IntelliJ key repeating idea.vim

Question

I just installed IntelliJ CE and IdeaVim plugin.

One small popup asked about key repeating and if I want to make it enabled. But I just clicked "no" without knowing what it is asking about clearly. But it was about the moving keys: h j k l.

I cannot hold down these keys to move my cursor continuously. I've tried to revert this setting but no luck.

Most answers are either defaults write com.jetbrains.intellij.ce ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false or defaults write com.jetbrains.intellij ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false, but no changes.

I am on OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and IntelliJ IDEA CE 2016.2.4

Zischke

Why go through the hassle of installing a "vim plugin" in your IDE if you don't want to take advantage of advanced Vim motions? – Formerly

@Formerly what do you mean by "advanced vim motions"? am I missing something? – Zischke

Holding hjkl down is exactly the same as holding the cursor keys down. If you only use hjkl there's no point installing a "vim plugin". – Formerly

Possible duplicate of Intellij-idea: auto-repetition of letter keys – Unipersonal

@Formerly You seem to assume Vim is only about navigating, and that OP only uses Vim for navigation. – Jessejessee

if you are confused what Do you want to enable repeating keys in Mac OS X on press and hold? means it means if you hold a key if it should keep pressing it automatically for you. I always expect that behaviour and can't think of a time it's not doing that so I'd suggest pressing yes. If you are to late see answers bellow. – Itinerary

Also, I think that having the navigation right in your home row is still a big improvement over having to move your hand to some random place depending on the keyboard - even if you use them rather naively... – Bismuth

Answer 1

it turns out that I need to type this in the mac terminal:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

This is not related with any of vim, intelliJ, etc. It seems that Mac wants to support accent characters by holding the key.

Zischke

If it's still not working, you should press Command+Q to quit IntelliJ first. – Gaylor

FYI I just installed IdeaVim and the popup says "You can do it manually by running defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled 0" – Administer

After months of pain and suffering, I cannot take it anymore. I had to find a way, and the above tip worked! Thank you so very much!! – Estimate

@aaronpenne's comment worked, not the answer. You should make yours an answer. – Vaios

@Chethan bandi's solution is best if you want this change to only apply to your IDE, not your whole system – Betsybetta

Answer 2

you can enable key repeating per application

for Intellij Ultimate edition

defaults write com.jetbrains.intellij ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

for Intellij community edition

defaults write com.jetbrains.intellij.ce ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

ref https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/206845385-FYI-for-Lion-users-who-use-IdeaVIM

Ignorant

This answer is proper solution since I often don't need this feature when I'm not working in IDE. But how could I find the app name for this command? – Foulup

If you're using PyCharm: defaults write com.jetbrains.pycharm ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false – Betsybetta

You can type defaults write com.jetbrains. in the terminal and then hit the tab to auto-complete. This gave me the following for webstorm: defaults write com.jetbrains.WebStorm – Spray

Answer 3

@aaronpenne's 2020 comment is too useful to be just a comment. His was the only suggestion that worked:

FYI I just installed IdeaVim and the popup says "You can do it manually by running defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled 0"

Gainor

This worked for me. Remember to restart the IDE after running the command for the change to take effect. – Brazier

Answer 4

If you've already set the global value with the defaults write -g command (or JetBrains did it for you), it may be necessary to delete the global default before you can use an application-specific default as noted in this SuperUser post.

defaults delete -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled

After I did that and set an application-specific value for RubyMine...

defaults write com.jetbrains.rubymine ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

...I could use IdeaVim in RubyMine and still use the press and hold accent dialog in all other applications.

Teplitz

Thanks for this, although to get key repeat to work as I desired in RubyMine I set it to false rather than true: defaults write com.jetbrains.rubymine ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false, then restarted RubyMine. – Remunerate

Answer 5

if anyone else was confused what the message from pycharm meant, but lets read it first:

Do you want to enable repeating keys in Mac OS X on press and hold?

what it means is that if you keep pressing the same key it is as if it is pressing it many times (the expected behaviour). That is all.

I might not be a vim expert but I personally wouldn't want the keyboard to act different from what I am used to so I suggest to press yes.

If you are too late and can't fix it do what the other answers suggest e.g.

for Intellij Ultimate edition

defaults write com.jetbrains.intellij ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

for Intellij community edition

defaults write com.jetbrains.intellij.ce ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

Itinerary

Answer 6

I found this gist for various different Jetbrains IDEs:

Credits go to this: https://gist.github.com/lsd/1e1826907ab7e49c536a

    Community Edition IntelliJ: - defaults write com.jetbrains.intellij.ce ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
    Ultimate Edition IntelliJ: defaults write com.jetbrains.intellij ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
    AppCode: defaults write com.jetbrains.AppCode ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
    PyCharm: defaults write com.jetbrains.PyCharm ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
    Android Studio: defaults write com.google.android.studio ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
    WebStorm: defaults write com.jetbrains.WebStorm ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false *
    RubyMine: defaults write com.jetbrains.RubyMine ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false *

Krein

Answer 7

If this command doesn't work defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

Use this --> defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

Restart the app you're using like re-open the vs code etc... and it should be working.

To enable back, set to true again and you're good to go.

Credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVUwif3DWuU

Hornet