Can't Type Tilde character in Mac OS X

Question

Hi this is a new problem that I did not have a few weeks ago.

I have a Logitech Illuminated Keyboard running on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

The problem is that I cannot type a tilde. Instead when I press the tilde I get this character:

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

I cannot for the life of me figure this out, except that I vaguely remember I can asked to redetect the Mac keyboard layout for this keyboard and I think i chose the wrong one.

Now I get this weird character when pressing tilde. How can I fix this? Or how can I redetect this keyboard layout? Thanks.

What keyboard (Input Source) is selected in "Language and Text" in your System Preferences? Of note the character you're printing can normally be inserted using Option-6 (the section character) — Chealion, Nov 02 '09 at 01:57
On some Apple keyboards, a backtick/tilde key is left from "Z", on others it's left from "1" (and the other position is then "§/±"). And there's probably more options here. So: where is it on your Logitech keyboard? — Arjan, Nov 03 '09 at 11:07
Makes me wonder: can you somehow still switch between application windows? (Command-Tab to switch between applications, Command-tilde to switch between the windows of an application)? — Arjan, Nov 03 '09 at 11:24
Arjan: No i cannot command-tilde between windows. The character output doesnt work in any form for me. — Brock Woolf, Dec 01 '09 at 16:56
I'm experiencing something very strange with my Mac and keyboard combo. It's a Canadian-French keyboard. In OS X, the OS insists on priting § and ± instead of ` (backtick) and ~ (tilde). However, inside of my Virtualbox VMs, they act perfectly fine. Totally mysterious behaviour! I gotta swap keyboards, soon! XD Oh, and, I've tried a variety of US and Canadian "language/keyboard" settings. Haven't been able to get the US mapping to work on this keyboard at all, except inside of VMs for some reason! — starlocke, Aug 12 '13 at 20:54

score 29 · Answer 1 · answered May 08 '12 at 11:24

29

On a keyboard with that "<>|" button between the left shift and Z, holding down Shift and pressing that button works on my end. Neither Alt-5 nor Alt-N do the trick on my end.

answered May 08 '12 at 11:24

Teekin

466
1
4
4

Phew, that worked! I'm using a Danish keyboard and US layout. – Dmytro Shevchenko Jun 15 '13 at 21:54
I am using a Dutch keyboard with US layout, and this worked. – qed Jul 17 '14 at 22:19
On Swiss German keyboard with US layout the combination is ⇧+<> – klimat Mar 29 '19 at 21:08

score 27 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 20 '14 at 11:20

27

If someone else is still interested in how to swap the § key with ~, I use Karabiner to do that and it's pretty easy to use. Just look for that option which is included in the default ones among others.

enter image description here

It can also be used to remap other keys if you want. For example, you can use hjkl keys to emulate the arrow keys (vim users will love it).

answered Dec 20 '14 at 11:20

goerwin

371
3
5

+1 This solution worked straight away for me, it is the simplest solution ever, thanks!. On the other hand, using Ukelele didn't work for me, the keyboard layout bundle is not recognized. – Clint Eastwood Jul 28 '15 at 15:05
2

...so 6 years later Karabiner-Elements is significantly different; how do I do this now? – Jason S Dec 05 '20 at 16:21
6

@JasonS, apply this Simple Modification swapping "non_us_backslash" and "grave_accent_and_tilde" keys: [screenshot](https://i.imgur.com/oOkm0tp.png) – arteg Dec 10 '20 at 16:40
1

Don't forget to go to "Devices" menu and activate the "Modify events" toggle for your keyboard, it wasn't on by default for me despite the key modifications – Alessandro Jun 21 '23 at 08:05

score 25 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 16 '17 at 20:15

25

The correct way to fix your problem is to get your Mac to re-detect your keyboard type.

Open your Keyboard preferences (System preferences → Keyboard) and on the bottom left side you will see a "Change Keyboard Type" button.

Click on it and follow the instructions.

edited Dec 16 '17 at 20:15

G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'

7,678
22
41
87

answered Dec 16 '17 at 18:41

Federico JM

359
3
4

7

this should be the accepted answer, and the best for mojave! – Agoston Horvath Dec 13 '18 at 18:03
1

Had the same issue, and this helped! Thanks a lot! – Sergii Bishyr Mar 06 '19 at 10:22
Indeed this is the correct answer. The others are band-aids – Bruce Morris Nov 10 '21 at 00:22
6

This option is missing on Monterey 12.4 :( – Petr Újezdský Jul 15 '22 at 21:10
Thank you! That should be the correct answer as it does not require the setup of extra tools. – AlexHalkin Jan 19 '23 at 16:01
"Keyboard not recognized" using that menu for me in Monterey 12.6.2 M1 chipset – Alessandro Jun 21 '23 at 07:59

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 26 '12 at 12:50

Don't know if you are still reading this but if you download a program called Ukelele, you can make custom keyboard maps.

