2026-10-15 Templater 2.26 removed its default hotkeys - how to get them back

Canonical version: 2026-10-15 Templater 2.26 removed its default hotkeys - how to get them back.

I pressed Alt+E to insert a template, and nothing happened. Templater was enabled and my templates were fine. The shortcut was simply gone.

Templater 2.26.0, released on October 11, removed ALL of its default hotkeys. If you use Templater, you're probably affected too. The fix takes a minute.

What changed

These four commands no longer come with a shortcut:

• Alt+E: Open insert template modal (the one I use every day)
• Alt+R: Replace templates in the active file
• Alt+N: Create new note from template
• Alt+Tab: Jump to next cursor location

On Windows and Linux, you lose all four. On macOS, Alt+E, Alt+R and Alt+N had already stopped being defaults in March 2025, because they didn't work there (issue #1491). So on a Mac, you only lose Alt+Tab.

Shortcuts you set yourself in Settings → Hotkeys are NOT affected. Obsidian stores those in .obsidian/hotkeys.json, and the update doesn't touch that file. Only the defaults that came with the plugin disappeared.

Why Templater did this

Obsidian's plugin guidelines discourage default hotkeys: "Setting a default hotkey may lead to conflicts between plugins and may override hotkeys that the user has already configured". They also note that "It's also difficult to choose a default hotkey that is available on all operating systems". An official ESLint rule, obsidianmd/commands/no-default-hotkeys, flags them.

In May 2026, Zachatoo (Templater's maintainer) had turned that rule off for Templater, with this comment: "It would require a lot of support to help users migrate because this plugin is old". He changed his mind in September, and the change shipped in 2.26.0. There was no announcement; the changelog lists it as a bug fix.

I agree with the guideline: two plugins fighting over the same shortcut is a real problem. But Alt+E has been muscle memory for years for a lot of people (me included!), and a line under bug fixes is easy to miss.

Get your shortcuts back

1. Open Settings → Hotkeys
2. Search for "Templater"
3. Click the + next to "Open insert template modal" and press Alt+E
4. Do the same for the other commands you use (Alt+R, Alt+N, Alt+Tab)

Once you set a hotkey explicitly, it lives in your vault's settings, and future plugin updates can't remove it. If you use several vaults, do it in each one: hotkeys are stored per vault.

That's it for today! ✨

References

• Templater commit "fix: Remove default hotkeys for commands": https://github.com/SilentVoid13/Templater/commit/305205dddf9aba7130803406156e9c597b7b0e8b
• Templater changelog: https://github.com/SilentVoid13/Templater/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md
• Obsidian plugin guidelines: https://docs.obsidian.md/Plugins/Releasing/Plugin+guidelines

Related

• Templater plugin for Obsidian

About Sébastien

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