====== Disable OS X Spell Checking – Totally & System-wide ======

Tired of annoying "red dots" under every single word because your language is not supported by OS X spell-checker? Here's what to do to completely disable it. System-wide & for ever.

===== Solution =====
With macOS 10.11+ (El Capitan) and later, Apple introduced System Integrity Protection (SIP), with which you simply cannot change anything under ''/System'' folder – that means the original solution does not work anymore.

So there are three possible ways to go about it (I am currently testing #1):

==== Approach #1: Disable spell checking by default system-wide ====
<code>defaults write -g NSAllowContinuousSpellChecking -bool false</code>
Original source: [[https://superuser.com/questions/367533/can-spell-checking-be-disabled-by-default-on-os-x|SuperUser]] and [[https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1mnr461/how_to_turn_off_spell_check/|Reddit]]

==== Approach #2: Relocate spell-checking resources with SIP disabled ====
This uses original solution, but with SIP disabled:

=== Step 1: Disable SIP ===
See [[https://www.r-studio.com/data_recovery_macintosh/System_Integrity_Protection.shtml]]

  - Restart your Mac with <key>Cmd</key>+<key>R</key> pressed.
  - Open Terminal and disable SIP with:<code>csrutil disable</code>
  - Restart Mac

=== Step 2: relocate Spell-checking resources ===

To „sabotage“ SpellChecker you need to rename folder containing its resource files. Simply open Terminal and write down:

  sudo mv /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/Resources /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/Resources.__DISABLED

=== Step 3: Re-enable SIP ===

  - Restart your Mac with <key>Cmd</key>+<key>R</key> pressed.
  - Open Terminal and enable SIP with:<code>csrutil enable</code>
  - Restart Mac

==== Approach #3: Disable spell-checking by removing all languages against which to check spelling ====
See
[[https://web.archive.org/web/20100123201632/http://myrkur.de/thoughts/2008/09/25/disable-spell-checking-os-x/]]


===== Original Solution =====

To disable SpellChecker you need to rename folder containing its resource files. Simply open Terminal and write down:

    cd /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/
    sudo mv Resources Resources.__DISABLED

Original source of solution: [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140711050231/www.chromescreen.com/disable-spell-checker-in-mac-osx-system-wide/|Disable spell check in Mac OSX system-wide (archived)]]

However, with macOS 10.11+ (El Capitan) and later, Apple introduced System Integrity Protection (SIP), with which you simply cannot change anything under ''/System'' folder.


===== El Capitan pseudo-solution =====

  - Go to System Preferences → Keyboard → Text
  - Untick "Correct spelling automatically"
  - From Spelling dropdown, choose "Set up" and select any **single** language you do **not** use
  - Confirm, go back and select "Automatic by language" from dropdown menu

Original source of solution: [[https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2577594?tstart=0]]


~~socialite~~
{{tag>os-x fresh-install howto}}


===== Comments =====

~~DISQUS~~