just reinstalled OSX 10.8, and I've encountered an incredibly odd behaviour: binding cmd+\ to "Move focus to next window" doesn't work (if I hit it, I get the "pop" error sound). However, binding it to other actions works, and binding other combinations to that action also works.

This makes no sense to me.

I would rather keep using this shortcut, as I'm quite used to it and I hit it often.

Does someone have any clue?

P.S. in case it might help: this did work in my previous 10.8 install.

Update: doesn't work in 10.10 either: I don't get the "pop" error sound anymore, but it just does nothing.

Solution 1:

For what it is worth, I am able to bind ⌘+\ to Move Focus to Active or Next Window in Mavericks, and it works fine for switching between Finder windows.

(It doesn't help your situation except to indicate that this might be a bug...)

If you are trying to use it in another application besides the Finder, does the standard ⌘+` work?

I have the Full Keyboard Access option below that set to text boxes only:

EDIT: Reassigning ⌘+\ to "Move focus to next window" also works fine for me.

You are probably onto something with the backslash causing the problem, since defaults write -globalDomain NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add "Move focus to next window" '@\' gives an error Could not parse: "@\". Try single-quoting it. and trying to escape it with a backslash results in a strange dictionary assignment:

$ defaults read -globalDomain NSUserKeyEquivalents
{
    "Move focus to next window" = "@\\\\";
}