Then you need to put the keyboard map into ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/, log off and then back in.

Once you have done this you can choose your custom keyboard layout and you will be able to use the ~ key without any problem (I'm using a Logitech illuminated keyboard using the default Logitech-UK keymap that comes with Ukelele and everything works).

score 11 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 25 '18 at 14:19

11

With Karabiner-Elements, it can be done by swapping non_us_backslash and grave_accent_and_tilde keys like so:

I needed this setup for my German keyboard which use with both English and German layout.

answered Mar 25 '18 at 14:19

AndiDog

636
3
10
15

This worked for me - I would never have stumbled upon non_us_backslash - the other option key solutions won't work for me as I use both '`' and '~' all the time. – bloke_zero Jul 20 '18 at 08:47
Funny since Karabiner Elements was the application for me that screwed it up. I had to quit Karabiner Elements to get the keyboard to work normally again. I have not changed this setting from karabiner elements. Of course I could do this and have both working, but I feel that Karabiner should not change this in the first place – Shuyinsama Jul 13 '20 at 05:43

Luka · Answer 6 · 2009-11-03T11:13:16.033

9

Usually ~ character is associated with "n" letter. So you can do ~ using "Option + n" keys.

When you do not know how to type a char, you should try the keyboard viewer in the last tab of the "langage and text" icon of the prefs panel.

edited Nov 03 '09 at 11:13

answered Nov 03 '09 at 11:00

Luka

264
1
5

Protest ;-) There's no "Alt" in OS X. See http://superuser.com/questions/25005/forward-delete-using-apple-keyboard/25022#25022 ;-) (Option-N followed by n or N can be used to get ñ and Ñ. But indeed, Option-N followed by space yields just `~`. Still, Brock's keyboard layout does not match the actual keyboard.) – Arjan Nov 03 '09 at 11:04
Sorry, on french layout the "option" is also co-named "alt" – Luka Nov 03 '09 at 11:12
I edited the answer to take your comment into account. Thanks ! – Luka Nov 03 '09 at 11:15
*on french layout the "option" is also co-named "alt"* -- yes, on my Macs as well, but that's not *used* in OS X. Of course, it's not a real issue (let's get world peace first). See that link I gave for some thoughts on "Backspace" and "Alt". I actually hope that French keyboards have a tilde key as well? I can't live without it, like using Command-~ to switch between application windows. – Arjan Nov 03 '09 at 11:20
Yes, the alt thing is "Linux and Windows" related, your link is very well documented and interesting. Thanks for the reminder ^^. By the way, the French layout and the Apple-French layout are completely different. The ~ is not on the Apple-French : you need "Option + n" – Luka Nov 03 '09 at 11:24
Then how does one switch between application windows on a French keyboard? On other Apple keyboards, one would press Command-tilde. I hope this does not translate to Command-Option-N-space on a French keyboard? – Arjan Nov 03 '09 at 12:14
4

On my layout option + n produces a ˜, which is different to the tilde, which is ~ – Josh Hunt Nov 03 '09 at 12:23
@joshhunt, Your ˜ is http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/02dc/ which on my US keyboard is Shift-Option-N. Using that US layout, Option-N (without holding Shift) does not give me any character yet, but it shows a yellow ~ to indicate I can compose another character with it. Next, pressing N, n, A, a, O, o or space, yield Ñ, ñ, Ã, ã, Õ, õ or ~. (Also, keyboard viewer shows the changed characters after pressing Option-N. Holding down Shift with US Extended changes the character before the cursor, to even create q̃w̃ẽr̃t̃ỹ...̃) I guess things can be very different on some keyboards. – Arjan Nov 04 '09 at 12:41
Try using the keyboard viewer when you want to type commands that use the ~ in the path day in day out - Not an ideal solution. – Brock Woolf Dec 01 '09 at 16:54

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Nov 11 '12 at 11:35

5

On a Mac, tilde can be obtained using the key combination Alt+5.

