after holding a key for a while I can't type until i close and re-open the app

This started happening lately, I am on a Mac OS X El Capitan, v10.11.4.

If I hold a key a few seconds pressed, It doesn't matter which app I am using, I can't continue typing. I have to close and re-open the app, or if it's a browser tab I have to do the same for that particular tab. But the meta keys or key combos continue to work.

I don't recall changing a relevant setting, I checked the accesibility settings found nothing relevant either. I'd appreciate any pointers towards a solution. Thanks.

Solution 1:

Later versions of Mac OS have a feature (enabled by default) where an accents, emoji, and symbols menu pops up when you press and hold certain characters.

The feature doesn't seem to work properly for some folks and the issues being reported are similar if not identical to yours.

The solution, if you don't care for this "special characters" pop-up feature, is to disable it. Use Terminal to enter the following command, press Return, and then log out and back in:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

So far as I can tell, you do not need to disable SIP to do this.