I’m not complaining about the old keyboards from 2018. Those were terrible, too, but now the software is broken.
If I’m typing in Messages on my Mac, make a typo, and hit backspace, it auto-corrects the word instead of, you know, deleting a character. But that’s not all, it also deletes what comes after my word. It’s just insane that this is happening to me when I try to type on this super-advanced computer in 2025!
Does anybody else experience this? Does it happen in other apps?
But this is just one example of how basic typing is broken, and it seems to only happen in Messages.app.
Another very similar example that is harder to catch a recording of: When typing in Pages, if I start to misspell a word and hit the backspace key, often it will auto-correct to the (wrong) word it thought I was trying to spell, move my cursor to the end of the new word, and only then will the backspace register. I’m a fast typer, so this often leaves me with a mangled word. I hit backspace once or twice, type in the correct letters and hit space before I realize that now my “word” is actually the beginning of one word and the end of another.
Is this like the new AI stuff, where every time I update I’m going to have to turn it off again?
I don’t even mind auto-correct as a thing. What I object to is it autocorrecting when I press backspace. I’m obviously still working on the word, and autocorrecting it only causes problems at that point.
You can use Option and Return to insert a line break or create a new paragraph in a message. According to Apple’s documentation, Shift and Return also does the same from macOS Monterey onwards:
Unfortunately, this is common for most messaging apps these days, and for quite a lot of social media sites.
Sometimes, you can configure them to let Return insert a newline and require Ctrl-Return or Cmd-Return to send, but in many cases (including the current version of Messages, it seems), you don’t have a choice.
I’ve had to get into the habit of typing Shift-Return in order to not accidentally send incomplete messages. Which I really don’t like. Especially because the muscle-memory contradicts Microsoft Office apps (where Return starts a new paragraph and Shift-Return starts a new line within the current paragraph).
So far, it doesn’t appear to be the case. I turned this off a long time ago, back when all the system settings were in completely different places and it hasn’t turned itself on again since then.
I agree that Shift-return and Option-return are the supported commands for new line in messages, but Control-return also works on my MacBook Pro M4Max (15.4) – I don’t know why, but I once used it by accident and it works.
That has been my experience, too. I’d be happy to have that configuration option appear in Messages, but am not expecting it. As it is, unless it’s a very brief message I generally either use voice recognition where “New Paragraph” works correction, or type it out in BBEdit so I don’t send an incomplete message.
I’ve had autocorrect turned off system-wide via System Settings for a very long time on my Mac. After setting it years ago, I don’t recall it ever being activated without my knowledge or permission.
I think something else may be going on with your computer. I turned on spelling correction to see if I could reproduce your issue in Messages. Typing flabulous would bring up the suggested correction, but when I hit backspace, it just deleted the last character as I would expect.
Like the others who posted here, I turned off spelling correction because it would often not recognize a correctly spelled word and try to helpfully correct it to the wrong word.
I started turning off autocorrect everywhere as soon as I discovered it was changing technical terms and abbreviations to make them wrong. Rembmber that whoever is reading what you write is going to think you wrote any mistakes the software makes, and that can be embarrassing depending on who you are writing to.
I don’t use Message, and I notice that social media like Discord which use RETURN as SEND usually carry only short messages that normally would not be more than one paragraph. Nonetheless it’s annoying.
I’m running macOS 15.4. I didn’t have the blank line and text in my earlier test, but when I tried it now with those present, it still only deleted the last character typed in both Pages and Messages.
Respectfully, you are using a texting medium. It’s not intended for multiple paragraphs and divisions between them. But if you insist on writing in long form for texting, then do what makes more sense: Open the Notes app and write it there. (It’s not wise to spend a lot of time writing in the messages app anyways. It’s too easily ‘lost’ if a phone call comes in, or some so odd glitch happens. Yes, it happens. I’ve seen it many times.)
It’s a recurring issue for me. I finally disabled “Correct spelling automatically” in the Accessibility settings. Additionally, I’ve become more reliant on voice dictation due to the difficulty of typing. I purchased a $200 Magic keyboard with black keys and white letters, but unfortunately, some of the keys are flaking away. To address this issue, I bought a silicone keyboard cover, which has only made typing even more challenging.
