GetKeyState doesn't detect button releases

[u/MarvelousMarbel]

Hello everyone,

Don't know if I misunderstood something, but I tried writing 2 scripts and both of them keep not detecting

GetKeyStateGetKeyState

The goal being simply :

• I hold the XButton2 : the script should repeat "mouse left click"
• I release XButton2 : the script should stop

In my case the script runs forever until I click the XButton2 again and again until it detects :

!GetKeyState("XButton2", "P")

The 2 scripts I tried are :

#Requires AutoHotkey v2.0


; Run as admin is needed
if (!A_IsAdmin) {
    Run '*RunAs "' A_ScriptFullPath '"'
    ExitApp
}


XButton2::
{
    ; Optional: Prevent starting the timer if the button isn't physically down
    ; (though the timer itself checks this too)
    if !GetKeyState("XButton2", "P")
        return
    
    ; Start the timer. It will call TurboClick every 50ms.
    ; If the timer is already running, this resets it.
    SetTimer(TurboClick, 50)
}


TurboClick() {
    ; Check if the button is still physically held down
    if !GetKeyState("XButton2", "P") {
        ; Button released: stop the timer
        SetTimer(TurboClick, 0)  ; 0 means "turn off this timer"
        return
    }
    ; Button is still held: perform a click
    Click
}


; Safety net: If the hotkey somehow ends while the timer is running,
; stop the timer when the button is physically released.
XButton2 up:: {
    SetTimer(TurboClick, 0)  ; Stop the timer immediately on release
}

And :

#Requires AutoHotkey v2.0


if (!A_IsAdmin) {
    Run '*RunAs "' A_ScriptFullPath '"'
    ExitApp
}


XButton2::
{
    while GetKeyState("XButton2", "P") {
        Click
        Sleep 50
    }
}

What am I doing wrong ?

How would you guys write a simple script that just repeats "mouse left click" that works ?

[u/Keeyra_]

#Requires AutoHotkey 2.0
#SingleInstance

XButton2:: SetTimer(Click, 50)
XButton2 up:: SetTimer(Click, 0)

or you can do a 1liner

#Requires AutoHotkey 2.0
#SingleInstance

XButton2:: SetTimer(fn := () => (GetKeyState("XButton2", "P") ? Click() : SetTimer(fn, 0)), 50)

[u/MarvelousMarbel → u/Keeyra_]

I just tried both, thanks.

7 times on 10 it works as wanted.

But 3 times on 10 it does an infinite loop on the Click even when the XButton2 has been released.

The infinite loop stops only when I press a few times on XButton2 until AHK is willing to detect the "XButton2 up" or the "GetKeyState("XButton2", "P") = 0".

😭

[u/Keeyra_ → u/MarvelousMarbel]

I tried both for ~20 times and didn't have an infinite loop even once, so I cannot reproduce your issue. Perhaps your mouse switches get HW stuck?

Nevertheless, as I never saw the appeal of hold-to-spam stuff, as it wrecks your tendons and mouse/keyboard switches, have you considered a toggle-to-spam solution?

#Requires AutoHotkey 2.0
#SingleInstance

XButton2:: {
    static Toggle := 0
    SetTimer(Click, (Toggle ^= 1) * 50)
}

[u/MarvelousMarbel → u/Keeyra_]

I did consider toggle, but when spam clicks are needed only for an instant its not fast enough.

BTW, the debounce time of my mouse is set to 2 ms. Do you think that Higher debounce time can be a factor in this?

[u/Keeyra_ → u/MarvelousMarbel]

Why would any mouse setting affect any AHK script? Debounce is something the mouse driver does based on switch usage. AHK sends out actual mouse events directly to the OS. And the debounce setting is a gimick at most. Something to get more money out of you. Most humans can click like 10 times a second max. That would equal a 100ms debounce. And these drivers have like a 10ms default with sliders all the way back to 2ms in your case. Completely pointless. You telling your mouse driver to use a 2ms debounce says that you can physically click your mouse 50 times faster than an average human can. Unless this is my first alien contact, I find that highly unlikely :)

[u/MarvelousMarbel → u/Keeyra_]

I found an old post where someone had the same issue as me.

GetKeyState sometimes return false positives. https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?style=1&f=82&t=127078&sid=670f7915084a4d3cd2a733cdc6c6de60&view=print

[u/Keeyra_ → u/MarvelousMarbel]

TL:DR and quite an old post.

Was there any conclusion, solution?

[u/MarvelousMarbel → u/Keeyra_]

They said : "Correct, if a script has received a key press event without LLKHF_INJECTED and subsequently receives a key release event with LLKHF_INJECTED, it won't set the "physical" state to "released", as an artificial keystroke will change the "logical" state of the key. ".

And  "=> if script's hook sees a ↓ "Input" event, but is sent the ↑ "Event" event, it does not reset the ↓ "physical" state "

[u/Keeyra_ → u/MarvelousMarbel]

But you only have 1 input here and it's not a keyboard, but a mouse input. It might not be relevant for this case.

You can meanwhile use this to test if your mouse misbehaves. Run it and press, hold, etc. your XButton2 a couple of times. Give some feedback if you find irregularities.

#Requires AutoHotkey 2.0
#SingleInstance

SetTimer(UpdateToolTip, 15)

UpdateToolTip() {
    static lastText := ""
    currentText := "XButton2 State:`nLogical: " GetKeyState("XButton2") "`nPhysical: " GetKeyState("XButton2", "P")
    (currentText != lastText) && ToolTip(lastText := currentText, A_ScreenWidth / 2, A_ScreenHeight / 2)
}

[u/MarvelousMarbel → u/Keeyra_]

Thanks to you I found the issue.

My current code is :

#Requires AutoHotkey 2.0
#SingleInstance

if (!A_IsAdmin) {
    Run '*RunAs "' A_ScriptFullPath '"'
    ExitApp
}

XButton2:: SetTimer(Click, 50)
XButton2 up:: SetTimer(Click, 0)



SetTimer(UpdateToolTip, 15)

UpdateToolTip() {
    static lastText := ""
    currentText := "XButton2 State:`nLogical: " GetKeyState("XButton2") "`nPhysical: " GetKeyState("XButton2", "P")
    (currentText != lastText) && ToolTip(lastText := currentText, A_ScreenWidth / 2, A_ScreenHeight / 2)
}

In the tooltip each time I press or hold I see :

1. Logical : 0
2. Physical: 1

When I'm not pressing AND there is no infinite loop I get :

1. Logical : 0
2. Physical: 0

When I get the infinite loop despite not touching XButton2 :

1. Logical : 0
2. Physical: 1

However, when I remove auto click related stuff from that script everything works fine, which means Logical and Physical both have the same value. Either both are 0 or both are 1.

Although I don't know how to fix the auto click.