# Not taking keyboard inputs

**URL:** <https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/not-taking-keyboard-inputs/12180>\
**Category:** Builder\
**Created:** [April 7, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/not-taking-keyboard-inputs/12180 "2020-04-07T19:39:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Takako](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/takako/32/7745_2.png) [@Takako](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Takako)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/not-taking-keyboard-inputs/12180/1 "2020-04-07T19:39:15Z")

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**OS** (e.g. Win10): Mac OS Catalina  
**PsychoPy version** (e.g. 1.84.x): PsychoPy 2020.1.3  
**What are you trying to achieve?:** Advance the screen (end a routine) with a keyboard response

**What did you try to make it work?:**  
We tried to advance the screen/end a routine with a keyboard input. The routine only has a text property (“Welcome to our experiment”) followed by a keyboard property (only spacebar is allowed and “Force end of Routine” is checked off).

**What specifically went wrong when you tried that?:**  
PsychoPy did not pick up a key response, and even esc by itself did not work to exit from the experiment. Thus, we had to use option+command+esc to force quit the experiment.

We got these messages:  
PTB-WARNING: During PsychHID invocation: Some other running application is preventing me from accessing the keyboard/keypad/mouse…!  
PTB-WARNING: This is likely a secure measure, e.g., to protect some active password entry field  
PTB-WARNING: Please identify and quit the offending application. E.g., some versions of Firefox are known to cause such problems…

We have made sure that PsychoPy3 is checked off under System Preferences\>Security&Privacy\>Input Monitoring. Also, this problem still happened when we closed all the other apps.

Any help would be appreciated!

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**Author:** ![jadynpark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/jadynpark/32/14708_2.png) [@jadynpark](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/jadynpark)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 10:59pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/not-taking-keyboard-inputs/12180/2 "2021-05-10T22:59:02Z")

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Hi, I’m running into the same issue with my macbook (My OS is Big Sur). Were you able to resolve this?

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**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/not-taking-keyboard-inputs/12180/3 "2021-05-10T23:13:44Z")

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Here’s one possible solution

> [@Unable to add text to empty 'Participant' field in initial dialogue box on pavlovia](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unable-to-add-text-to-empty-participant-field-in-initial-dialogue-box-on-pavlovia/22575/17):
>
> Thanks! I took a look and I found the problem. In your “Welcome” routine, code component “code\_2”, tab “Before Experiment”, there is this bit of JS: window.addEventListener("keydown", onkeydown); function onkeydown(keydownEvent) { keydownEvent.preventDefault(); } That prevents the default handling of keydown events (which includes typing in text in the expinfo box). By disabling this code, I could type something in for participant. If the code is required for your experiment, perhaps moving…

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**Author:** ![jadynpark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/jadynpark/32/14708_2.png) [@jadynpark](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/jadynpark)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/not-taking-keyboard-inputs/12180/4 "2021-05-10T23:28:15Z")

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Hey, @wakecarter thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately, I don’t have that bit in my coder. I wonder if this is related to the OS update? (my mac is on version 11.3.1.)

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**Author:** ![thomas\_pronk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/thomas_pronk/32/9531_2.png) [@thomas\_pronk](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/thomas_pronk)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 12:26pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/not-taking-keyboard-inputs/12180/5 "2021-05-11T12:26:47Z")

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You’re running PsychoPy offline right? (not PsychoJS in a web-browser)