Better Key Rates – OSX

Set better keyboard repeat rates with the following commands in terminal. Before running the commands set your Key Repeat and Delay Until Repeat to the fastest options (System Preferences->Keyboard).


#disable special characters when holding keys
defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

# normal minimum is 15 (225 ms)
defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -float 10.0
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -float 10.0

# normal minimum is 2 (30 ms)
defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -float 1.0
defaults write -g KeyRepeat -float 1.0

Log out and back in and your keys will be blazing fast. Don’t set them too low or you will have trouble using your keyboard to type in your password (trust me, I tried super low values and almost got locked out). If you re-open or adjust your keyboard settings from the system preferences menu, you may have to re-run these commands (so keep this post handy!)

1 thought on “Better Key Rates – OSX”

  1. Awesome tip, I’ve been looking for this setting on my mac for quite some time now. I’m on Mojave 10.14.4. Thanks!

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