If input sources are missing, or you can't open certain character viewers on your Mac

If some input sources don't appear in Keyboard preferences, or you can't open viewers for emoji, symbols, or accented characters, these steps should help.

Follow the steps in this article if you experience any of these symptoms:

  • When adding input sources so that you can type in another language, some languages are missing from the list of input sources:
  • The ”Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar” checkbox in Keyboard preferences doesn't stay selected, or doesn't cause the Show Emoji & Symbols menu  to appear in the menu bar or Input menu.
  • The Character Viewer doesn't open when choosing Edit > Emoji & Symbols from the menu bar:
  • Accented or alternate characters don't appear when holding down a key that has such characters:
  • When turned on, the Dictation feature behaves as if it's turned off.

Steps to resolve

These steps remove certain system files that your Mac will automatically replace when needed.

  1. Open the Terminal app, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  2. Type or paste this command in Terminal, then press Return:
    sudo rm /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntlDataCache*
  3. Type your administrator password when prompted, then press Return.
  4. Type or paste this command in Terminal, then press Return:
    sudo rm /var/folders/*/*/*/com.apple.IntlDataCache*
  5. Quit Terminal and restart your Mac.
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