How to remove or disable a default keyboard layout?

Question

Is it possible to remove or disable one of OS X Lion’s default keyboard layouts?

I’m using a custom keyboard layout, and now that I managed to set it as the system-wide default keyboard layout, I’d like to be able to uncheck or remove the built-in “U.S.” keyboard layout that came with OS X. Here’s a screenshot — note that the checkbox is disabled:

In OS X 10.9, this preference pane has been redesigned, but still there’s no way to “remove” the built-in “U.S.” keyboard layout:

Since I never use the U.S. keyboard layout, I’d love to get rid of it, i.e. remove it from the Input menu in the menu bar. How can I do this?

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Update: Daniel’s answer doesn’t really answer this question, but it does offer some valuable information regarding this problem:

Mac OS X seems to require at least one keyboard layout that the system recognizes as a “Latin character” layout to be selected.

Assuming this is accurate information (thanks, Daniel!), the question could be rephrased as follows:

How to make OS X consider a custom keyboard to be a Latin character layout?

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Update: I just came across something that might help.

Answer 1

For macOS 10.8 and later:

1. Change the current input source to your custom keyboard layout.
2. Open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist (in 10.9) or ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.HIToolbox.*.plist (in 10.8 and earlier). You can convert the plist to XML with plutil -convert xml1.
3. Remove the input source or input sources you want to disable from the AppleEnabledInputSources dictionary. If there is an AppleDefaultAsciiInputSource key, remove it.
4. Restart.

For macOS 10.7 and earlier:

1. Enable an input source that is not like your physical keyboard layout from System Preferences (I used Afghan Dari).
2. Run f=~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.HIToolbox*.plist; plutil -convert xml1 $f; open $f -e.
3. Remove other input sources except the temporarily enabled keyboard layout and your custom keyboard layout.
4. Log out and back in.
5. Remove the temporarily enabled keyboard layout from the property list.
6. Log out and back in.

Answer 2

It appears that you cannot do what you want to without some yet-undiscovered hack to the system. Mac OS X seems to require at least one keyboard layout that the system recognizes as a "Latin character" layout to be selected. This prevents your from being unable to enter your password at the login screen, etc. If you selected French, or Canadian, or another keyboard layout that the system recognizes as Latin characters, you can deselect the US layout.

Your problem is that your custom layout, while containing Latin characters, is not recognized by the system as a Latin keyboard layout, and thus cannot be the only selected keyboard layout. See this question (sadly lacking a great answer) for more information.

Note that a great answer to this question would answer your question also. Alas, my answer here only clarifies what the problem is, but I have no step-by-step solution for you. While such a hack may be possible, I see no evidence that anyone has figured out how to convince Mac OS X that a particular custom keyboard is safe to use as the sole selectable keyboard.

Answer 3

For the sake of completeness, I filed this as bug ID #11137961 with Apple, and this is the response I got:

Bug ID #: 11137961
Bug Title: Allow disabling default (built-in) keyboard layouts when using a custom one

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Engineering has determined that this issue behaves as intended based on the following information:

If the issue is just getting your keyboard layout recognized as ASCII-capable, the easiest would be to "bundle" your .keylayout, then your Info.plist can contain a "KLInfo_" dictionary that further describes it, like:

 <key>TISIntendedLanguage</key>
 <string>en</string>   # BCP 47 language string

I'd need to look into this a bit more, but it looks like TIS will scan the keyboard layout output to produce a USet and produce an initial idea of ascii-ness by whether it passes the following minimal test:

 uset_containsRange(uSet, 0x0020, 0x0021) && uset_containsRange(uSet, 0x002C, 0x0039) &&
 uset_containsRange(uSet, 0x003F, 0x005A) && uset_containsRange(uSet, 0x0061, 0x007A);

TIS will also examine the exemplar set for the above indicated locale and require a good dozen or so characters in the range [a-z].

For some suggestions on bundling a .keylayout, also see TextInputSources.h.

