Move playback head to selection not working (Windows)

Is it possible to move the playback head to a specific spot (rhythmic position)? Alt-P does NOT move the playback head to the selection as it is supposed to do (on Windows). Also, remapping this key command to something else fails to correct this.
To clarify, I do not wish to “play from selection”, which is accomplished by selecting a note and hitting “P”. I need the playback HEAD to go to a specific spot.
Related thread on FB;

You should certainly be able to assign a new shortcut to Play > Move Playhead To > Selection via the Key Commands page of Preferences. I just tried it in Dorico 3.5 and it works as I would expect.

Interesting. On my PC this does not work. The green playhead does not move to the selected note no matter what shortcut I have assigned to that command.
image
However, it works fine on my Mac.
Assuming that this issue cannot be replicated on your end, I must assume that the issue is specific to my particular PC. Could it be because I am using a German keyboard?

I doubt a German keyboard would be significant, particularly if you have tried reassigning it to a different key combination. Is the playhead shown at all when not playing back on your Windows computer? There’s a dedicated preference for that on the Play page of Preferences: perhaps that’s switched off?

Yes, the playhead is set in the preferences to show at all times. The screenshot in my previous post is the playhead in “stop” postition, stubbornly refusing to move to the selected note on beat 1.

I’m at a bit of a loss to explain what might be going on, I’m afraid. You might want to try contacting our support team to see if they can assist.

Could you try to set it to a function key? I just tried F12 and it worked :slight_smile:
(Indeed, several key combinations involving the alt and ctrl keys do not work, but it’s trial and error…)

No, unfortunately function keys do not work either. It’s a mystery.
I believe I will just need to open files on my mac laptop whenever I need to use this feature.

Mystery indeed. I just tried it on 3 windows machines (running W10, W7 and W8.1 resp.) and all worked as expected. I had to restart Dorico on W10 and W7 desktops for it to work though. (On the W8.1 laptop it worked immediately…)

Maybe some other software is intervening on your system and “stealing” the combination?
I’m thinking of the infamous Ctrl+Alt+Arrow that very often gets stolen by the driver of graphics cards…

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Restarting Dorico was indeed the solution! Running Win 10. Thanks for your help.

I’m reviving this thread because I’m having the same problem. Move Playhead to start of selection is not working for me. Playhead is showing even when stopped, I have restarted Dorico and the computer (Mac M2, Dorico Pro 5.1.4). I have tried assigning to various key shortcuts, including function keys, and none of them works. The Move Playhead function is not accessible via menu or jump bar either, so I can’t check to see if it works without the keyboard shortcut. Totally stumped. Does anyone have any other ideas?

In the meantime until this gets solved… you could alter things by doing:

Select note (or rest or barline).
Press P
Press spacebar (to stop playback).
(Don’t press spacebar too quickly or you will offset the playhead).
This will produce the playhead at the selected position.

(Not as convenient as just moving playhead to the selection, but it should work for you until this gets resolved).

By the way… are you aware that you have to initiate a dropdown when assigning the key command?

Screenshot 2024-06-01 at 7.59.44 AM

[Edited to add images.]

yeah that’s what I’m doing… it’s a bit hit and miss.
one can also click on the playhead track in Play mode, which is more accurate.

@Schweinhorn - I just thought of something else and added it to my previous post regarding setting a shortcut.

Yes, I’m aware of that. The shortcuts sadly not working.

I’m stumped as to why this isn’t working for you, as well as why you can’t add a new key command for this. For your info, the original key command (opt-P) works fine for me and I am on Mac M2 and Dorico (5.1.3) as well. Arrrgh!

Screenshot 2024-06-01 at 9.12.24 AM

I had re-assigned opt-P to toggle suppress playback; maybe that has done permanent damage to the move playhead function… even removing the opt-P shortcut and assigning it back to “move playhead to selection” doesn’t work…

That explains why it hasn’t been working. As to why you can’t re-assign this shortcut (or input a new one), I have no clue. You could try setting keyboard shortcuts to their default, but would have to re-map any custom ones you have set. I’m afraid I’m out of ideas, as everything works on my end.

  1. Open Preferences in any of the following ways:
  • Press Ctrl/Cmd-, (comma).
  • Choose Dorico > Preferences (macOS).
  1. Click Key Commands in the page list.
  2. Click Reset Key Commands.
  3. Click Apply, then Close.

[Edited to add the following]:
I should humbly add that early on in my Dorico days (around the first or 2nd version) I was perplexed as to why I couldn’t define a shortcut. Turns out I wasn’t clicking on the “Press shortcut” button. Then I clicked in the box below that button (not necessary). Then after getting that resolved, I failed to click on Apply before clicking on Close. Dorico dutifully did nothing when it came to “adding my shortcut”. I’m not saying this is happening to you, but perhaps could help others reading this. :slightly_smiling_face:

Please post your keycommands_en.json file here, @Schweinhorn. You’ll find it in ~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 5. You’ll need to zip it up.