ESC & Backspace not working as expected on Mac due to QT buttons only sending "BACK" when CMD-[ is pressed.

[LeoUfimtsev]

Describe the bug
On my Macbook (Intel) The ESC and Backspace do not perform a Back action as defined in the keyboard.json source file. Other keyboard buttons work (e.g. "F" to full screen, arrows).

I work as Software Engineer and used to do Open Source Development (I used to develop the SWT UI toolkit at Red Hat), but currently I'm just a user of Jellyfin. UI bugs tend to spark my curiosity. After spending over an hour researching on a Saturday & digging through source code and open issues in the repo, I concluded that this is most likely because QT framework does not send correct "ESC/Backspace" signals for "BACK". Instead it seems that QT Framework only sends BACK when you press "CMD-[" and "CMD-]" as indirectly referenced in the "ESC feature request" issue: #186.

Pressing CMD-[ & CMD-[ actually seems to work though.

QT Reference:
https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qkeysequence.html#standard-shortcuts

Back | Alt+Left, Backspace | Ctrl+[ -- | -- | --

Expected behaviour
Pressing ESC or Backspace, "BACK" action is behaviour is initiated consistently across platforms including Mac. (I guess it works on Windows/Linux).

Actual Behaviour
Nothing occurs.

Using CMD-[ and CMD-] works for navigation and personally I have a functional workaround (see below); but from a usability perspective it's somewhat counter intuitive and requires you to hold the CMD button instead of a single button press like ESC/Backspace. It's also quite hard to figure out; there is no Keyboard cheat sheet and I couldn't find any documentation on this other than the issue mentioned above. Considering my GUI development background & willingness to spend like an hour on this, I think many Jellyfin users won't know about this nuance.

To Reproduce

1. Jellyfin Server
2. Jellyfin Media Client (Although also occurs in Web Client).
3. Drill into a movie/tv show.
4. Press ESC or BACKSPACE as per keyboard.json.

Workaround

• I use a (paid) utility called BetterTouchTools on mac to remap ESC to CMD-[ when Jellyfin Media Player is active. Works for me.

Proposed solutions

1. I could update the repository's readme (via pull request) and clarify that you need to use "cmd-[" to navigate. Not ideal, but something I could do myself if someone is willing to review.

2. Update QT hooks. Seems like for apple, there is a file for InputAppleMediaKeys.h. Perhaps add a bit of code there and add the ESC and Backspace hook of sort. This is a bit too complicated for me to implement; I don't have familiar with QT/C++ and don't have Jellyfin setup for development; but if I were to implement myself; I would probably try to it something similar to that.

// Hypothetical sample code/idea. Not tested. Needs editing & integrating:
QAction* backAction = new QAction(tr("Back"), this);
backAction->setShortcut(QKeySequence(Qt::Key_Escape)); // Override the shortcut
connect(backAction, &QAction::triggered, this, &YourClass::handleBackAction);

Or maybe add some QT keyboard config file into jellyfin that overrides defaults.

• I'd be willing to give 50$CAD to someone to fix this. (Paypal or Canadian interact) as a thank you note. (Or buy you a coffee with Banna bread from Starbucks if you live in Toronto, Canada).

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: OS X (Mac Mini, intel)
• Version: 14.6.1 (OSX), 10.10.3 (Jellyfin server. Latest Media client)
• Installation Method: DMG files downloaded from web.

Additional context

• web-client vs media-player: I wasn't sure if I should post to media-player or the web client. Technically the keyboard.json seems to be defined in this repository, but you could make the case that ESC & Backspace are desired functionality in the Web client as well. Issue occurs in both. I can re-post issue there if you guys want.