If this is still an issue, or you have questions regarding the resolution of this issue, please update your bug report with that information.

We are now closing this bug report.

Answer 4

Here's another idea: A few years ago the bundle(s) for Apple Keyboard Layouts were much easier to edit, and this problem seems to have been solvable:

http://hintsforums.macworld.com/archive/index.php/t-71629.html

Perhaps one could still use the old editable bundle, if you could get one from an old system, in the current OS.

Answer 5

After moving my custom keyboard layout to /Library/Keyboard Layouts instead of ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts I could suddenly remove the US layout.

This also fixed the issue I was having where the keyboard layout would switch back to the US layout whenever I activated apps such as Mail or the App Store.

Supposedly this is because if the layout is installed as the current user instead of system wide then system apps can not use it, which would explain why it's not possible to remove the US layout from Preferences.

Answer 6

I just came across something that might help. Here goes:

$ defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist 
{
    AppleCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSourceID = "com.apple.keylayout.Dutch";
    AppleDefaultAsciiInputSource =     {
        InputSourceKind = "Keyboard Layout";
        "KeyboardLayout ID" = 1337;
        "KeyboardLayout Name" = QWERTY;
    };
    AppleEnabledInputSources =     (
                {
            InputSourceKind = "Keyboard Layout";
            "KeyboardLayout ID" = 26;
            "KeyboardLayout Name" = Dutch;
        }
    );
    AppleInputSourceHistory =     (
                {
            InputSourceKind = "Keyboard Layout";
            "KeyboardLayout ID" = 26;
            "KeyboardLayout Name" = Dutch;
        }
    );
    AppleSelectedInputSources =     (
                {
            InputSourceKind = "Keyboard Layout";
            "KeyboardLayout ID" = 26;
            "KeyboardLayout Name" = Dutch;
        }
    );
}

This is on my system, where my custom keyboard layout (named “QWERTY”) is the default. Note that the KeyboardLayout Name and KeyboardLayout ID properties refer to the ID and name at the start of the .keylayout file.

As you can see, defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist AppleCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSourceID still returns the string "com.apple.keylayout.Dutch". Is there a list somewhere of the available com.apple.keylayout values? Is it possible to get such a value for a custom keyboard layout? ’Cause in that case, we could simply override the property.

Also, the AppleEnabledInputSources, AppleInputSourceHistory, and AppleSelectedInputSources properties all seem to ignore the custom keyboard layout, as their values correspond to the native OS X keyboard layout I originally selected when running Setup Assistant.

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Another update: Aha! Seems like there’s another plist file from which we might be able to copy the settings.

$ defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.HIToolbox.*.plist 
{
    AppleCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSourceID = "org.unknown.keylayout.QWERTY";
    AppleDateResID =     {
        smRoman = 2;
    };
    AppleEnabledInputSources =     (
                {
            InputSourceKind = "Keyboard Layout";
            "KeyboardLayout ID" = 26;
            "KeyboardLayout Name" = Dutch;
        },
                {
            InputSourceKind = "Keyboard Layout";
            "KeyboardLayout ID" = 1337;
            "KeyboardLayout Name" = QWERTY;
        },
                {
            "Bundle ID" = "com.apple.CharacterPaletteIM";
            InputSourceKind = "Non Keyboard Input Method";
        },
                {
            "Bundle ID" = "com.apple.KeyboardViewer";
            InputSourceKind = "Non Keyboard Input Method";
        },
                {
            "Bundle ID" = "com.apple.inputmethod.ironwood";
            InputSourceKind = "Non Keyboard Input Method";
        }
    );
    AppleGlobalTextInputProperties =     {
        TextInputGlobalPropertyPerContextInput = 0;
    };
    AppleInputSourceHistory =     (
                {
            InputSourceKind = "Keyboard Layout";
            "KeyboardLayout ID" = 1337;
            "KeyboardLayout Name" = QWERTY;
        },
                {
            InputSourceKind = "Keyboard Layout";
            "KeyboardLayout ID" = 26;
            "KeyboardLayout Name" = Dutch;
        }
    );
    AppleNumberResID =     {
        smRoman = 2;
    };
    AppleSelectedInputSources =     (
                {
            InputSourceKind = "Keyboard Layout";
            "KeyboardLayout ID" = 1337;
            "KeyboardLayout Name" = QWERTY;
        },
                {
            "Bundle ID" = "com.apple.inputmethod.ironwood";
            InputSourceKind = "Non Keyboard Input Method";
        }
    );
    AppleTimeResID =     {
        smRoman = 2;
    };
}

