Key repeat broken in macOS Sierra

[jdsimcoe]

Currently your script...

defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 0

...does not work in macOS Sierra. I've found that if I set things up here they work great:

Maybe they changed the preference file location or something.

[mathiasbynens]

@lucascaton That’s what .macos contains right now…

[lucascaton]

@mathiasbynens not really, ApplePressAndHoldEnabled is commented out and won't work out of the box 😁

[mathiasbynens]

@lucascaton What makes you say that? It’s not commented out: https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/blob/d6ca39a907123c0a7f874c500ba16cabb3156a63/.macos#L181-L186

[lucascaton]

Ahh, sorry - I was looking at the link mentioned by @gcallaghan previously: https://github.com/gcallaghan/dotfiles/blob/master/.macos#L182

My bad.

[PaulCapestany]

I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.3, and I concur with @lucascaton. The solution to get the fastest keypress speeds all around is to run the following in your terminal (you can copy-paste the below directly, but note it will restart your computer):

defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false && \
defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 1 && \
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int 10 && \
sudo reboot

When I attempted lower int values for either KeyRepeat or InitialKeyRepeat, I kept running into issues where my Mac Pro's 4k display literally wouldn't work at all and/or I had to physically reboot my comp (sidenote: potentially an odd/interesting bug? how/why would keypress settings affect display function?)

[hassankhan]

If I'm not mistaken, .macos already seems to be doing that (minus the reboot), @PaulCapestany

[PaulCapestany]

@hassankhan ah, yup, nice catch.

[KableM]

In Sierra you can unplug and replug your external keyboard in for the new values to take effect, no reboot required.

[atripes]

You can also use float like defaults write -g KeyRepeat -float 8.5

[weisjohn]

a long time ago, in https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/issues/687#issuecomment-236710547 , @mathiasbynens wanted a diff a b on defaults after changing some settings. I did that just now, and here's my diff:

103c103,104
<         KeyRepeat = 0;
---
>         InitialKeyRepeat = 15;
>         KeyRepeat = 2;
10086,10087c10087,10088
<         SPLoggingWindowHideCount = 6719;
<         SPLoggingWindowShowCount = 6720;
---
>         SPLoggingWindowHideCount = 6720;
>         SPLoggingWindowShowCount = 6721;
10091c10092
<         lastWindowPosition = "{{600, 316}, {680, 430}}";
---
>         lastWindowPosition = "{{600, 690}, {680, 56}}";
19897c19898
<                 Age = "8296.247732316";
---
>                 Age = "8402.392134855001";
20007a20009,20011
>                         56,
>                         1076,
>                         1077,
20010d20013
<                         56,
20897c20900
<         "NSWindow Frame Main Window Frame SystemPreferencesApp 8.0" = "1002 257 668 560 0 0 1920 1057 ";
---
>         "NSWindow Frame Main Window Frame SystemPreferencesApp 8.0" = "1002 274 668 543 0 0 1920 1057 ";

@mathiasbynens thanks for your dotfiles, they've continue to be helpful to me for years and years.

[padi]

Leaving an update here. Using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 and it seems like defaults write -g KeyRepeat -int 0 + logout + login now works, albeit too fast.

The scales have changed drastically, as @hkdobrev has previously stated. I've documented this behavior here:

Take note that while the GIF is indeed skipping frames, it really does skip some frames until I stop holding the repeating key. It's that fast. The terminal frame skips seem to happen, but they're more evident in my older MacBook, which means this is probably just dependent on how much text the terminal can handle given the limited resources of the laptop.

This behavior "works" on both my 11-inch Mac Book Air (2014) and my 13-inch Mac Book Air (2017). I've since set it to 1, but it 2 can be comfortable as well since the new 1 might be a little bit too fast for some people.

[ktgvv]

@mathiasbynens You could disable Slow Keys before setting key repeat, like so:

defaults write com.apple.universalaccess slowKey -int 0 # Disable Slow Keys.
defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool FALSE # Disable Press-And-Hold for keys.
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int 10 # Set key repeat triggering delay to even shorter.
defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 3 # Set key repeat rate to even faster.

[hprobotic]

In case you guys found default ./.macos setting is too fast. Here is good setting:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 3
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int 20

[a-x-]

It works for me: sudo defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -float 0.000000000001

W/o sudo it does not work

[ktgvv]

wouldn't've thought to try sudo. Does it work for other broken commands?