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Level 1

29 points

Disable Touchbar or Esc?

Is there a way to disable the Touchbar or at least the Esc key? I keep touching it accidentally and losing my text all the time. That irritates the **** out of me. The same goes for sending unfinished e-mails etc. You have to be really careful while typing to avoid triggering one or another function.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, 4 TBT3), iOS 10.1.1, Touchbar

Posted on Nov 30, 2016 11:54 AM

Best reply

Holger G.

Level 1

14 points

Posted on Feb 7, 2017 1:44 PM

I just figured out a way to disable the Esc key on the Touch Bar:

Download Karabiner-Elements from GitHub: https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner-Elements/blob/master/README.md, install it, and launch it.
Under devices, in the “Modify events from this device” section, “Apple Internal Keyboard” is enabled by default. Also enable “No product name, Product Type 0x8600.” This is the Touch Bar.
In “Simple Modifications,” klick on “Add item” and remap “escape” to, say, “left_shift” (or any other key that does no harm).
Done. (Close Karabiner-Elements.)

If you still want to have an escape key that you can still access when you need it, you can then, for instance, remap “F11” to “escape.” This way, you would have to press “fn” + “F11” to execute “Esc.”

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25 replies

Nov 30, 2016 12:26 PM in response to yvorontsov

You can change preferences under System Preferences/Keyboard/Customize Control Strip. There are severa things you can change. I don't think you can get rid of Esc but you can get rid of the Control Strip by select App Controls. There should be some modification in the future through terminal or UI based to show the regular function row all the time although it can be brought up by presssing the Fn key.

This doesn't solve the Esc problem but someone might have some further knowledge on how to hide it at least in certain apps. Programs that support the TouchBar allow you to customize what you see on the TouchBar from a settings menu from your main Menu bar at the top of the screen.