macOS has a very aggressive autocorrect system. While this is great when writing an email, it is an absolute nightmare if you are using the Apple Notes app or TextEdit to write snippets of programming code, terminal commands, or highly technical jargon.
If you type sudo apt-get, macOS might “helpfully” change it to sudo apt-bet. It might also automatically change straight quotes (") into curly “smart quotes” (“ ”), which will instantly break any programming script you try to run. You can safely disable this automated interference globally across your entire Mac.
How to Safely Disable Mac Automatic Typo Correction
You must dive into the Keyboard settings to disable the spelling and punctuation modifiers.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings.
- Scroll down the left sidebar and click on Keyboard.
- In the main pane, find the “Text Input” section and click the Edit… button next to your Input Sources.
- You will now see a list of toggles for all the automated typing features.
- Toggle Correct spelling automatically to the Off position.
- Crucially, toggle Use smart quotes and dashes to the Off position (this is what breaks programming scripts).
- Toggle Capitalize words automatically to the Off position.
- Click Done.
Your Mac will now behave exactly like a dumb typewriter. When you type a technical command, an abbreviation, or a line of code, macOS will blindly accept exactly the characters you hit on the keyboard without attempting to secretly modify them behind your back.