Tab autocomplete in Visual Studio Code doesn't work

Question

I am trying to enable tab auto-completion with pressing "Tab" button but it doesn't work for me and it always works as Tab character when it is supposed to work as autocomplete. Which setting or shortcut should I enable or disable to have this feature?

With pressing "Tab", I will get this;

PS: Pressing "Enter" works fine and accepts the suggestion and I can disable it by setting the following setting to off.

Don't know if this helps, but you can press CTRL+SPACE to bring up autocomplete. — Peter Warrington
– Peter Warrington, Commented Sep 8, 2019 at 12:29
@PeterWarrington I know how to bring up suggestions. My question is about using that suggestion with pressing of tab button — Reza
– Reza, Commented Sep 8, 2019 at 12:31

d-gg · Accepted Answer · 2025-03-05 15:56:41Z

69

I found I had to press 'CTRL+m' to toggle whether the tab key would...

A) Move focus or
B) perform its assigned shortcut (e.g., autocomplete in the editor and terminal and accept suggestions).

Alternatively, try ctrl+shift+p (opens command pallete), then search and select 'Toggle Tab Moves Focus'.

^{*It doesn't solve OP's exact error, but I came looking here for this answer, and others may, too. :)}

edited Mar 5 at 15:56

answered Jan 10, 2024 at 3:43

d-gg

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6 Comments

Martijn Over a year ago

Thanks this worked for me! I just clicked the "Tab Moves Focus" button you point to and it fixed it (i find clicking it to be easier to remember than the keyboard shortcut).

Chad McGrath Over a year ago

hitting ctrl+m for the android emulator dev tools (accidently in VS Code) was the issue for me

will.mendil Nov 27, 2024 at 11:49

My saviour!!!!!

SuperColin Mar 1 at 4:26

This was the solution I was looking for

Sangimed Sep 15 at 21:56

You're a life saver !

|

Vinoth A · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-08 16:11:43Z

51

Try changing tab completion setting to On:

Editor › tab Completion

"editor.tabCompletion": "on"

Also for HTML/Javascript you could make emmet setting to true

"emmet.triggerExpansionOnTab": true

answered Sep 8, 2019 at 16:11

Vinoth A

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1 Comment

Ade Over a year ago

Neither of these is working for me. editor.tabCompletion was off. When I turn it on it toggles between some options (e.g. div/device) but doesn't close tags or complete anything. Pressing Enter does nothing except enter a carriage return.

engtuncay · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-21 02:39:44Z

3

there may be keyboard shortcut conflicts in vs code. you should check keyboard shortcuts for tab, especially keyboard shortcuts come from extensions. if there is, you should remove it. then it will work.

answered Mar 21, 2022 at 2:39

engtuncay

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Comments

cweiske · Accepted Answer · 2025-01-13 08:39:28Z

2

Open Visual Studio Code Setting.
Enable Tab Completion

edited Jan 13 at 8:39

cweiske

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answered Jul 2, 2022 at 15:40

Maaz Ali

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Comments

Quwaysim · Accepted Answer · 2025-01-23 05:42:45Z

2

What worked for me was to search "suggestion" under keyboard shortcuts and change acceptSelectedSuggestion from Enter to Tab.

answered Jan 23 at 5:42

Quwaysim

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2 Comments

cuetotech Sep 7 at 22:01

This was the solution to my problem. Thank you!

Quwaysim Sep 18 at 17:09

You're welcome

Aindriú · Accepted Answer · 2023-10-24 12:45:57Z

1

Choose an option in the drop down and then try using Shift + Enter to confirm the suggestion.

If that works you can go to keyboard shortcuts in VSCode (File - Preferences - Keyboard Shortcuts) and search for Shift + Enter, you might see something like acceptAlternativeSelectedSuggestion and you could try changing that.

answered Oct 24, 2023 at 12:45

Aindriú

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Comments

Gabe Tucker · Accepted Answer · 2025-05-12 11:39:59Z

1

None of the other solutions worked for me until I tried this:

Step 1:

Ctrl + Shift + P

Step 2:

Select the following:

Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)

Step 3:

Delete the following five lines:

{
  "key": "tab",
  "command": "editor.action.indentLines",
  "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly"
},

How did that line get there? I have no idea—probably a plugin.

