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How do I disable the display of popup which appears when holding down a key? It slows my typing speed and makes me do so many mistakes in my writing and programming. I need it at time when I wish to enter an alphabet twice.

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In macOS, when a key is held down while entering text, a popup is shown which lets one choose between various accented forms of the character. To disable this execute the following command line in the Terminal.app:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

Now, you'll need to log out and log back in. This should disable the display of the popup and character typed should start repeating when the key is held down.

If you ever wish to return to this behaviour, execute the following command line in the Terminal.app:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

You'll need to log out and log back in again for the setting to take effect.

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  • thank you! i have a problem in Intellij products because of this feature: after I press and hold some letter button on a keyboard, any code editor pane is disabled for text input. now, the problem fixed. thank you again.
    – Даниил Пронин
    Oct 24, 2018 at 2:26
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    Is there a way to map holding the letter onto a specif one of the popup items?
    – Joel H
    Feb 12, 2020 at 12:32
  • @JoelH I am not aware of any built-in way. It may be possible with the help of a 3rd-party tool.
    – Nimesh Neema ♦
    Feb 13, 2020 at 2:54
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    Note: you don't seem to have to log out and back in, just restart any apps where it doesn't take effect immediately (some seem to not need to be restarted at all).
    – jjj
    Jul 12, 2021 at 17:09

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