Keyboard layout issues.

When you type @ on the client and the host writes " instead, you've hit a layout mismatch — the most common keyboard issue in remote desktop. Remio supports two ways of sending keystrokes, and switching between them resolves nearly every layout problem. This guide explains the model, the fix, and the trade-offs.

# Mental model
scancode mode  → physical position (Q is at top-left)
                 host interprets using its layout
                 → games, shortcuts, password fields work

character mode → Unicode codepoint (U+00E4 = ä)
                 host inserts character as-is
                 → international text, IMEs, diacritics work

1. 01

   Diagnose the symptom

   The exact mistranslation tells you which layouts are mismatched. A few common patterns:

   • @ becomes " and vice versa — UK client, US host (or the reverse). Both layouts have @ and " on different shifted keys.
   • Z and Y swap — QWERTZ (German, Czech) client, QWERTY host. Z and Y trade physical positions.
   • $, £, € misplaced — UK or European client, US host. Currency symbols vary by locale.
   • Backslash missing or wrong — ISO vs ANSI keyboard layout. ISO has an extra key near Enter that ANSI lacks.
   • Diacritics produce wrong vowels — dead keys interpreted on host instead of client.
   • IME duplicates characters — IME running on both ends. Each composes the input and the second one re-composes.
2. 02

   Option A — match the layouts

   The cleanest fix in scancode mode is to make both ends share a layout. Pick one and apply it everywhere.

   macOS host Windows host

   macOS host

   System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit. Add or remove input sources; the menu bar shows the active one. macOS allows multiple layouts; the one in front of an app at the moment of keypress is what Remio reports.

   TIP

   If you regularly switch between US and UK keyboards across machines, pick one and force every device to it. The five seconds you spend in System Settings save hours of typo cleanup later.

3. 03

   Option B — switch to character mode

   If you'd rather not change OS settings, or if you regularly type characters that don't exist on the host's layout, switch Remio to character mode.

   On the client: Settings → Keyboard → Input Mode → Character (Unicode). Now every key you press is interpreted by your client OS, then the resulting Unicode character is sent to the host. The host inserts it verbatim.

   Trade-offs to know:

   • Modifier keys still send scancodes — Cmd, Ctrl, Shift, Alt continue to work as scancodes so shortcuts and chord combinations still fire. Only character-producing keys switch to Unicode.
   • Games may not work — most games read raw scancodes. Character mode bypasses that. For gaming, keep scancode mode on.
   • IMEs work cleanly — your client IME composes the final character locally; the host receives the composed text, not the in-progress pinyin or dead-key sequence.
4. 04

   Special characters and diacritics

   Special characters are where layout mismatches hurt most. Each language has its conventions; here's how Remio handles the common ones.

   • German ÄÖÜß — character mode sends them as U+00C4, U+00D6, U+00DC, U+00DF. The host OS needs no German support installed.
   • Vietnamese diacritics — run Telex, VNI, or your preferred IME on the client. The composed character (e.g. ơ, ư, ấ) is sent as Unicode. Do not run a Vietnamese IME on the host or you'll double-compose.
   • French accents — characters like é è ê ç compose on the client (with dead keys or AZERTY direct keys) and arrive complete on the host.
   • Japanese / Chinese / Korean IMEs — character mode preferred. Run the IME on the client only; pinyin or hiragana shows in the on-screen candidate window on the client, and the chosen character is sent to the host.
   • Emoji — pick from the client's emoji picker; the codepoint is sent as Unicode. The host renders it with whatever emoji font it has.
5. 05

   Modifier keys across platforms

   The fiddliest cross-platform problem is modifiers: macOS uses Cmd as the primary modifier, Windows uses Ctrl. By default, Remio swaps them automatically based on the host platform so your shortcuts feel native — Cmd+S on the Mac client becomes Ctrl+S on a Windows host, and vice versa.

   If you've turned auto-remap off (Preferences → Keyboard → Auto Modifier Remap), the raw modifier reaches the host and most shortcuts won't fire. Re-enable it unless you have a specific reason — typically only power users with bespoke remapping tools need it off.

   Additional notes:

   • Option / Alt — same physical key, different name. Remio reports both correctly.
   • Windows / Cmd — same physical position. Auto-remap takes care of the swap when crossing platforms.
   • Caps Lock — passed through as-is. The host's Caps Lock state matches what you toggled on the client.
   • Function keys — F1-F12 all reach the host. On Mac hosts, fn+F1 etc. respects whatever the system setting is for media-key behavior.

   # Auto-remap example — Mac client → Windows host
   client: Cmd+S                  (you press)
   remio:  detected Mac modifier, host is Windows
   remio:  send Ctrl+S
   host:   Ctrl+S triggers Save  (works correctly)