Cannot apply changes to advanced keyboard settings hotkeys

Welcome Violet Sloan,

I understand how frustrating it can be when I understand you want Ctrl + 1 / Ctrl + 2 to switch keyboard layouts on Windows 11, but the changes revert after clicking Apply in Advanced keyboard settings.  

You can try the workaround steps below to troubleshoot the issue:  

Step 1: Remove duplicate keyboard layouts 

• Open Settings > Time & language > Language & region 
• Select English (United Kingdom) 
• Click Language options 
• Under Keyboards, remove any duplicate or “Custom” keyboard layouts 
• Keep only one keyboard per language 

Step 2: Restart Windows 

• Click Start 
• Select Restart 

Step 3: Disable per‑app input method 

• Open Settings 
• Go to Time & language > Typing 
• Select Advanced keyboard settings 
• Make sure “Let me set a different input method for each app window” is unchecked 

Step 4: Reset existing hotkeys 

• In Advanced keyboard settings, click Input language hot keys 
• Select Between input languages 
• Click Change Key Sequence… 
• Set it to Not Assigned 
• Click OK, then Apply 

Step 5: Assign Ctrl + 1 / Ctrl + 2 

• In Input language hot keys, select a specific language (example: English UK) 
• Click Change Key Sequence… 
• Check Enable key sequence 
• Choose Ctrl + 1 
• Click OK 
• Repeat for the second language using Ctrl + 2 
• Click Apply, then OK 

Important notes:

• Use Windows key + Space to switch input languages instead of assigning dedicated Ctrl‑number shortcuts, as this built‑in shortcut cannot be overridden by per‑layout assignments. 

I hope this information helps resolve your issue. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me again in this thread. 

P.S: If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".      

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.