Emacs move between split windows not C+x 0

Question

If I move between split windows as in this SO answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/4671868/461887

C-x o

It closes the left hand side buffer/split when doing this. I just want to hop between the splits not close the current split.

How do I do this?

Answer 1

Make sure you are hitting the letter 'o', not the number 0. 0 will close the current window, and 'o' will switch to other window. ('window' in emacs terminology is what you are referring to as a 'buffer' or 'split')

If that doesn't work, try loading emacs with '-q' at the command line which will disable loading of any customizations in your initialization file that might be interfering with emacs' default keybindings.

emacs -q

You can also try C-h b which will pop up a buffer which describes all of your keybindings - search this for C-x o to see what it is bound to.

Answer 2

C-x o It should not close any window, by default.

What does C-h k C-x o say that key is bound to? Can you see what, in your init file binds that command?

If not then recursively bisect your init file to find out what you are doing that causes the closing-window behavior you do not like.

You can use comment-region to comment out 1/2 of your init file, then 3/4, 7/8, 15/16,... until you have narrowed it down to the culprit. You can use C-u with comment-region to uncomment.