How can I disable the CMD + ENTER Gmail "send email" shortcut?

Question

On a Mac, hitting Cmd+Enter will send the current message (on Windows it is Ctrl+Enter). I’m constantly hitting this accidentally and sending emails before I’m done with them. Usually, it’s because I’m trying to press Cmd+] to indent some text, but the ] key is right next to Enter on my keyboard and I sometimes hit the wrong one.

Is there any way that I can disable this shortcut in either Gmail settings or with a Greasemonkey script/Firefox plugin?

Answer 1

I've been able to resolve this issue by enabling Gmail's "Undo Send" feature. CMD + Enter still triggers sending, but I now have a 10-second window to catch it before it is actually sent.

Send or unsend Gmail messages

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. In the top right, click Settings .
3. Click Settings.
4. In the "Undo Send" section, check the box next to "Enable Undo Send."
5. In the "Send cancellation period" section, set the amount of time you want to decide if you want to unsend an email.
6. At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.

After you turn on Undo Send, you can cancel sending an email.

1. After you send a message, you'll see the message "Your message has been sent" and the option to Undo or View message.
2. Click Undo.

Answer 2

Let's clarify: Unfortunately, this isn't actually possible. However, you can alter other keyboard shortcuts.

There are certain keyboard shortcuts in Gmail that are always on regardless of whether or not you've enabled Gmail keyboard shortcuts (see below). According to Gmail's keyboard shortcut help:

Shortcuts that are always turned on

These navigational and formatting shortcuts all work whether or not you've enabled the keyboard shortcuts setting.

The Cmd+Enter shortcut is one of the Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts that will always be turned on regardless of whether or not keyboard shortcuts are enabled.

You can disable Gmail keyboard shortcuts by going to Settings (the gear icon) and selecting the General tab. About half-way down you can select your Keyboard shortcuts: option and turn shortcuts on or off. Just be sure to click Save changes at the bottom and you should be all set.

If you go to Labs in the settings panel you can enable Custom keyboard shortcuts which should allow you to edit the shortcuts to your liking (keyboard shortcuts have to be enabled for this to work). See answer about this from the Disable some gmail shortcut keys thread.

Answer 3

This happens to me all the time and although is not a solution, now I'm not using the "reply" command anymore, but the "forward" until I'm done with my mail. Then I change it to reply mode.

Answer 4

I wrote a gist that disables the cmd+enter hotkey in gmail (also disables ctrl+enter on windows) in Firefox.

First you have to install greasemonkey

Then go to this gist and click the 'raw' button (or install directly here). Greasemonkey will install the script and you are good to go.

Answer 5

Solution for Safari using Keystroke Extension to intercept the key and do something innocuous:

• install extension from https://sites.google.com/site/solushex/keystroke
• click backwards KS icon (backwards text indicates key filter disabled)
• map Command Enter to something appropriate for you or otherwise innocuous .. say Wrap Text
• at the top of the preferences screen be sure to click the "Save" text then "Inactive" as well, toggling the filter to Active state
• restart Safari
• bickety bam Gmail rocks again ;)

Comment: Some advanced features like excluding keys by domain; untried

FWIW my own need scenario comes from using a lot of JetBrains tools where CMD+Enter inserts a line leaving my cursor exactly where it was on the screen and at the beginning of the new line (coding sweetness). After auto-piloting out Gmail fragments a fix was a must.

Answer 6

On my Mac, this was bugging me too, I kept pasting with ⌘+V then hitting Enter too quickly—the ⌘+Enter was captured and would send the message.

My solution was to simply remap Cmd+Enter keys as follows: Apple → System Preferences → Keyboard, then selected the keyboard section, I then chose something innocuous like "Move focus to status menus" and with that action selected, I then pressed ⌘+Enter (Cmd+Enter).

There may be a more elegant solution, but this works for me.

Answer 7

There is a good way: Include the word "Attach" in your sign. If you try to send an e-mail with "Attach" word without attachments, it will ask you if you are sure, so you can avoid auto-sending. Before sending the e-mail, you should delete the word "Attach", attach the files (if you have something to attach) and send the e-mail. Its pretty strange, but it works

Answer 8

I found older userscripts that no longer work so I wrote my own.

PatrickvEk/disable-gmail-cmd-enter-2024.user.js

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Gmail Disable accidental sending
// @namespace    http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      2024-01-22
// @description  Disable Ctrl+Enter to send, in order to prevent accidental sending
// @author       Patrick van Ek
// @match        https://mail.google.com/mail/*
// @icon         https://mail.google.com/favicon.ico
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

// INSTALL TAMPERMONKEY IN YOUR BROWSER TO USE THIS SCRIPT

(function(){
window.document.addEventListener('keydown', function(e) {
  // Mac uses the Command key, identified as metaKey
  // Windows and Linux use the Control key, identified as ctrlKey
  var modifier = e.ctrlKey;
  // abort if the proper command/control modifier isn't pressed
  if (!modifier) {
    return;
  }

  switch (e.keyCode) {
    case 13: // Enter - (disable cmd-enter to send in gmail)
      e.stopImmediatePropagation();
      console.log("Prevented accidental send");
      return;
  }
}, true);
})();

Answer 9

Blockquote

This whole thing is ridiculous.

I just found out my wife and i both delete recipients before composing because we have both experienced this "accidental send" problem. (And we have undo sendon, bit it is unreliable, as some things make it disappear early)

Gmail needs to let us turn off this keyboard-send shortcut..in my view, this is idiotic. Im spending 10-20 minutes composing an email, i dont need a keyboard shortcut to avoid having to mouse click.