Recently, when I try to use Ctrl-left and Ctrl-right in Neovim, I found that they are not received by Neovim. I thought this is a Neovim issue. However, when I test these two shortcuts using cat in the terminal (I tried both Kitty and wezterm), it does not work either.

I asked this question in Vim_zh telegraph group¹, and someone reminded me that it may be related to macOS mapping these keys for mission control². There are multiple similar posts on the Internet.

Here is what is working for me on macOS Monterey (version 12.5.1):

• Open System Preferences --> Keyboard
• Go to the shortcuts tab, and click Mission Control on the left list
• Under Mission Control menu on the right, uncheck Move left a space and Move right a space.

Now these two shortcuts will be freed.

BTW, if you like to switch between different desktops, you can use three finger swipes on the touch pad. It works better than using key shortcuts.