Let me stress that Alt+5 returns tilde ~, whereas Alt+n returns tilde as character apice ˜.

edited Nov 11 '12 at 11:35

Journeyman Geek

127,463
52
260
430

answered Mar 23 '12 at 14:47

dario

59
1
1

You're right that Alt+n gives ˜ which is not the true tilde, but Alt+5 gives me ∞. I'm using the UK keyboard layout on an American hardware keyboard. – Timmmm Dec 24 '13 at 13:41
1

If you want the real tilde, try Alt+n and then press the space bar...your "fake" tilde will be converted to a "real" tilde ;-) – Clint Eastwood Jul 28 '15 at 15:00
@ClintEastwood ˜ is not ~... – Paul Stelian Sep 22 '21 at 09:53

score 5 · Answer 8 · edited Oct 26 '12 at 12:32

5

What characters you get by typing with ⌥ key, ⌃, or combination of the two (there's also ⇧, remember) depends on which language keyboard you use.

To find out all characters on your keyboard enable Keyboard & Character Viewer in Input Sources inside Language & Text.

With U.S. keyboard type ⇧` (near the left Shift button).

edited Oct 26 '12 at 12:32

slhck

223,558
70
607
592

answered Oct 26 '12 at 11:00

Mantvis

51
1
2

score 2 · Answer 9 · edited May 26 '20 at 00:18

2

The best and easiest way is:

Shift+` _{Obs.: Between left}Shift_and z
Then s p a c e

show on keyboard

edited May 26 '20 at 00:18

Io-oI

7,588
3
12
41

answered May 23 '20 at 10:02

wakedeer

121
2

The answer I needed basically I do shift + > = ~ I got Tilda. Yeyyy – Ani Feb 24 '23 at 20:48

score 2 · Answer 10 · edited Oct 08 '13 at 10:43

2

On my macbook air with Danish keyboard layout, ~ key combination is alt + ^.

edited Oct 08 '13 at 10:43

BlueBerry - Vignesh4303

8,129
22
68
99

answered Oct 08 '13 at 08:44

Leo

21
1

Works with a Swwedish (external) keyboard connected to a Mac Book Pro. – Johan Karlsson Oct 21 '13 at 08:29
Does not work with UK keyboard layout on US hardware keyboard. – Timmmm Dec 24 '13 at 13:42

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 21 '14 at 11:43

2

In my case, on OSX 10.9.1 ~ on my German Airbook using US American layout is mapped to Shift and the key directly to its right.

answered Jan 21 '14 at 11:43

k0pernikus

1,970
8
28
40

Mostafa · Answer 12 · 2022-05-03T20:25:01.140

You can remap using this file

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.example.KeyRemapping.plist

https://chuyeow.wtf/2020/06/24/remapping-keys-on-macos

https://gist.github.com/chuyeow/2ab2d3e6a649389cea58f4d31f7f6d53

You can use this tool to generate the configuration:

https://hidutil-generator.netlify.app/

You just need these two lines in the "UserKeyMapping" section

       {
         "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc": 0x700000064,
         "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst": 0x700000035
       }

This will map the "Keyboard Non-US " to be " Keyboard Grave Accent and Tilde "

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Nov 23 '22 at 12:12

For me the answer was to do the System preferences -> Keyboard -> "Change Keyboard Type" operation in the answer https://superuser.com/a/1277702/501186 - BUT, instead of using the ISO option it suggested, I needed to choose the ANSI option.

Even though I'm in the UK, all my keycaps now reflect the right values.

I'm using a Logitech K860. This never used to be a problem, until my keyboard started randomly disconnecting and I performed a reset on it.

Flov · Answer 14 · 2023-01-09T14:44:52.153

I encountered a similar problem where I have a German keyboard with an english keyboard layout and the window switcher in Mac OS X was supposed to be activated by pressing Cmd+~. However, when I pressed it, it didn't work as expected. While some previous answers in here work, they don't apply to Mac OS X 13.1 Ventura since the system preferences menu has changed. I was able to fix the problem by going to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard shortcuts -> Keyboard and then reset the Move focus to status menustoCmd+

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 30 '13 at 10:53

0

In my MacBook'07 keyboard I get the ~ by combining "Shift" + "`" (the next key to the right).

answered Aug 30 '13 at 10:53

user249952

9
1

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Dec 23 '13 at 07:37

0

I set up KeyRemap4MacBook application and type ~ with shift+escape

setting tilde key to shift escape in KeyRemap4MacBook

answered Dec 23 '13 at 07:37

Maxim Yefremov

1,245
5
16
21

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Feb 02 '15 at 07:59

0

And for those amoung us using a mac keyboard with Spanish keyboard layout, ~ key combination is alt + ñ (the Spanish ñ, instead of n).

answered Feb 02 '15 at 07:59

Fernando San Segundo

1

Can't Type Tilde character in Mac OS X

17 Answers17

Linked