As you can see (AppleCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSourceID), apparently custom keyboard layouts get values like "org.unknown.keylayout.FOO" where FOO is the name of the keyboard layout (as specified in the .keylayout file).

So, to let’s try setting all values to our custom keyboard layout, named QWERTY and with ID 1337 (specified in the .keylayout file):

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist AppleCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSourceID -string "org.unknown.keylayout.QWERTY"

Sadly, this doesn’t seem to work.

Update: @Lri discovered a reliable method — see his answer.

Answer 7

Apple’s response to my bug report, in which I was asking to make it possible to remove the system default keyboard layout if another one is selected through System Preferences:

Engineering has determined that this is not an issue for Apple to address.

Assuming this custom keyboard layout is bundled (.keylayout is inside a bundle like foo.bundle/Contents/Resources/foo.keylayout), then this could be as easy as inserting into the Info.plist's KLInfo_ dictionary:

<key>KLInfo_Qwerty</key>
<dict>
  <key>TISInputSourceID</key>
  <string>com.imgur.stack.keyboardlayout.Qwerty</string>
  <key>TISIntendedLanguage</key>  
  <string>en</string> 
</dict>

If this layout is needed system-wide (i.e. including password input) it could be installed in /Library/Keyboard Layouts/, rather than the same location in ~/Library/.

Please update your bug report to let us know whether this is still an issue for you.

If you have questions regarding the resolution of this issue, please update your bug report with them.

Please be sure to regularly check new Apple products for any updates that might affect this issue. Again, thank you for taking the time to submit bugs. We sincerely appreciate your input.

Answer 8

I have just had success removing the default layout on High Sierra using the following method:

1. Navigate to your Library/Preferences folder.
2. Open the file com.apple.HIToolbox.plist file, either by double-clicking it or by using open on the command line. This will make XCode pop up and it may want to install additional components.
3. Repeat step 2 until XCode is finally showing the file’s structure.
4. Locate the AppleEnabledInputSources node and unfold it.
5. Remove the entry for the layout you want to remove.
6. Save the file and quit XCode.

Now you probably need to log out or reboot to make this final. I had to reboot anyway for some update so that did the trick for me. Now I’m happily typing along in Neo at an agonizing glacially speed but not a single QWERTZ is in sight!

Answer 9

Here is an idea: After making sure the keyboard id of your custom layout is set to Roman, make a custom AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle which contains only that layout and substitute this for the one that comes with the OS. (I don't know myself what is involved in creating a .bundle)

Answer 10

You can use Ukelele to mark your used layout as one that uses Latin script. Export as a bundle, install and then you will be able to delete the US one.

Answer 11

I tried editing ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist, as the accepted answer suggests, but every time I saved it, it was automatically reverted back in a few seconds (my system is Sonoma 14.4 @ MacBook Pro M2). After many tries and fails and a long search, I managed to fix it using this method: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/458984/385704

In case the link dies sometime, here's a brief summary. You shouldn't make edits to com.apple.HIToolbox.plist while logged in to the profile which uses this file. Create another user with admin rights and edit the .plist of your main profile from that new user. Make sure to reboot your mac each time you change users (not just log off/on).

Answer 12

It can be done easily. First change to your custom layout (use menu bar Input menu), then deselect the U.S. layout.