Why can't I type the tilde (~) character in Mac OS X?

Question

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?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

Here is 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.

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

Answer 4

With Karabiner Element, 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 is used with both an English and German layout.

Answer 5

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).

Answer 6

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

When you do not know how to type a character, you should try the keyboard viewer in the last tab of the "Language and Text" icon of the preferences panel.

Answer 7

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 ˜.

Answer 8

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).

Answer 9

The best and easiest way is:

1. Shift+` _{Obs.: Between left} Shift _and z

2. Then s p a c e

Answer 10

On my MacBook Air with a Danish keyboard layout, the ~ key combination is alt + ^.

Answer 11

In my case, on OS X v10.9.1 (Mavericks), ~ on my German MacBook Air, using a US American layout, is mapped to Shift and the key directly to its right.

Answer 12

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".

Answer 13

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.

Answer 14

I encountered a similar problem where I had 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 v13.1 (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 menus” to Cmd + `.

Answer 15

In my MacBook (2007) keyboard I get the ~ by combining Shift+` (the next key to the right).

Answer 16

I set up the KeyRemap4MacBook application and type ~ with Shift + escape.

Answer 17

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