VLC fails to respond to keyboard shortcuts correctly when some sections of the playlist sidebar are in focus.

[Tober]

So I'm not really sure if this is a bug or if it's known or not, but I've searched for it and couldn't find anything.

I found a few people who had issues with the same shortcuts as me not working, but they had no information needed to reproduce the issue.


==Problem:
Keyboard shortcuts such as space (play-pause) and n (next) do not work if certain elements of VLC's ui are in focus.

These elements appear in the playlist view. They are contained in the sidebar. They are buttons with names like Playlist[length], Media Library, My Computer, My Videos. But not the first entry, which is just 'Playlist' without a length.

This is a problem because these elements start with focus when I open audio files in VLC

This means that I can't use space to pause the audio until I make VLC focus somewhere else first.

==Expected behaviour:
Keyboard shortcuts should work even when these elements are in focus. These elements aren't associated with any kind of text input, and pressing keys during this time doesn't seem to do anything.

==System Information:
Platform: Windows 10 64-bit
Versions tried:
3.0.12 Vetinari (Release)
3.0.12.1 Vetinari (nightly, 20-Mar-2021 06:22)
4.0.0-dev Otto Chriek (nightly, 20-Mar-2021 04:22)

==Reproduce on Version 3:
Open VLC with some audio files in the playlist.
(E.g., with a shortcut/command like vlc.exe "path/to/music")
(or, select a series of audio files in Explorer, right click, and click on "Play with VLC Media Player")
The playlist view should appear.
Press space, the shortcut for 'play-pause'. Verify that it doesn't work.
Press n, the shortcut for 'next'. Verify that it doesn't work.
Click somewhere in the window that isn't a part of the playlist's sidebar or the window's title bar.
Press space and n. Verify that they now work.
Click on one of the options shown in the playlist's sidebar (Playlist[length], Media Library, My Computer, My Videos, etc., but not the first entry, which is just 'Playlist').
Press space and n. Verify that they have stopped working again.
Press tab (switch focus to some other element?).
Press space and n. Verify that they work again.

If the playlist view does not appear automatically (as for a list of videos instead of audio):
Press space and n. Verify that they work.
Press ctrl+L to open the playlist view.
Press space and n. Verify that they have stopped working.

==Version 4:
I tested it in Version 4, and it didn't work, but neither did a lot of other things. So I guess this bug isn't really specific enough in Version 4 to be useful.

====Logs

When the shortcut works, these two sections appear alternately in the logs when it is pressed:

main debug: control type=0
main debug: toggling pause
mmdevice debug: state changed: 1

main debug: control type=0
main debug: toggling resume
mmdevice debug: state changed: 0

When it doesn't, nothing appears in the logs.

Complete Log:
main debug: VLC media player - 3.0.12.1 Vetinari
main debug: Copyright © 1996-2021 the VideoLAN team
main debug: revision 3.0.12.1-117-g9f83cc7e96
main debug: configured with /builds/videolan/vlc-3.0/extras/package/win32/../../../configure '--enable-update-check' '--enable-lua' '--enable-faad' '--enable-flac' '--enable-theora' '--enable-avcodec' '--enable-merge-ffmpeg' '--enable-dca' '--enable-mpc' '--enable-libass' '--enable-schroedinger' '--enable-realrtsp' '--enable-live555' '--enable-shout' '--enable-goom' '--enable-sse' '--enable-mmx' '--enable-libcddb' '--enable-zvbi' '--disable-telx' '--enable-nls' '--host=x86_64-w64-mingw32' '--with-contrib=../contrib/x86_64-w64-mingw32' '--enable-debug' '--enable-qt' '--enable-skins2' '--enable-dvdread' '--enable-caca' 'host_alias=x86_64-w64-mingw32' 'CFLAGS= ' 'CXXFLAGS= ' 'PKG_CONFIG=pkg-config' 'PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/lib/x86_64-w64-mingw32/pkgconfig'
main debug: control type=0
main debug: toggling pause
mmdevice debug: state changed: 1
main debug: control type=0
main debug: toggling resume
mmdevice debug: state changed: 0

[imx]

A year later I can reproduce the issue within VLC 3.0.16.
I should also admit that pressing Tab once or twice workarounds this yet it is quite annoing.

[Lotesdelere]

You should create a new ticket on the VLC Trac with your above reports and the link to this thread:
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues