How to Change the Keyboard Layout Shortcut on Mac (Including Caps Lock)

By default, macOS switches keyboard layouts with Ctrl+Space (or the Fn/Globe key on newer keyboards). If you came from Windows, where Alt+Shift or Caps Lock did the job, the default can feel awkward - and it's easy to hit Cmd+Space (Spotlight) instead. The good news: all of this is configurable.

Change the switching shortcut

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard.
2. Click Keyboard Shortcuts…, then pick Input Sources in the sidebar.
3. You'll see two shortcuts:
   • Select the previous input source - cycles back (default Ctrl+Space).
   • Select next source in Input menu - cycles forward (default Ctrl+Option+Space).
4. Double-click the current shortcut and press the combination you want.

If you use exactly two layouts, one shortcut is enough - it just toggles between them. Set the other to something you won't hit by accident, or disable it.

Which shortcut to pick

• Cmd+Space - possible, but it's taken by Spotlight. If you really want it, first reassign Spotlight under Keyboard Shortcuts → Spotlight, otherwise the two will conflict and one of them will silently stop working.
• Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift alone - macOS doesn't accept modifier-only combinations here, unlike Windows. You need a modifier plus a regular key.
• Fn/Globe key - on Apple keyboards you can set the Globe key to switch input sources directly: System Settings → Keyboard → "Press 🌐 key to" → Change Input Source. One key, no chord - for many people this is the best option.

Switch layouts with Caps Lock

macOS can do the Windows-style Caps Lock switching natively:

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard.
2. Next to Text Input / Input Sources, click Edit….
3. Turn on "Use the Caps Lock key to switch to and from ABC".

Now a quick tap on Caps Lock switches between your Latin layout and the other one, and a long press still toggles uppercase (the indicator light shows which is which). Note: this option only appears when you have a non-Latin input source added, and it toggles between two sources - if you use three or more layouts, you'll still need the regular shortcut for the rest.

When the shortcut isn't the real problem

Changing the shortcut makes switching more comfortable, but it doesn't fix the classic failure: you type half a sentence and only then notice the layout was wrong. The shortcut was fine - you just didn't press it in time.

For that case there's Boomkey, a menu bar app for Mac: when you notice text typed in the wrong layout, double-tap Shift and it's converted to the correct layout in place - no retyping, no online converters. It works with the layout you already typed in, so it doesn't matter which shortcut you use to switch.

Quick recap

• Shortcut: System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Input Sources.
• Globe key: System Settings → Keyboard → "Press 🌐 key to" → Change Input Source.
• Caps Lock: System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources → Edit → "Use the Caps Lock key to switch to and from ABC".
• Typed in the wrong layout anyway? Boomkey fixes it with a double-tap of Shift.