Visual Studio Code waiting for second key of chord. (Ctrl + A)

Question

This happened just today when I wanted to select the whole text of my file. It kept saying:

(Ctrl + A) was pressed. Waiting for second key of chrod...

Here is a screenshot of my select all keyboard shortcuts. How can I using Ctrl + A to select all text.

Answer 1

You have another key binding that begins with Ctrl+A, something like this:

A sequence of multiple keystrokes pressed one after another (rather than simultaneously) is called a "chord".

You might have accidentally created it, or might have recently installed an extension that adds the problematic binding. To find it, do like I have done in the screenshot and type "ctrl a" into the Keyboard Shortcuts search box (that tab can be opened by typing Ctrl+K then Ctrl+S). Then look for a binding that begins with Ctrl+A but has something else after it (in my case, another Ctrl+A, but it could be almost anything).

When you find the offending binding, right-click on it, and either remove or change it. Then Ctrl+A alone will resume working.

Note: This question and its answer pertain to Visual Studio Code, which is different from Visual Studio. See this question for information about the equivalent situation in Visual Studio.

Answer 2

You might be in a situation where you want to keep the chorded keybindings that are causing you the problem with your original keybinding. A potential workaround to this issue is turning your original keybinding into a chord as well. For example, you could having a 'stop' character that exits your chord. For example, "Ctrl+A ." where "." is your stop character.

So if for some reason you really liked "Ctrl+A" as the beginning keystroke for a bunch of chorded keybindings, then rebinding all current "Ctrl+A" keybindings to "Ctrl+A ." would free up that keystroke for any manner of other, chorded keybindings.

Answer 3

I was in a situation where Ctrl+x did not work and was considered the start of a keychord. Every time I pressed Ctrl+x, instead of cutting the selected text, the editor told me that it was waiting for the second key of the chord.

Looking at "Preferences->Keyboard shortcuts" did not help. Searching for Ctrl+X in the list showed that only the "Cut" command was mapped to this key.

I had to edit the file $HOME/.config/Code/User/keybindings.json (under Linux) and search for CTRL+x. It turned out another command was mapped to a keychord starting with this key combination. I am not sure know how I got in this situation.