Keyboard Shortcuts

One of the most loved features of DisplayBuddy is being able to control your displays right from your keyboard — just like you would with your Mac’s built-in screen.
You can change brightness, contrast, and volume instantly without even opening the app.

Setup

You can set up and customize your keyboard shortcuts in Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts.
DisplayBuddy supports both Media Keys (brightness and volume keys) (like F1/F2/F11/F12) and Custom Shortcuts.

🎹 Media Keys

DisplayBuddy can use your Mac’s built-in brightness and volume keys to control your external displays.
When enabled, the same keys that normally adjust your MacBook’s screen will now control your connected monitors too.

This is not enabled by default because this requires additional permissions from macOS. You can go and enable them in Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts, and then check “Use Keyboard brightness / volume keys to control brightness / volume for all displays”.

macOS requires additional Accessibility permissions for this feature.
You’ll be prompted automatically when you check the box, or you can grant them manually in macOS System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → DisplayBuddy.

⌨️ Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

Prefer your own key combinations?
You can assign custom shortcuts for:

Increasing or decreasing brightness / contrast / volume

Set these under Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts -> Global Keyboard shortcuts

Activating Presets or switching displays to a an input source

Set these under Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts -> Custom Keyboard shortcuts

Use any combination that feels natural.

🎛️ Controlling One or All Displays

By default, DisplayBuddy adjusts only the active display (display with mouse pointer) using the keyboard.
You can also choose to control all the displays together by changing the Keyboard Shortcuts Control option to All Displays

To exclude specific displays from responding to keyboard shortcuts, click More > Keyboard > Uncheck “Controlled using keyboard shortcuts. under their sliders in DisplayBuddy.

⚙️ Adjusting Step Size

Customize how much each key press changes brightness, contrast, or volume — known as the step or increment size.
You can adjust this per display, so each screen reacts at the pace you prefer.

Click More > Keyboard > Keyboard Increments under their sliders and enter your desired value. The default step size is 1%.

Troubleshooting

If your keyboard shortcuts aren’t working as expected, try the following:

• Check Accessibility permissions:
  Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, and make sure DisplayBuddy is enabled.
  If not, re-enable it and restart DisplayBuddy.

• Media keys not responding?
  macOS or another app might be intercepting them. Try disabling conflicting apps (like keyboard remappers, BetterTouchTool or media controllers).

• Displays not changing brightness?
  Make sure they’re controllable via DDC or another supported Control Mode in Settings → Displays.

• Still not working?
  Email our support team at support@displaybuddy.app

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Once you’ve set them up, keyboard shortcuts make DisplayBuddy feel like a natural extension of your Mac — fast, smooth, and effortless.