File, Edit, Options, etc. menus don't work on Emacs 23, any ideas?

Question

I upgraded to Emacs 23 a while back and when I did the File, Edit, Options, and other menu options are not available on OS X Snow Leopard. Any ideas how to get them back?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Another possibility is that you are using a Wacom tablet. I have the same issue, and Magnus's response about multiple-clicking reminded me of a problem I had with Wacom and iTunes:

http://accretiondisc.com/blog/2011/07/23/itunes-playlists-dragndrop-and-wacom-tablets/

Sure enough, when I plugged in a mouse and tried the emacs menus, they worked fine.

Answer 2

I had the same problem when access Emacs (the one prepared by Vincent Goulet) through TeamViewer on a remote machine. The menus did not drop down. After the user directly at the machine did it once, I could also use the menus through the mouse on my remote machine.

Answer 3

This problem has been occurring from time to time on my Emacs v23 on OS X installed via Homebrew. The solution posted by nomad worked for me:

However, what worked for me was clicking on the menu a few times. After I did this, I was able to hover over and click the menu items properly.

It seems to be appearing after I open a Python file. The problem keeps coming back though. Every time, tripple-clicking a menu, rapidly, opens the menu.

Answer 4

I just ran into this same problem with the build installed from macports. I don't know why it happens. However, what worked for me was clicking on the menu a few times. After I did this, I was able to hover over and click the menu items properly.

Answer 5

I hit this problem and found the following root cause. I don't have a fix yet but thought I'd post to see if this matches the original poster's issue.

I am using Synergy to share a keyboard and mouse across multiple side-by-side machines. My Macbook is running OS X 10.6.3, and is a Synergy "client". Using the shared mouse, the Emacs 23.3 menus do not work; however, using the touchpad on the Macbook, the menus do work. I'm using Synergy v1.3.1 on the Mac.

The only work-around I've found is to use either the Macbook touchpad or a mouse connected directly to the Macbook.

Answer 6

See here: http://lists.aquamacs.org/pipermail/aquamacs-bugs/2010-April/003909.html

Answer 7

Try executing M-x menu-bar-mode. If that works, make sure that you don't disable the menu bar in your .emacs.

Answer 8

Just a note that you can access the menus in emacs by menu-bar-open F10 by default. This allows you to navigate the menu even when you have opened emacs in no-window mode (-nw command line switch).

menu-bar-open will attempt to open the menu depending on the frame's terminal device. If all else fails it will open the text mode menu tmm-menubar.

You could try F10 to see if the native menu appears. If nothing happens you could make an interactive call to tmm-menubar like so: M-xtmm-menubar. Does the text menu work?

Even if this does not solve your problem it is useful knowledge to help you navigate the menu when you haven't got a visible frame.

Answer 9

The fact that you used "carbon-emacs" as a tag leads me to believe you probably do not have the Cocoa version, which is highly recommended to the point of being the standard GNU Emacs for the Mac going forward. Check here for a .dmg package.