By default Ctrl+E shortcut merges two layers, but the buttons ctrl and e are used very frequently, if not most frequently (at least in my case), so there is a pretty high chance that a person might press those two accidentaly and will not notice it until lots of time has passed and lots of work is lost becouse of it.
I understand that this can be disabled by every user, but before i figured out why Krita has been randomly merging my layers and causing hours and hours of work to be lost, as i said, i lost hours and hours of work.
Not every member knows of this, im sure, but now that ive found out about this, id like to make sure that i am the last to suffer from this. All that needs to be done is a small tweak, which is to change its default. When changing the shortcut, there is an option 'none', but its the second one. Instead it should be the first and default one.

As a matter of interest, why do you often use Ctrl+E? What is it that you were expecting to see happen when you pressed Ctrl+E in krita and why didn't you notice that it wasn't happening?

It's a very good idea to do regular/frequent Save operations and to have backup files set to a depth of more than one, especially when working with complex documents and most especially when working for hours and hours in a single session.

I dont. I often use ctrl and e seperately. And i never intend to use that ever. If i need to merge layers ill do so manually.

Saves arent always reliable. Last time i lost progress becouse of this shortcut, i looked up my backups, and i couldnt recover anything. Luckily i had infinite undo's. And i save impulsively, which is a lot more often than necessary.

Settings > Configure Krita > Keyboard shortcut and type "merge" keyword on the search field.
Then Replace the default shortcut for "Merge with Layer Bellow" from Ctrl+E to whatever or desactivate it.

In ten years of Krita usage and community, that's the first time this usability issue appears as far as I know. In my case, I use very -very- often both Ctrl, E, and Ctrl+E and never had issue with it or any frustration related to this shortcuts. But I can understand this might happen accidentaly and annoy you and be destructive especially if you don't have a layer docker in your workspace visible at this time (eg. tabbed behind another docker).

Maybe a simple on-canvas notification box "Layer xxxxx merged with yyyyyyy" could give you a feedback?

Well, im not planning to use the shortcut once in my life, so a notification wouldnt solve my issue. Im requesting this more, becouse in my opinion the default for this shortcut makes no sense and can be harmful to new users. If a new user would decide that they need a function like that, they could look it up and find that they could enable it.

You're the first person to have this problem. And given that not just Krita, but also Photoshop has merge layer on CTRL-E, I suspect you're the outlier.

I agree with @boudewijn ; I have taught many software with same shortcut in front of thousands of students along the last decade and never met the issue once. This doesn't mean I don't believe you have an issue with it @greycore : I do sincerly; but I also know by experience your case is not common.

Ctrl+E to merge down is useful as a shortcut and I use it all the time while painting (eg. after copy/pasting selections to simplify the stack, or to merge layer after using a temporary layer on top to try something).

My proposal of a notification box for you was to solve your issue (accidentally pressing it). This way, with a feedback (in case you don't have the eyes on your layer stack), you could be warned you accidentally did press it and undo the accident before getting into trouble with your artwork.

I have disabled the shortcut, so there is no need for a notification for me, but if a developer would make a change, is it really a worse idea to change the default instead of adding a notification?

Oh, i thought this forum goes for Krita only... Sorry, my bad. I use Krita and only suggest the change to be done on Krita. On photoshop, if i recall correctly, E doesnt have such a significant use, so the problem should not occur.

Yes, it would be a decidedly bad idea to change the default shortcut.

As for Photoshop, please see the Merge section in this page: https://www.photoshopessentials.com/bas ... shortcuts/

And yes, this is a forum about Krita, and not about Photoshop, but we try to maintain a modicum of familiarity for people coming from other software, so when I implemented merge layer, I did not have to think long about which shortcut I would select for it.