Leopard “Repeating Text” Glitch Has Me Pulling Hair and Running Over Pedestrians

Posted on February 14th, 2008 Posted by Kent Pribbernow

For the past two weeks I have been struggling with a problem in Leopard that has slowly become a cancer eating away at my nerves, as well as my operating system. It all started, oddly enough, when I installed an update to Journler, a popular life management tool for entering personal information and daily tasks.

Soon after installing this update, I noticed a bizarre text input error occur in various applications throughout my system; as I type, previously entered characters and words are repeated wherever I’m currently typing (see screenshot). So, for example, if I am attempting to enter the word “Hello” in a blank field, what I get is “HeHeHeHeHeHeHelHelHelHelHelHellHellHellHellHelloHelloHelloHello”. Even hitting the backspace key (Delete) produces text rather than backspacing as it should.

The problem occurs mostly in Address Book, rendering it useless. So much to the point that I can no longer use it for managing my contacts and must rely instead on web-based entry in .Mac or entering them manually on my iPhone. It turns out I’m not alone. I came across this thread in Apple’s support forum outlining the same problem, and under the same mitigating circumstances.

I’ve communicated with Journler’s developer, Phil Dow, who assures me that in no way is it technically possible for his product to have been a catalyst to this problem, which leaves only one other possible culprit; Leopard. I’ve searched high and low but have yet to find some semblance of a solution.

If anyone knows of a possible fix or workaround, I would love to hear it.

[UPDATE] Problem solved.