Disable the macOS accent picker in VS Code

On macOS, holding down a key shows an accent picker popup instead of repeating the character. Useful for writing, annoying for coding. One command fixes it for VS Code:

defaults write com.microsoft.VSCode ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

Restart VS Code for the change to take effect.

What this does

macOS has a system-wide feature where holding a key triggers a popup to pick accented characters (hold e → é, ê, ë, etc.). The ApplePressAndHoldEnabled setting controls this behavior.

Setting it to false for com.microsoft.VSCode — VS Code’s bundle ID — disables the popup for that app only. Held keys will now repeat normally, without touching the rest of the system.

Reverting

To re-enable the accent picker in VS Code:

defaults write com.microsoft.VSCode ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

Or delete the override entirely and fall back to whatever the system default is:

defaults delete com.microsoft.VSCode ApplePressAndHoldEnabled