macOS borrows heavily from iOS, bringing aggressive mobile features directly to your desktop. One of these features is Auto-Correction. As you type an email, a document, or a chat message, macOS constantly monitors your keystrokes. If it detects a misspelled word, it will automatically replace it with what it thinks you meant to type the moment you press the spacebar.
While useful for fast thumb-typing on an iPhone, auto-correct is incredibly frustrating on a physical Mac keyboard, especially if you are a programmer typing code snippets, a writer using fantasy names, or someone who frequently types in multiple languages. Having your Mac constantly overwrite your deliberate keystrokes with incorrect “fixes” slows you down. You can disable this automatic interference entirely.
How to Turn Off Auto-Correction on a Mac
You can disable the spell-fixing engine from the Keyboard settings menu.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your Mac’s screen.
- Select System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS versions).
- Scroll down the left-hand navigation sidebar and click on Keyboard.
- Look for the “Text Input” section and click the Edit… button next to “Input Sources.”
- A new window will slide down. Look through the list of toggles for Correct spelling automatically.
- Click the toggle switch to turn it Off.
- Click the Done button at the bottom of the window to save your changes.
Your Mac will now respect exactly what you type. While it may still place a red squiggly line under words it believes are misspelled (allowing you to right-click and fix them manually if you choose), it will never again forcibly change your text without your explicit permission.