Keyboard shortcuts (spacebar) no longer works in Photos on Mojave

Until recently, pressing spacebar toggled expanding my photos in Photos, and single keys provided a way to edit photos (e.g. C for crop). None of these features now work for me.

How do I restore keyboard shortcuts in Photos?


Since MacOS Mojave, Photos have changed shortcuts. I used Space key very extensively, so made work again (link):

  • Go to preferences > keyboard > shortcuts > app shortcuts > Photos > and add a shortcut.
  • For Menu Title enter "Open Viewer" and for the keyboard shortcut press the spacebar whilst holding the Fn key.
  • Add another one for "Close Viewer"
  • Add another one for "Open/Close Viewer"
  • Now open Photos, go to Library/Photos, select single photo and click on menu "Image" - check if Open Viewer shows "Space"
  • Press Spacebar and enjoy :)

Also few useful shortcuts:

  • cmd+Enter - edit mode
  • cmd+1 - in edit mode Adjust
  • cmd+3 - in edit mode Crop
  • . - make photo favorite

Also check cmd+1-4 and ctrl+1-6 in photos view mode :)

And desert: All Photos keyboard shortcuts for Mojave


This is fixed in macOS 10.14.4 (Photo 4.0): spacebar now opens images and keyboard shortcuts work for editing.