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I just opened my new Retina Display MacBook Pro and everything worked fine, but when I tried to go into System Preferences to make the key repeat speed faster, none of the keys repeated, not even numbers and symbols.

If I type defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false into terminal, it works, but it disables the accented key popup when holding down keys such as A and E, which I use often.

This worked perfectly on my old 2009 MacBook Pro that was running 10.7.4. I have restarted this computer and reset the key repeat speed, but have still had no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  • I have the same issue and I tried changing both repeat speed and delay until repeat speed.
    – Michael Durrant
    Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 21:12

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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It probably wouldn't help, but you could try changing the keys directly in ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist or ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/.GlobalPreferences.*.plist.

defaults write -g KeyRepeat -int 2
defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -int 15
defaults -currentHost write -g KeyRepeat -int 2
defaults -currentHost write -g InitialKeyRepeat -int 15

2 and 15 are the fastest settings shown in System Preferences. The changes aren't applied until you log out and back in.

The file in the ByHost folder doesn't normally have keys for the settings, but it has precedence over the normal .GlobalPreferences.plist.

You can remove the keys with the delete subcommand:

defaults delete -g KeyRepeat
defaults delete -g InitialKeyRepeat
defaults -currentHost delete -g KeyRepeat
defaults -currentHost delete -g InitialKeyRepeat
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