I'm using IntelliJ IDEA on my Mac to work on a project, and I keep on coming across an issue where I can't type. Occasionally when I switch to another application and then switch back to IntelliJ I can't type anything, and the cursor doesn't appear on text when I click on things. Does anyone know what causes this? After 1-2 minutes it goes back to normal, but it's started happening more frequently and it's pretty frustrating to not be able to type and have no way to fix it.
This is the version of IntelliJ I'm using:
IntelliJ IDEA 2016.1.3
Build #IC-145.1617, built on June 3, 2016
JRE: 1.8.0_76-release-b198 x86_64
JVM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o
Turn off Vim Emulator from Tools in the IntelliJ, like this picture:
I am encountering this issue aswell, ...
MAC os Mojave 10.14.2, Inteliij Community 2018.3.5
Aside from restarting / clearing caches, I found that cmd + leftShift + F still opens the search window, and all my keystrokes appeared in the searchbox!
After the searchshortcut, I was able to close the searchbox and work again!
The answer here helped me https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/206152119-Can-t-type-in-editor-window
Quoting the author of the answer:
I had the same problem. It goes away after I click the icon at top of
the scroll bar. it happens frequently on windows 7/10, and
occasionally on mac. my colleagues said they have experienced it too
Have the same issue occasionally, can't type in any Intellij windows. My temporary/quick fix, is to:
Close any terminal windows in intellij
Use cmd+shift+f to pull up the search window.
Seems to fix it, for a while.
Closed IDEA, all IDEA projects! Even though in other IDEA windows I could type.
Removed .idea folder in the project I could not edit.
Restarted IDEA.
Then I was able to type!
Maybe you entered Vim emulator as said. Maybe only by mistake :).
Control-V is a frequently used shortcut. And Control-Alt_V is the shortcut to enable Vim mode so you can see the problem...
How to know in five seconds: type a ":" (colon) and if the cursor jump to end of the screen, that is vim. If so enter q to quit and then Control-Alt-V (on windows) to go back to IDEA standard mode.
vi is a powerful text editor since ever. But only if you pretend and know how to use it... There is even a warning on the IDEA install saying like "do not install unless you are familiar with Vim" in yellow bold text, iirc.
[Follows historic data, that you may find boring off-topic or interesting]
Today's editors opens the code in edit mode right away so you can start typing over existing code. Vim by the other hand opens the code in, let us say, browsing mode: there is a set of navigation keys to browse the code. Everything you type is supposed to be a command. When you want to edit you enter INSERT mode and then you can type new text. Only then.
Just for more historic data: vi navigation mode is great for studying code you do not know, using IDEA, since it does not change the text unless you tell it to, and some vi commands are clever.
One example:
"/" (forward slash) is one search command, and "z" is a smart scroll command so that:
/setCellFactory will search for the next match of "setCellFactory" and put the cursor there
Then if you type "z" the code will be positioned so that line is the first on screen. And if you type "." the line will be at the middle. And if you type "-" that line will be at the last position at the screen. And you can use these commands again and again. And new slash will go for the next match, like F3
This "z" thing is a feature I miss in Visual Studio, IDEA, Eclipse, Word, WordPad: these commands to scroll text AROUND a pattern... /pattern, z, z., z-. The alternative is the mouse wheel...
I am used to vi since the 80's and is the editor I still use today on Linux terminals so when this happened to me on IDEA I was lucky to remember and suspect of that on the first time.
Sorry if these details are boring
Ensure you haven't unintentionally enabled vim emulation. Go to IntelliJ Idea -> Preferences and select Plugins. Scroll down and look for the vim emulation plugin and if it's checked, then either uncheck it or uninstall it completely.
Ran into same issue with intelliJ 2017.1.2, but no VIM Plugin. However, I had just created an empty project with some .groovy files. I could edit the files in the groovy project, but not java projects.
Only way I could fix java projects, was blow-away workspace.xml files in each, then I could edit again. However, had to re-create tomcat configs, breakpoints, other IDE settings. etc.
I had a problem with entering characters when working with .story files. When I tried to type in any character, it appeared for a short while and immediately disappeared. The cause of the problem was jbehave plugin I was using. After uninstalling it and restarting IntelliJ everything was fine.
It seems to be because another window has the cursor and is not giving it back.
Check any open floated windows, click on them & then click back to your intellij instance
alternatively, if you have multiple intellij instances open the cursor could be there...
Go to the most recently opened IntelliJ instance
Check if the cursor has become stuck in that project's terminal window, or another window
no? check all other open IntelliJ instances
For me it happened because of vim
Om Mac, I solved it by navigating to File → Reload All from Disk.
Keyboard shortcut: ⌥ ⌘ Y
IntelliJ IDEA 2020.1.4
Try disabling plugins one at a time. It was the "BashSupport Pro" plugin that caused it for me. Disabled it and I could type again right away.
I read other comments saying some other plugins caused the issue as well.
I faced a very strange problem: in someday(I don't really know when) the shortcut
Ctrl+Alt+B stoped working. This shortcut is just Go To Implementation(s). I still can do it by Ctrl+Alt+Mouse1.
