Force Quit Keyboard Shortcut Not Working

I have a problem where the shortcut command+option+esc does not open the force quit menu. I've tried resetting the NVRAM and the SMC, but this did not fix the issue.

Also, sometimes when I reboot the computer the keyboard shortcut does open the force quit menu, but then the touchbar acts strangely: when I tap the buttons on the touch bar, I'm brought to the corresponding section in System Preferences instead (e.g. when I touch to lower brightness, I'm brought instead to the brightness section in system preferences).

So either the touch bar doesn't work properly or the force quit keyboard command does not. How do I fix this really strange behavior?

Solution 1:

Have you tried opening the Force Quit menu from the top menu? Just click on the Apple in the top left corner and manually select Force Quit. It should open up the menu without having to use the touchbar.