Git Bash won't let me type anything, just shows a blinking cursor

Question

I'm not able to type any characters at the Git-Bash command line; all it shows is a blinking cursor. Git Bash was working fine yesterday, but I'm not able to do anything on it now. What can I do to fix this?

I'm afraid there is little Stack-Overflow users can do to help you... Have you tried closing and relaunching Git Bash? — jub0bs, Jan 21 '15 at 17:49
I have noticed that when you move the cursor, and then move it back to the end of the line, it does not let you type anything until you hit Backspace. — Joseph K. Strauss, Jan 22 '15 at 15:11
Yea i tried to relaunching, rebooting and uninstalling and reinstalling, but it gives me nothing but the black blank screen with a blinking cursor, its so weird. — Jeffery Jones, Jan 22 '15 at 16:44
This oddly started happening to me too. In my case, I can type commands, and they will execute; I just cannot see what I type. — SherylHohman, Apr 06 '17 at 22:30

SherylHohman · Answer 1 · 2019-01-06T11:51:12.643

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I found the answer to a problem with similar symptoms. I'll include it here for someone who finds this page looking for an answer, as I did.

In my case, the cursor didn't move, or show my typing onscreen.
However, it actually executed the command (if I pressed Enter), even though it looked like I didn't type anything in!

The solution was to type reset < Enter >

Turns out it can be an issue for any shell program (cmd, git bash, etc), not necessarily just a Git Bash issue.
It looks like Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Z can occasionally result in the terminal not echoing commands to the screen, depending on what process was running at the time it was killed.

reset restores it.

I found the solution, and the explanation why, at https://askubuntu.com/a/172747/636571

edited Jan 06 '19 at 11:51

answered Apr 06 '17 at 22:57

SherylHohman

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Thanks, this fixed my missing cursor issue when doing Ctrl+C in Git Bash. – thdoan Apr 18 '18 at 09:35
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Perfect! This works. It's been driving me nuts having to load a new window every time I git log (Mintty 2.9.0 on Windows 10) – Nathaniel Flick Aug 23 '18 at 22:12
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can confirm this works on Windows 10 (MINGW64 window). – joedotnot Oct 05 '18 at 14:06
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January 2019, confirming problem as well as solution for `git version 2.20.1.windows.1`. – Koenigsberg Jan 11 '19 at 12:03
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Perfect. The behavior is just as you described. – Mikayil Abdullayev Jul 11 '19 at 12:10

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 16 '18 at 13:01

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I have a similar problem, I can type commands and it will execute them, but I cannot see what I type. And the solution that works for me is to type q < Enter > and it back to normal.

answered Mar 16 '18 at 13:01

Zormi

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I can type q and it shows that letter but no other characters. q < enter> does not fix the issue though. – C.M. Nov 19 '19 at 18:19
I just used q and it worked – Roshan S Mar 12 '22 at 05:05

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '18 at 18:34

I know this is may be late, but in case someone do like what happens with me. because closing visualize window solved cursor blink.

What happened?

I wrote a command -gitk which is used to visualize Git ( Great feature )

Then I tried to use git bash after while,I found only this blinking cursor. I tried many times to reset or even close it; however closing it caused an error so I got afraid of losing my work.

I closed the gitk visualize window and then Git bash restored as usual.

Link to gitk https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Appendix-A%3A-Git-in-Other-Environments-Graphical-Interfaces

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 27 '18 at 14:47

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Kill the server with CTRL+c in the command prompt window.

edited Oct 27 '18 at 14:47

alfunx

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answered Oct 27 '18 at 10:53

Punit Tiwari

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 29 '20 at 03:29

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reset (enter) is the solution for your cursor not blinking.

answered Apr 29 '20 at 03:29

Our Better Life

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score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Feb 22 '23 at 07:34

I use the Tab key to autofill the rest of a command, parameter or the like. However if I double tab on an empty command line the command line is unresponsive but the cursor is blinking as if is ready for input. What is happening is git is running in the background trying to find all the possibilities to list. In my case that turned out to be a lot. After a long time git responded with "Display all 5315 possibilities? (y or n)".

Trying to stop the process with CTRL+C does not work. Trying to close the window (MINGW64 console) does not work. This gives the impression that the shell has stopped working but Git is actually working on a task.

The answer to the question could therefore also be that Git is working but you cannot see this as the cursor is still blinking. In this case just have patience and the Git Bash will be responsive again.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 23 '23 at 16:37

I ran into this today after cleaning the edges of my keyboard. I had hit a lot of keys in that time, numpad, ctrl, alt, shift, function keys, etc.

Then I found myself unable to type. Still worked fine in other programs but not git bash. Restarting it did nothing. Typing 'reset' did nothing. CTRL+C did nothing. 'q' did nothing.

The only thing that fixed it was changing to fullscreen and back (F11 for both). I have no idea why this worked.

score -1 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 25 '19 at 08:16

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Right click on the mouse will show you the short cut. In my case working with git-bash

ctrl + insert to copy

and shift + insert to paste

edited Jul 25 '19 at 08:16

Icarus

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answered May 04 '18 at 13:12

Astro Boys

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Sangeetha M Nair · Answer 9 · 2022-02-15T07:08:35.377

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This worked for me

press:q enter or Close the git bash window and reopen it!

edited Feb 15 '22 at 07:08

answered Feb 14 '22 at 10:26

Sangeetha M Nair

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Git Bash won't let me type anything, just shows a blinking cursor

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