Can't insert Special Characters/Emoji/Symbols to any document

I also still have this problem (El Capitan) and none of the suggestions so far fix it.

• Yes, it's a problem with TextEdit and even Notes.
• Yes, drag/drop work. Prior to reading this thread I didn't even know that was a feature! The only way I could get special characters was right-clicking in the viewer to copy character info, pasting it in, and deleting the text unicode stuff to leave only the character. So I'm happy even though the problem persists on my Mac!
• No, I do not have Webroot installed.

But…comments to this question that have to do with Webroot and Parallels got me wondering about Safari extensions possibly interfering with whatever bit of code manages the Special Character interface. So, I quit Safari and was immediately able to use the Emoji/Character UI for double-click insert.

So, it's something about my Safari setup. But after launching Safari now I can still do the special characters! So, it's something in my Safari setup that gets called later on…

Try quitting Safari and then try double-clicking in the character viewer. Then see if it works after relaunching Safari. Obviously, this is not a fix, but a solid clue to an unsolved mystery… If (when) the problem reappears for me, I will troubleshoot Safari extensions one at a time and report back here.

I've noticed that the Emoji & Symbols dialog appears, but not next to my text cursor, and it doesn't point to where I'm about to enter a character. This suggests that it cannot determine where my text cursor is. This seems to happen is any application window on any screen is in "Secure Keyboard Entry" mode.

In my case, it was iTerm2. I could either hide the iTerm2 window, or disable "Secure Keyboard Entry" using the main iTerm2 menu (top-left, by the apple logo, when iTerm2 has focus). Then the Emoji & Symbols dialog box appears next to my cursor just as expected, and works again.

LEFT: (BAD) Emoji & Symbols dialog window when Secure Keyboard Entry is enabled in at least one application window.

RIGHT: (GOOD) Emoji & Symbols dialog window without any applications using Secure Keyboard Entry. Note how it "points" at the location it is about to insert characters.

To ask Apple to add the feature you want, go to

http://www.apple.com/feedback

Thank you so much! This solved the problem! After I updated my software, I suddenly couldn't get the emojis to work. Now I'm able to add them like I could in the past. I still have to double click, but I appreciate your posting this solution!

Got it finally! From any text field, press the Command, Control, & Space keys at the same time and then drag the Emoji!!!

amandahish wrote:

From any text field, press the Command, Control, & Space keys at the same time and then drag the Emoji!!!

You should be able to do that same thing via Edit > Emoji & Symbols. Did that method not work for you?

Ah, this has been bugging me *forever*, thanks to all the previous answers I was able to make it work:

the way it seems work is if ANY application has "Secure Keyboard Entry" enabled, it breaks the Emoji & Symbols viewer dialog for ALL the other apps. In my case it was both Terminal and iTerm2 the guilty parties.

After individually disabling it on these apps I was able to get the normal behavior back!

Very useful to know, thanks!

After some playing around, I think that this is a bug in the Emoji/Symbol Character dialog. It has two modes and in one of them (the small one), you can see the various items, but double-clicking doesn't do anything, and dragging just drags the dialog window around the screen -- not helpful. To get it to work, I clicked the little icon with the command symbol in the upper right corner of the dialog. It switched to a larger view, and suddenly drag/drop worked though the double click feature still didn't. I'm running El Capitan, so I'm surprised this bug is still in there. Here's an screen snap to help you figure out what I'm talking about...

sloughin wrote:

in one of them (the small one), you can see the various items, but double-clicking doesn't do anything,... I'm running El Capitan, so I'm surprised this bug is still in there.

I don't think it is a bug, just something wrong with your system. On my El Capitan, input from the small version can be done with a single click.

Apple, this is a very Microsoft-feeling problem. What the holy heck were you thinking?

IF you would provide details of your problem, someone can probably help you fix it. Most users have no difficulty inputting emoji.

Fixing it does not change the fact that this glaring bug slipped through QA at Apple, but the description of my problem already exists.

Say, this very text field that I am typing into now... Let's try it. CMD + CTRL + SPACE brings up the emoji/palette... double clicking an emoji does nothing...

Clicking the expanded panel button in the top right corner, and this panel is now working as expected, I can double click emojis and they are placed

Collapse it back down to emojis only and it stops working.

Captain Lardnicus wrote:

CMD + CTRL + SPACE brings up the emoji/palette... double clicking an emoji does nothing...

Which OS X version are you running? On my El Capitan, this works perfectly with either a single or a double click.

macOS Sierra

10.12 (16A323)