Q: Lag in Typing in Yosemite's Mail w/ External Apple Keyboard

Update: Nope, changing from "hold for diacritic characters" to "key repeat" didn't do it

Update: I tried the command-line stuff in this very-promising article - http://www.macissues.com/2014/12/15/fix-character-typing-problems-in-os-x-mail/ and the command came back with this:

>defaults delete com.apple.mail NSPreferredMailCharset

 

Domain (com.apple.mail) not found.

Defaults have not been changed.

I tried the "sudo" version of the command, thinking that maybe I needed SuperUser rights to do the delete, still no dice. 

Then I tried the other option that the author suggested, which completed without any message back (success or error) at all:

>defaults write com.apple.mail NSPreferredMailCharset -string "UTF-8"

So I'm keen to hear from people who try this and have it complete successfully -- partly to see if that cures the lag, and partly to determine whether the com.apple.mail domain is just wonky on my machine or everybody's.

I got the same result using the first suggested command.

The second Terminal command suggested completed for me.

I'll post if I notice any changes in Mail's behavior over the day.

I'm pretty sure I never changed Mail's default settings in Terminal though. (I did get bitten by a long-forgotten Terminal setting once.)

I've typed one e-mail after issuing that terminal command, and saw no lag. In fact, I think text display seemed faster even when there was no noticeable lag.

But it's only one e-mail. Will report back after I've done much more typing.

I went to the Genius Bar today and they suggested changing the mail settings from checking mail 'automatic' to 'every minute'.

Maybe you guys can see if that helps. Will also try it here.

Did said genius even know about this?

Mind you, I'd rather use the slow keys trick until Apple patch the Mail bug.  This sounds like a total guess in the dark to me.  At best it would mean (as far as I can see) is that if it stops the delay in between those minutes it would still occur during the time it was checking.  One step forward one step back if like me it takes more than a minute to type most emails.

To be fair, most 'Geniuses' are just as skilled as the average joe here. It is not like Apple Engineers (4th level support). People often confuse the two.

If you are an Apple engineer you also earn 2x the salary.

However, it is still something we can try (we can also set it to 5 minutes, just as long as it is not 'automatic').

I have read all 30 pages here and can't remember seeing this possible work-around, so we can at least all try it and report back.

I have Automatic set in Mail > Preferences > General.

Does everyone here who has the problem have those settings?

I am set for Automatic checking. Will try 1 minute.

I have been set to checking once a minute since forever (at least 15 years), so I don't think that's it. 

Update:  I realized why my

>defaults delete com.apple.mail NSPreferredMailCharset

command failed the first time, and it may fall in the "Good News" category.  If you issue that command, and there is *no* setting for  NSPreferredMailCharset, the command fails.  But I reran that "delete" command after I'd successfully run the "write" version (and thus created that NSPreferredMailCharset entry) and the delete worked.  So I'm starting to get interested in this solution.  I haven't done a whole lot of testing, but the lag has been gone since I set that parameter to UFT-8.  Here are some experiments to run (from the command line).

Issue this command to see what your NSPreferredMailCharset situation is.  I'll show you the two outcomes you're likely to see.

Here's the command you can copy/paste into the command line in Terminal:

 

defaults read com.apple.mail NSPreferredMailCharset

 

Here's the response I get when there is NO entry for NSPreferredMailCharset

 

The domain/default pair of (/Users/blah/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.app le.mail, NSPreferredMailCharset) does not exist

 

Here's the response I get when NSPreferredMailCharset exists and is set to "UTF-8"

 

UTF-8

If you get the first response, the one that indicates no entry for NSPreferredMailCharset, issue this command to create the entry AND set it to UTF-8

defaults write com.apple.mail NSPreferredMailCharset -string "UTF-8"

Now you can rerun the "read" command and verify that NSPreferredMailCharset has indeed been created and set to UTF-8.

I'm still in the "too early to tell" stage, but I haven't seen the lag yet (I turned off "slow typing" as well).

My experience exactly.

It would be interesting to know how many people (who are experiencing the text-display delay in Mail) who try

defaults read com.apple.mail NSPreferredMailCharset

in Terminal get a result other than UTF-8.

Rats.  Lag just started up again -- set on UTF-8.  I'll try deleting the entry (which is what the fellow posted as his first-choice option).

i ran the terminal commands, am now showing UTF-8...and the lag persists. i swear i am seeing it primarily when using the spacebar or return key... (this is, of course, with 'slow keys' off). so am sticking to the slowkeys thing...

Venti:~ kirk$ defaults read com.apple.mail NSPreferredMailCharset

2015-02-05 13:15:00.775 defaults[11757:395882]

The domain/default pair of (/Users/kirk/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.app le.mail, NSPreferredMailCharset) does not exist

So I was just wondering why it's so easy to get fooled by various "fixes." Could it be that quitting Mail and starting it back up fixes the problem for a little while. Maybe that's a clue.

Where's Sherlock Holmes when we need him?