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I have both an internal and external keyboard but the key-repeat has stopped working. I've tried changing both 'Key Repeat' and 'Delay Until Repeat' as shown below but no setting seems to be helping.

enter image description here

This is a brand new mac (5 weeks old).

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What OS are your using? Did you recently upgrade to Lion/Mountain Lion? What computer model are you using? – de_an777 Jul 31 '12 at 21:29
updated with the fact it is new – Michael Durrant Jul 31 '12 at 23:12
And repeat used to work, but now it doesn't? – Daniel Lawson♦ Jul 31 '12 at 23:17
Try this command: defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false – qegal Aug 1 '12 at 7:59

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Well it looks like there are a couple solutions:

Option 1. Enter this in terminal: defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false. To disable repeating keys again, enter the same command except change the false to true.

Option 2. Download Mountain Tweaks (I assume you're on Mountain Lion, if not, downloading Lion Tweaks) and click the "Yes" option for "Enable Repeating Keys":

enter image description here

Hope this helps!

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+1 It helped a LOT. Perfect! Thanks! – Michael Durrant Aug 1 '12 at 14:19
btw I was just on regular lion but this download worked on it fine. – Michael Durrant Aug 1 '12 at 14:20
+1 Ran into this problem on a new Mountain Lion install and this was just the fix I needed – Cam Aug 20 '12 at 23:33
up vote -1 down vote

Hmm, on OS 10.8.2 the command given above seems to have no effect (keys do repeat in terminal window whether true or false is used in this command. Keys do not repeat in Word ot TextWrangler whether or not the variable ApplePressAndHoldEnabled is true or false). I also don't know why my keyboard has suddenly stopped repeating (particularly as the system preferences are still set for repeat).

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Ah, a restart is necessary after entering the 'defaults write...' command. – user45062 Mar 13 at 20:47

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