Ipnut action Esc doesnt work

I have A pause game input action mapping under project settings with P and Esc set as the keys for it.

when testing my game in standalone mode, P pauses the game and brings up the pause menu but Esc does nothing. Even when i change the BP so just the escape key should trigger it and print the string “paused” nothing at all happens.

could my esc key have been disabled somehow?

when using PIE new window Esc still closes the PIE window as expected.

When handling input mappings, many Actors or Objects can handle the same input that’s coming in.
At any point in the hierarchy, though, one of the objects that is handling the input event can be set to Consume it, which will prevent the event from reaching any objects lower in the hierarchy or processing order.

I’m not sure how it all fits together yet but here are my observations:

  1. If any UMG widget has Focus (this is in “Gameplay and UI” inputmode), such as a button, etc., then it will consume the input before it reaches any Playercontrollers.
  2. If the input event reaches a player controller, or anything else, you can set the Input Event node to Consume the input, which will prevent the input from reaching the next thing that’s been listening for it.
  3. You can create Listen For Input event handlers and set them to Consume the input as well.

Check your project for all 3 of these in regards to both the Escape key and all the axis and action mapping names that use the Escape key.

Also, I think that only player controller 0 receives input from the keyboard. I think controllers 1,2, and 3 ignore it. Not sure but I think so.

Sometimes inputs don’t work when you’re running the game from the editor instead of from a built deployment. First try just task switching away from the running game and then back into it like with Alt-Tab. Also try running in Stand Alone mode, and try building your project to an executable and see if the gamepad works there.