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Before upgrading to macOS Sierra, I really liked the Character Accent Menu by doing a long press on a key (for example, the character e) and being able to add an accent on it.

However, this functionality seems to not work anymore, and so far, I can't find out why?

Also, before, doing a long press on the delete button, would repeatly delete characters. Now, it is doing only one character deletion disregarding how long I'm pressing the key. So if I want to erase 10 characters, I need to press the delete button 10 times...

Also, I am not able to log off or shut down. When doing it, all applications are closed, status bar disappears but nothing happens. The dock remains here. I have no way to shut down or log out without doing a long press on the power button.

Is someone facing the same issue?

EDIT : Logging with a new user account or guest account fix all the problems. But I still would like to know what, in my user account, became corrupted during the upgrade.

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5
  • I'm not have those issues, however I did a clean install not an upgrade.
    – user3439894
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 4:19
  • I had the same problem but it disappeared after rebooting so: have you tried turning it off and on again?
    – user202713
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 7:12
  • Go to your Keyboard Preferences -> Keyboard. What's your key repeat?
    – Edric
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 7:38
  • Preferences are good. I rebooted the computer many times, problem is remaining. I also clear all the machine and user preferences related to the system and keyboard, ... Play with the different values for this command: defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false No changes.
    – ZouBi
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 8:53
  • 1
    I have the same problem as the original question, and none of these suggestions worked for me. Did anyone come up with something that worked for ZouBi?
    – Jeremy Turner
    Commented Sep 25, 2019 at 7:56

14 Answers 14

Reset to default
30

I got the same issue after a recent update now, found the answer here and it worked for me. In Terminal type

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

and then log out and log in again, this should fix the issue.

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3
  • 2
    This did it for me on Catalina
    – eebbesen
    Commented Jan 13, 2021 at 18:47
  • Worked for me !
    – dgmz
    Commented Jan 26, 2021 at 14:24
  • 1
    Great! Worked for me on Catalina just now <3 I am not sure why they disappeared?!
    – Anton Mitsev
    Commented Mar 25, 2021 at 15:10
12

Found the solution. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard tab > Modifier Keys(bottom right corner). Now press restore defaults and see if that works.

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1
  • It worked for me right now in Sonoma.
    – grandouassou
    Commented Jan 4 at 10:44
3

I've just got the answer to this from Apple. Go into Settings, Keyboard and make sure the Key Repeat slider is set to Slow and the Delay Until Repeat slider is set to Short. That fixes it. If the keyboard is working too fast, the menu won't appear.

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3
  • Welcome to Ask Different! I don't see how this answer relates to the OP's question.
    – Allan
    Commented Jan 11, 2017 at 16:20
  • @Allan it works. I had this issue on macOS Ventura. It was working fine on Monterey, after the upgrade it stopped working. None of the other answers worked, but this answer immediately fixed it.
    – Velociround
    Commented Dec 12, 2022 at 23:56
  • Also same problem on masOC Venture, but this doesn't help unfortunately
    – arno_v
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 20:55
3

Just rebooting the computer fixed it for me.

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2

Try adding a French or Spanish input source to your list in system prefs/keyboard/input sources and restart.

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6
  • French was always in my input source as it is my native language. I removed and added it, reboot. Nothing change. I can use the French input source but I would like to avoid switching between, and remember also the keys. Also, this key repeaters is bothering me. Not working at all.
    – ZouBi
    Commented Sep 24, 2016 at 8:35
  • 1
    Have you installed any antivirus stuff like webroot? This can cause such problems.
    – Tom Gewecke
    Commented Sep 24, 2016 at 12:59
  • Not at all. As I mentionned, this issue appeared right after upgrading to MacOS Sierra.
    – ZouBi
    Commented Sep 25, 2016 at 4:28
  • 1
    Try setting up a new account and see if it has same problem.
    – Tom Gewecke
    Commented Sep 25, 2016 at 4:35
  • Using a guest user make all the problems disappear indeed. It might be the fastest solution but my curiosity makes me wanna know what's the real problem behind my user account.
    – ZouBi
    Commented Sep 26, 2016 at 1:11
2

You may have set multiple input sources and you may be typing with a Keyboard layout that doesn't support long press.

It happen to me that I erroneously switched to Japanese layout and nothing of the above solution worked.

Multiple Keyboard layouts in Input Sources

If this applies to you, you switch back to your original settings in "Preferences" -> "Keyboard" -> "Input Sources", enable to "Show input menu in menu bar" and switch

Switch back to original settings using input menu in menu bar

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1
  • +100 This turns out to be the root of my issue. I confirmed by switching back to USA layout and suddenly long-press worked. Thank you very much for sharing your situation! This has been driving me crazy for years. Now to figure out how to add longpress support to my custom layout...
    – Daniel Brady
    Commented Sep 1, 2023 at 16:05
1

enter image description here

As @kees said, just try to reboot.

On mine, no problem with this tool.

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7
  • Preferences are good. I rebooted the computer many times, problem is remaining. I also clear all the machine and user preferences related to the system and keyboard, ... Play with the different values for this command: defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false No changes.
    – ZouBi
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 8:53
  • Is the Char View working well without the holding? Control-Command-Space to open it
    – Zooly
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 9:34
  • Char View is good.
    – ZouBi
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 9:35
  • After the command line, did you reboot ?
    – Zooly
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 9:40
  • Yes of course. But I found this another bug. When I try to shutdown/reboot/log out, all the applications are being closed, the dock too. But then only my wallpaper remains and my mouse. I can't do anything else except hard reboot by long pressing the power button... My system might be corrupted somewhere.
    – ZouBi
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 10:21
1

Open up the terminal and type in:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

This will toggle the Character accent menu.

Restart the mac after doing this and it should work.

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0
0

Go to system preferences, then keyboard then go to where it says "Delay Until Repeat" drag it to "long". that will get your accents back to keeping the key depressed like for "día"...you have to keep it pressed

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0

A solution that works perfectly for me is to use this command:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

If you don't want to type this command again and again, you can add it in your .bashrc or .zshrc

So the accent menu will work all the time :)

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  • 1
    Same answer as provided by Jalovisko 18 months ago, which is at the top of the answers list.
    – Tom Gewecke
    Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 17:08
  • Jalovisko's solution was incomplete for my friends and I alone to add the line of code in the .bashrc / .zshrc really solves the problem. I thought this nuance was worth it
    – Petchav
    Commented Oct 19, 2021 at 21:25
  • 1
    You can always edit an existing answer and provide further details.
    – slhck
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 7:44
0

Check to see if you have Webroot installed, as that can stop this from working. Here is the Apple note about it.

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-1

I could fix the issue by following the steps here: https://www.cnet.com/news/fix-keyboard-input-not-behaving-properly-in-os-x/

Quite simple. Sorry for the troubles.

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  • 7
    While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes.
    – grg ♦
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 9:36
-3

You just have to hold: option + e than press your letter to put the accent.

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1
  • Suggest you delete this as it makes it look like you did not read or understand the question
    – Tom Gewecke
    Commented Oct 26, 2017 at 2:30
-3

defaults delete -g did the trick for me, you lose your default settings but hey...

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1
  • I would strongly advise against doing this.
    – slhck
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 7:44

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