The Autocorrect Frustration
macOS shares a lot of underlying DNA with iOS, which means your Mac includes the same aggressive autocorrect engine found on the iPhone. When you type in Safari, Mail, Messages, or Pages, macOS will automatically change words it believes are misspelled. While this is helpful on a tiny touchscreen keyboard, it is incredibly frustrating on a physical Mac keyboard, especially if you frequently type technical jargon, brand names, coding syntax, or words in a second language. You might type a specific command or name, hit the spacebar, and watch in annoyance as macOS instantly replaces it with a completely different English dictionary word.
How to Disable Autocorrect System-Wide
You can turn off automatic spelling correction globally from the macOS System Settings, ensuring that the OS never changes what you type without your explicit permission.
1. Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your screen.
2. Select System Settings… (or System Preferences on older versions of macOS).
3. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, scroll down and click on Keyboard.
4. In the main Keyboard pane, look for the “Text Input” section and click the Edit… button next to “Input Sources.”
5. A new window will drop down. Look for the toggle switch labelled Correct spelling automatically.
6. Click the toggle switch to turn it Off.
7. Click Done.
Once disabled, macOS will stop replacing your words. Note: If you still want the system to alert you to potential typos without actually changing them, you can leave the “Check spelling while typing” option enabled (which gives you the red squiggly underlines) but keep “Correct spelling automatically” turned off.
Disabling Autocorrect in Specific Apps
If you like autocorrect in Messages but hate it in a specific program, you can often disable it per-app.
Open the app where you want to disable autocorrect (e.g., TextEdit). In the top menu bar, click Edit. Hover over Spelling and Grammar. If you see a checkmark next to Correct Spelling Automatically, click it once to uncheck it. This will disable the feature only for that specific application, leaving your global System Settings intact.