VIM: disabling the cursor/arrow keys, but only for navigation

Solution 1:

Add the following in your .vimrc file:

" Disable Arrow keys in Normal mode
map <up> <nop>
map <down> <nop>
map <left> <nop>
map <right> <nop>

" Disable Arrow keys in Insert mode
imap <up> <nop>
imap <down> <nop>
imap <left> <nop>
imap <right> <nop>

Solution 2:

You can cycle through the history using C-n and C-p (Ctrl+n and Ctrl+p, respectively).

Solution 3:

The code you have posted should not disable history navigation in command line mode, are you sure you don't have cnoremap <Up> <Nop> or noremap! <Up> <Nop> somewhere? Try verbose cmap <Up> it should show you whether <Up> key is redefined for command line mode.

If when saying «command bar» you meant command-line window, you could try the following:

nnoremap <expr> <Up> ((bufname("%") is# "[Command Line]")?("\<Up>"):(""))