[rolfep]

It used to be I could hold down Alt or Cap key, the notification bar would show an indicator for the choice underlined, and the modifier would stay in effect until I hit that key. IOW, all the key presses would type a capital letter or the alt character. Lately, I've been noticing, off and on, this no longer works for some apps, at least. Worst case is I have to hold down the modifier to get a cap or number; I can't just tap it once for one modified character. I see this in Evernote, which I use frequently and where I've noticed it seems to come and go without any memorable system changes.

Just now, I did a 32-second reboot and no joy. A couple of google apps I just tested seem to honor the tap modifier and release for the first character but there is no modifier indicator in the notification bar and holding down the modifier key for a few seconds only modifies the first character.

I have Silver Keyone PRD-63116-001 loaded with AAT166 on T-mobile and it looks to me like a software corruption, hardware failure, possibly app interference. I've turned off a lot of apps in "Background applications", which is good for battery life but warns apps might not work right. However, this problem comes and goes, so far, and I haven't noticed a correlation with turning off background operations. I have a pretty stock setup, playstore apps automatically updated, stock launcher, nothing radical, afaik.

[rolfep]

So, I restarted in safe mode and the modifier keys seemed to be working with a brief test. I followed up with a 32-second reboot to return from safe mode for good measure and will see how it goes.

[rolfep]

And, it's back. Alt/Caps keys don't work unless I hold them down. Welcome to my 2001 candy bar starter phone! Re-starting in safe mode deletes the home page customizations, so not a trivial exercise to do it every few days, if one could even count on that as a reliable workaround.

Only several days of normalcy, wrt this functionality. Playstore has been updating apps right and left. Maybe an update triggered this bug? Another weird behavior that has been going on for some time is, when I unlock the screen with fingerprint, there is a message to "configure shortcuts", or similar, with a window of apps. I just dismiss that. Also, the notification bar periodically shows "configure physical keyboard", which has "Show virtual keyboard" set to off and "Physical keyboard gestures" set to on, as I've always had them set.

I have not noticed this bug corresponding to any particular settings configuration or app installation, of which there've been a few, not a lot but going right into typing in an app after such an event is not necessarily what I do.

Maybe Iran's screwing with me... Iran may be using apps on Apple and Google stores to spy | Daily Mail Online

[rolfep]

Ok. I was looking in Settings > Languages & input > Current Keyboard and found KDE Connect Remote Keyboard was selected. KDE Connect is an app available on Playstore that I find useful for wirelessly sending files and sharing the clipboard. When I switched to the Blackberry keyboard, my Alt/Cap keys seem to be working again. I don't know how the keyboard came to be set to KDE Connect, maybe an update, but I don't recall configuring that. I've disabled the KDE Connect Remote Keyboard in Manage keyboards and will see how that goes.