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 ? '😃' : '🫤';
}

@aol-nnov I opted to keep the code instead of going the one-liner route in order to preserve the UI-based privilege escalation dialogue.

Given that a sizable number of users reading this have likely never used Terminal, I anticipated the next question being "I ran the command you shared, but it won't let me type my password."

@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!