Level 1

27 points

Press and Hold Function for Accents

I can no longer press and hold a key to get the accents box this is very frustrating as I am studying italian please can someone help me?

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), null

Posted on Jan 2, 2018 7:36 PM

Top-ranking reply

rose_10

Community Specialist

Posted on Feb 1, 2018 10:46 PM

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities, myraheather.
If I understand your post correctly, you need to be able to type accented characters. I'm happy to help.
Click the Apple Menu () > System Preferences > Keyboard and make sure that the Key Repeat slider is not set to off. Then follow the steps here:

Type accented characters

To type an accented or alternate version of a character, hold a key down until its alternate characters are displayed.

To choose one of the characters displayed, type the number that appears under the character, or click the character you want to use. If you decide you don't want to type an accented character after holding a key, type another character, or press the escape (esc) key.

If no additional characters are available for the key you're holding, the pop-over menu doesn't appear. The menu also doesn't appear when the Key Repeat slider is set to Off in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences.

Check out the full article here:
How to type accents, emoji, and symbols on your Mac
Let us know if that resolves this issue for you.
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Take care.

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30 replies

myraheather Author

Level 1

27 points

Feb 1, 2018 10:45 PM in response to joão_romão

Hi João

Thanks you so much you are a genius. I had found another way round it using the US International PC Keyboard but you could use the ` accent ok and add a letter but then for the ´ accent you had to press the ` accent then the alt key and then the letter and it was hit and miss if it did it first time. Although Apple suggested it wasn't the update, I updated then went on with my Italian course work and found that holding the key for the accents no longer worked and I cannot think that it could be anything else that caused it. So many thanks indeed and fortunately on my keyboard there is no delay in them appearing. I know it is a trivial thing in the whole scale of things but it also affected my use of an Italian program online which you have to type answers with accents under a time limit which was basically impossible after you had messed around getting them to work. This all works perfectly again.

Thanks again

Kind regards

Heather

Big C 23

Level 1

4 points

Mar 3, 2018 4:40 AM in response to rose_10

I still have this issue and have tried all of the issues in the threat. My OS is up to date and have no other issues. Not sure if related but when I switch the letter repeat to 'off' in system preferences, it doesn't stop repeating. Would have to agree with Heather that this was precipitated by an update. Hopefully you have another suggestion. Thanks

PeterQ07

Level 1

4 points

May 21, 2018 9:41 AM in response to andreacls

I have the same issue. Mac High Serria 10.13.4. One day I suddenly found no more variants showing up when long pressing keys like a, o, e, etc. Have tried all possible solutions mentioned above.

Hope someone else can help or the bug could be soon fixed with the next version of MacOS if it is.

Jul 9, 2018 8:06 PM in response to rose_10

This does not work. Anyway, the instruction is for being able to hold and repeat letters. However, I can not do either; although the repeat is NOT set to 'off' in the keyboard preferences, nothing happens at all when I hold down a letter. Apparently, there is no function for Apple products for adding accents to letters, although a lot of my valukable time has now been wasted with various websites pretending that this is so 'easy' to do.

Jul 10, 2018 8:15 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Many thanks, Tom. The function you mention is not a tool that works for me, as it is not a tool which can be generally applied. Instead, Apple have removed choice; only certain letters can have accents applied to them. It has become apparent that I will have to hunt down a font for this purpose.

Jul 19, 2018 11:18 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks again Tom!! I will try that right now. That's a relief to hear. Interestingly, I've done many, many updates and this is the 1st time it happened to me. Well I'll remember this in case it happens again.

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

123,584 points

Jan 3, 2018 4:12 PM in response to myraheather

If you continue to have problems and need to post again, let us know what version of Mac OS you are really using.

This forum is for the ancient 10.7 while most people are on 10.13 now.

titireal

Level 1

4 points

Mar 15, 2018 7:49 AM in response to Big C 23

I face the very same issues as you. I hope a solution can be found. Thank you.

Apr 20, 2018 2:53 AM in response to Big C 23

I have the same problem in high sierra 10.13.4 now. any solutions found? tsk

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

123,584 points

Apr 20, 2018 6:11 AM in response to andreacls

Have you tried any of the fixes suggested in my post of Jan 4?

May 3, 2018 11:32 PM in response to joão_romão

I have the same problem. Key repeat is on. Yesterday it worked - today, out of the blue I do not have the press and hold function - the letter is merely repeated.

May 3, 2018 11:35 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

I am on version 10.13 - the press and hold function (to type different characters) stopped working out of the blue. I've tried everything, but it is gone now! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

marcoiai

Level 1

4 points

Jun 7, 2018 7:00 AM in response to myraheather

Hi, updated yesterday and lost this resource. I have tried suggested solution, but it did not work.

Old Toad

Level 10

217,860 points

Jul 19, 2018 11:23 AM in response to NorthpointePaul

Try Tom's suggested Terminal command. It works for mé.

Jul 24, 2018 11:47 AM in response to myraheather

I have the exact same problem. Just started today.

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Press and Hold Function for Accents