Bug 340928

Summary: poor handling of ambiguous shortcuts
Product: [Frameworks and Libraries] frameworks-kxmlgui Reporter: Diggory Hardy <kde2>
Component: generalAssignee: kdelibs bugs <kdelibs-bugs-null>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: normal CC: aspotashev, kdedev, lueck, pcicchin
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Diggory Hardy 2014-11-13 15:06:09 UTC 
I am really surprised about the number of times a KDE application has complained "The key sequence 'XYZ' is ambiguous. Use ...". Probably an application configuration issue, but...

1) The dialog should be a bit more friendly; e.g. ask the user which of the relevant bindings should have priority

2) Changing shortcuts via the "configure shortcuts" menu freuqently doesn't achieve the desired effect (e.g. new bindings only take effect after application restart).

3) Probably handling clashing shortcuts via priorities would be more robust and user-friendly in any case (e.g. try using the "back" button on some keyboards with the file browser plugin for Kate — Kate will either interpret it as change document or produce an "ambiguous" dialog).

In short, the bug is about poor handling of clashing shortcuts, and I'll consider it solved when "The key sequence 'XYZ' is ambiguous..." dialog boxes either no longer show up in KDE applications or can be solved with only a couple of clicks.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
One case with the kate browser plugin and back/forward keys is mentioned above. Another I have now (may not be reproducible) is the delete message action conflicting with something (delete vs move to trash maybe?) in kmail. I'm sure there are others.
Comment 2 Justin Zobel 2021-03-09 05:54:10 UTC 
Thank you for the bug report.

As this report hasn't seen any changes in 5 years or more, we ask if you can please confirm that the issue still persists.

If this bug is no longer persisting or relevant please change the status to resolved.
Comment 3 TraceyC 2022-08-03 14:59:41 UTC 
I can confirm that this problem still exists. Unfortunately, the dialog has not changed. I recently saw this trying to map shortcuts in Kate.
Related: #376918

[system info]
KDE Plasma Version 5.25.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.96.0
Kernel Version: 5.15.50-216
Distribution: Solus Plasma Edition
Comment 4 Paul Cicchinelli 2025-09-29 00:57:51 UTC 
     This bug still exists.  The message was "There are two actions (Add Bookmark, Edit Bookmarks...) that want to use the same shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+B). This is most probably a bug. Please report it in bugs.kde.org".  However, when I go into Settings/Shortcuts and search for "+B", I get 4 hits.  Two  are under Navigation: 1) Add Bookmark: Ctrl+B  2)Edit Bookmarks: Ctr+Shift+B, and the other 2 hits are in shortcut names (Alt+Shift+Backtab and Ctrl+Backspace).
     Also, the pop-up window that notifies you of the problem needs work.  The window takes up about 1/3 of the screen, but only has 1 textbox with the aforementioned message, 1 checkbox that says "Don't show this message again", and a button that says "OK".  The window is NOT resizeable, and the text box is only 1 line w/ NO word-wrap and is wider than the window.  I had to copy the whole line and paste it into Kate in order to read the last TWO-THIRDS of it.

System Specs (copy/pasted from Info Center):
Operating System: Kubuntu 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.12
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-84-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i3-10100 CPU @ 3.60GHz
Memory: 31.1 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 630
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 11QE00CFGP
System Version: V50t Gen 2-13IOB