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MacOS Accent Menu Has Disappeared

Last modified: Oct 7, 2024 3:12 PM
55 6086 Last modified Oct 7, 2024 3:12 PM

If the Accent Menu used to type accented characters via pressing and holding a letter key suddenly no longer appears, here are some ways to possibly bring it back:


+Go to System Preferences/Settings > Keyboard and make sure that Key Repeat is NOT set to Off and that  Delay Until Repeat is not set too long. 


+Make sure you do not have Webroot antivirus installed on your machine.


+Open the Terminal App in Applications/Utilities and type:


defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true


and then press return and restart.



For webroot that you can’t remove, try


  1. Click the Webroot SecureAnywhere icon in the menu bar.
  2. Choose Pause Secure Keyboard Entry.


Note: The Accent Menu feature was added in OS X 10.7 Lion in 2011. Some users dislike it and prefer to be able to use long press to repeat letter keys. To restore the ability to repeat letter keys this way, you can use the terminal command mentioned above, changing the "true" to "false".


Even with the Accent Menu active, various symbol keys should still repeat on long press, such as !@#$%^&*()_+{}|:"<>?-=[];'.,/


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