Intellij 14 weird editor/cursor behaviour

Question

I just upgraded my Intellij IDEA to version 14, but I have the problem that my cursor in the editor window is acting "different". It starts of in a sort of protected mode, which looks like the insert mode but it isn't, where I can't insert anything. After pressing some keys like a it changes back to normal except that sometimes it goes in a selection mode and by that I mean if I hit backspace instead of deleting the character as expected it just selects/highlights it. I find this behavior really annoying and I hope one of you can help me.

Additional Information:

Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite
Intellij 14.0

Please ask if i can provide any additional information which might be helpful.

You should modify your question so that it's obvious you're having problems while using the vim emulator. — Stepan Vavra, May 26 '15 at 07:30
@StepanVavra IdeaVim is on by default so he may not necessarily have known that it the cause of his problem, as did I. — DagdA, May 28 '15 at 20:23
@PeadarÓDuinnín That's interesting note. However, in my IntelliJ instance (IntelliJ Ultimate for Mac), the IdeaVim is not even bundled. Nevertheless, my problem with wrong cursor style behaviour is solved here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30452690/mac-intellij-cursor-style-type-does-not-change-stays-as-default. — Stepan Vavra, May 29 '15 at 08:18
@StepanVavra Ah. I had forgotten that I had gotten the Ultimate Edition for free on account of being a student. It may only be bundled with that. — DagdA, Jun 02 '15 at 08:59
As far as I remember, VIM emulation is not bundled by default in Community Edition. — Marcello Romani, Jan 19 '17 at 08:33
Thanks Stepan for pointing that out! I forgot I turned the emulator on and that's exactly what the problem was. — Maitreya, May 03 '17 at 17:18
I just came across this because it's still the same in IntelliJ 2018.2 on Linux. — Rick Vinyard, Aug 25 '18 at 20:49

score 102 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 25 '22 at 21:07

102

Disabling/Uninstalling the ideaVim plugin seemed to fix the problem for me. The plugin description hints that you can configure it via a configuration script in ~/.ideavimrc, which there may also be options to get "normal" behavior with the plugin installed but I haven't looked into that though because the plugin doesn't seems all that useful to me.

edited Dec 25 '22 at 21:07

starball

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answered Nov 07 '14 at 22:01

Jony

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I uninstalled it but the problem is still there. Is it related to os ? cause on my other pc(s) this problem doesn't appear – Arpan Jun 11 '16 at 13:46
2

On IntelliJ 2016.3 the vim emulator can be disabled via Tools -> Vim Emulator – Marcello Romani Jan 19 '17 at 08:58
This worked for me for :- IntelliJ IDEA 2016.1.4, Build #IC-145.2070 – Arpan Apr 08 '17 at 06:09
Why is everyone suggesting that disabling VIM emulation is the answer? Mind blown. – Joao Carlos May 23 '17 at 08:47

score 45 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 19 '16 at 17:00

45

Disable Vim Emulator for Intellij.

answered Apr 19 '16 at 17:00

Prashant Srivastav

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score 27 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 24 '15 at 17:13

27

On the top menu, go to Tools > Vim Emulator

answered Apr 24 '15 at 17:13

Vmetal

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score 8 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 20 '15 at 08:21

8

ideaVim plug in is the problem, disable that and that misbehaviour will be gone.

Mac OS X Yosemite / IntelliJ IDEA 14 CE / us keyboard layout /

edited Apr 20 '15 at 08:21

Opal

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answered Apr 20 '15 at 08:02

Benjamin Papp

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score 6 · Answer 5 · edited May 22 '17 at 15:45

6

If your cursor looks like this:

Go to tools:

Turn off Vim Emulator:

Cursor should go back to normal.

edited May 22 '17 at 15:45

Draken

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answered May 22 '17 at 15:29

Daniel

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This answer is almost as useless as an ice machine in Antartica. So.. you want to disable the whole vim emulation because of the caret? What if i want vim emulation and keep the default cursor? – Joao Carlos May 23 '17 at 08:45
Helped me a lot, thanks! Will never guess why this happened. – skryvets May 15 '18 at 19:40

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 19 '16 at 05:59

3

Settings > IDE Settings > Editor > Appearance > Disable Use block caret

This fixed the issue for me.

answered Oct 19 '16 at 05:59

Amey Shirke

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 28 '19 at 18:09

2

It seems you have entered into insert mode. I have mac and I entered some combination of keys which somehow enabled insert mode. The use block caret was not ticked for me. I found this mentioned on JetBrains thread to get out of insert mode

In short, press on mac to get back into editing mode with the normal cursor

⌥ + ⌘ +  v

answered Jul 28 '19 at 18:09

tausif

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Many mac users would found this post super helpful, I couldn't use my IntelliJ for quite some time because the editor kept overwriting all letters and numbers I typed. After pressing Opt + Mac + v ... it works perfectly fine. Thanks you're saving bill – wahyuagungs Apr 25 '22 at 00:48

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 21 '17 at 07:43

1

Go to the Keymap section of your preferences and add your keyboard shortcut to the Toggle Insert/Override command.

answered Sep 21 '17 at 07:43

Laban Bwire

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Intellij 14 weird editor/cursor behaviour

8 Answers8

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