Remote not working only in Kodi

I had a Tronsmart box, was running Kodi 17.1 just fine with my wireless air mouse. Got a friend a Beelink box and used my wireless air mouse to configure it and that all worked. Then I got myself a Beelink GT1, and the wireless air mouse works great in the Android interface, including the navigation keys, but the navigation keys don’t work in Kodi.

More context:

  1. Installed SPMC: all air mouse keys work great out of the box.
  2. Installed Kodi’s keymap editor add-on: navigation keys don’t even register when I try to edit key events for left/right/etc.
  3. Keypresses via the keyboard on the back of the remote work correctly when Kodi’s virtual keyboard comes up, except the arrow keys of course. Arrow keys on the back don’t work for navigation either.
  4. the context menu key doesn’t work either, but the c key on the back keyboard does work.
  5. Kodi says it detects a new controller, but as with the keymap editor, the navigation buttons just don’t register. Nothing happens when I click them while registering a controller button.

I’ve used this exact remote with at least 5 different Kodi boxes and this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this. Any suggestions would be appreciated.