Disable Sonoma Text Insertion Point ("Cursor" / "Caret")

sonoma-text-insertion-point-downgrade.jxa.js

#!/usr/bin/env osascript -l JavaScript

const App = Application.currentApplication();
App.includeStandardAdditions = true;

const kCFPrefsFeatureFlagsDir = '/Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain';
const kCFPrefsFeatureEnabledKey = 'Enabled';

const kUIKitDomainPrefsTemporaryPath = '/tmp/UIKit.plist';
const kUIKitRedesignedTextCursorKey = 'redesigned_text_cursor';

function run(_) {
  const dict = $.NSMutableDictionary.new;

  const enabled = $.NSMutableDictionary.new;
  enabled.setValueForKey(false, kCFPrefsFeatureEnabledKey);

  dict.setValueForKey(enabled, kUIKitRedesignedTextCursorKey);

  const error = $();
  dict.writeToURLError(
    $.NSURL.fileURLWithPath(kUIKitDomainPrefsTemporaryPath),
    error,
  );

  if (typeof error.js != 'undefined') {
    return `🫤: ${error.localizedDescription}`;
  }

  return App.doShellScript(
    [
      `mkdir -p '${kCFPrefsFeatureFlagsDir}'`,
      `mv '${kUIKitDomainPrefsTemporaryPath}' '${kCFPrefsFeatureFlagsDir}'`,
    ].join(' && '),
    {
      administratorPrivileges: true,
    },
  ).length == 0 ? '😃' : '🫤';
}

@stephancasas that makes sense...

Also, while fighting recent MacOS updates, ha-ha, I've found a marvellous repo with nerd-ish defaults. https://github.com/kevinSuttle/macOS-Defaults

May be, you'll find it useful too! 😉

@aol-nnov Thank you! I'll take a look at this for sure! :)

Loving this! Thanks so much @stephancasas !

Any ETA for the app you mentioned you would write if Apple didn't find any security issues (which they didn't according to your reddit post)? I'm happy to do any testings!

I did the script, I have an
ls -la /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 96 9 фев 17:59 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 96 9 фев 17:39 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 jorj_gizer wheel 272 9 фев 17:59 UIKit.plist

What should I do next? Nothing was changed

@jorjGizer Did you reboot your Mac?

Yes, 2 times. I have Sonoma 14.3.1

@MrRod Not at the moment. I've had some pressing issues with work that needed attention. I'll update the Reddit post and sent a post on X when something's ready to be published.

@jorjGizer Run cat /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/UIKit.plist and please paste the output here.

@MrRod Not at the moment. I've had some pressing issues with work that needed attention. I'll update the Reddit post and sent a post on X when something's ready to be published.

Thank you for your answer, I'll keep an eye on both Reddit and X :)

@jorjGizer That looks correct. What might be causing an issue is the file ownership. I'm not certain, but I think that root needs to be the owner for the file to take effect — such is the way that launchd handles certain property lists, too. Try changing ownership with:

sudo chown root /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/UIKit.plist

I do this and now I have root owner
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 96 9 фев 17:59 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 96 9 фев 17:39 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 272 9 фев 17:59 UIKit.plist

I reboot my Mac, maybe I forgot smth, but I want to hide this.

Hi, maybe somebody knows how to change the cursor to block in TextEdit (mac osX Sonoma). Thanks!

@zdravnick The systemwide insertion point doesn’t offer a block-type presentation style, so a feature like that would need to be implemented in the application itself or in a custom input method.

you're right. But I have no idea how to do this...

Thank you for taking the time to put this together. When I copy it in, I get the message
zsh: event not found: /usr/bin/env
And the caps lock feature still displays.

I'm very new to using the terminal window, and have no real history of monkeying around with such things.

After running this script, nothing happened. Now what can I do?

Hi Stephen,

I am hoping I can get your help with the recurrence of the dreaded thick cursor. I'm happy to pay for advice also. Somehow I inadvertently updated Pages to 14 and it's back - still no horrible caps lock notification, thankfully. I have your original script still in Script Editor and this file in Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain

redesigned_text_cursor Enabled Not sure if it is relevant but the JS script I have refers to kUIKit and file as above is called just UIKit - be grateful for any ideas - the OS is still Sonoma and it's tricky to go back to Ventura as is Apple chip