I opened settings, to check how is this shortcut configured - all looks fine for me. So I tried to remove Ctrl+Alt+B and add the same combination again.
In Enter Keyboard Shortcut window I have to press key's so the IDEA would be able to set this shortcut. But I cannot record these combination, I still can record Ctrl+B, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B, Alt+B, but not the right combination.
I looked at idea log file, but there was nothing criminal.
I wonder if some other application catches this combination, but I doesn't know how to find this application.
PS. I run my Idea on win7
By the way you're describing it, I strongly believe that the problem is not related to the IDE itself but probably some other program listening for that same key combo in a global level.
Its common to lose some keybinding after installing new applications or drivers. For example, I've lost some key bindings in my IDE after installing drivers for Intel Integrated Graphics. The driver was "stealing" hotkeys like Ctrl + Alt + < arrow > used to rotate the screen.
Double check for newly installed or updated programs/drivers, and make sure that they don't have any shortcut that may be conflicting with your IDE.
Also, you might use Hotkey Commander to verify which program is handling your Ctrl+Alt+B.
The plus / minus signs are gone to expand / collapse regions. The vertical lines to indicate regions are gone too.
The regions are collapsing and all the commands under edit, outlining work fine.
It's just I have to double click on the collapsed region to expand and there's no way to collapse a region with the mouse. Only the shortcut keys (ctrl m, m) or the menu will do it.
I swear it was right this morning but I did something to mess it up. I can't find any option in tools to fix it either.
UPDATE
Now, some files are doing this and other files (both opened at same time) are not doing it. If anyone can explain, I'm all ears.
Press ctrl+, (control plus semicolon) to open the settings. And type Folding Strategy in the setting's search bar. It is set to auto by default. You can set it to always for the controls to be visible at all times, otherwise, it shows only on mouse over.
This same thing happens to me multiple times a day using VS.NET 2015 Pro version 14.0.24720.00 Update 1. Restarting the IDE always restores normal function for a while but the problem always returns, seemingly at random.
UPDATE:
I tried changing the theme from dark to blue and it restored the outlining. I then changed back to dark from blue and the outlining continued to work normally. Still a pain but definitely a lot faster than restarting the IDE.
It happened with me also. One file was just fine and other file (js) was not. I searched it a lot.
Try selecting a method/if check etc and press ctrl+M+H which is short cut for right click outlining > Hide Selection.
You can do it on the whole document as well.
This might be helpful when working on a file which has too much code in it and you are going through different functions again and again. It is painful with scrolling mouse for so long.
You can use short cut for for moving at the start of the method or at the end of the method with the following :
select parenthesis { start or end } and press ctrl+}
Hope this helps.
It works again.
I closed all windows and reopened my code file.
Now it shows the plus minus glyphs again.
I know this is an old post, but I wanted to share a quick solution. if you right click and hover over 'Outlining' and then click 'Collapse to Definition', the widget comes back. Then just press [ctrl] + z to undo and continue where you left off.
With Golang, if the code has some syntactic mistakes that would prevent it from compiling, the language server cannot decide which parts of the code are collapsible, and which not.
Therefore the solution is either switching to the Folding Strategy in VSCode settings to indentation folding, or fixing the syntactic errors.
Simple solution : CTRL + M + O, then CTRL + Z
Thanks to SparrowEatsHawk
I am new to IntelliJ, and am having way too many problems with the editor. For example:
I expect Shift + Up to select text going up, or Shift + left to select text going left, but its just moving the cursor position without selection..
A lot of errors for example "function User(){" when I press enter I expect the other closing curly bracket to go down, sometimes it does, sometimes it just gives an error sound and doesn't do anything...
I am having the same issues even after closing and opening it again, is there a way to fix all these issues and just have normal keyboard keys like in other IDEs?
You can change the keymap in the settings.
I found a lot of tutorials and forum questions around remapping key bindings in Textmate and for the most part I know what needs to be done as far as copy the KeyBindings file and then make the changes needed. More on what I am talking about here http://blog.macromates.com/2005/key-bindings-for-switchers/
I am interested in re-mapping the esc key for nextComplete to control + spacebar. The problem is I am having a hard time finding what the code is for the spacebar or if this is even supported.
I mainly do actionscript development in eclipes and code hinting dialogue is triggered by this key combo and I would like to have the same in Textmate. Hitting the esc key kind of sux. I thought I would get used to it but the fact is that it just kills the flow of typing the rest of your code.
I could use some help figuring out what he code is for the space bar. I know control key is the ^ symbol. I tested this by changing the keybinding to ^s and it remapped just fine.
I think this one can be done with the OS X gui:
System Preferences, Keyboard, Click Keyboard Shortcuts Tab
Click the little Plus, and choose Application: Textmate.app, Menu Title: Next Completion, Type Command Space (or Control Space) and click Add and that should work. You might want to remove conflicting shortcuts - possibly spotlight?
For future reference, I used Key Codes to find the key for space is: \UF20