Using tab to indent lines will still work as usual; all this change does is remove indenting lines from the "default control override" section, which somehow is blocking the default chain of command from working as intended upon pressing tab and preventing tab autocomplete from working.

answered May 12 at 11:39

Gabe Tucker

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Comments

Shawn Adams · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-01 02:10:55Z

0

For HTML doing both the steps listed by Vinoth on Sep 08, 2019 worked for me:

"editor.tabCompletion": "on"
"emmet.triggerExpansionOnTab": true

answered Dec 1, 2021 at 2:10

Shawn Adams

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1 Comment

Gino Mempin Over a year ago

Please don't repeat existing answers. Once you have sufficient reputation, you will be able to vote up questions and answers that you found helpful. - From Review

Vdoo · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-28 16:14:41Z

0

Control + P -> Terminal:Focus Terminal TabsView ->Click (). Or Ctrl + shift + \

answered Jan 28, 2022 at 16:14

Vdoo

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Comments

Deepak Singh · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-15 11:26:39Z

0

Open Visual Study Code Setting.
Go to edit in settings.json.
Add the below code:-

"emmet.includeLanguages": {"javascript": "javascriptreact"},

Now have a fun 😄

answered Jun 15, 2022 at 11:26

Deepak Singh

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1 Comment

Bert Blommers Over a year ago

The question is specifically about how to enable AutoCompletion using the Tab-button - I don't believe this answer solves that problem.

GCQ · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-12 16:10:09Z

0

In my situation, I was working in a remote environment and my user settings weren't being applied to it (obviously).

This may be helpful to anyone who stumbles upon this question but the accepted answer doesn't work.

Just select your environment and then change the settings there.

answered Oct 12, 2022 at 16:10

GCQ

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Comments

Eric Aya · Accepted Answer · 2023-02-27 11:05:58Z

0

You likely have a Keyboard Shortcut overriding the System default.

File > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
Search "tab"
Look for anything where the Source is "User" that is using a Keybinding "Tab"
Right-click and Remove Binding.

edited Feb 27, 2023 at 11:05

Eric Aya

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answered Feb 27, 2023 at 10:37

Neelesh

1

Comments

egerinik · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-01 17:10:19Z

0

Ctrl+Shift+P
Find "Emmet:Expand abbreviation"
Set it to "Tab" key. Maybe first set it to any other key. Cheсk. If it's work - set back to TAB.

answered Sep 1, 2023 at 17:10

egerinik

1

Comments

Gino Mempin · Accepted Answer · 2024-07-04 12:04:18Z

0

Do this:

"editor.suggest.selectionMode": "always"

Here is the image the VS Code config in settings:

edited Jul 4, 2024 at 12:04

Gino Mempin

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answered Jul 3, 2024 at 18:15

Kathan Jay Shah

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Comments

aleung · Accepted Answer · 2024-11-08 08:39:21Z

0

Well what worked for me is that I went to Keyboard Shortcuts and then in toggle the sort by precedence button on the left side of input and pressed the tab key. Like this As you can see the Accept inline Suggestion is there but its precedence is far lower.

What I did then is

open the default keyboard shortcut json file using Ctrl+Shift+P and typing open default shortcut
search for tab key using ctrl+f
find the one that says accepting inline suggestion
copy the entire object or just copy this

{ "key": "tab", 
"command": "acceptSelectedSuggestion",
"when": "suggestWidgetHasFocusedSuggestion && suggestWidgetVisible && textInputFocus" },

open the keybindings.json file using Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+P (Mac) and paste above JSON into it

edited Nov 8, 2024 at 8:39

aleung

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answered Feb 11, 2024 at 23:20

Hasnain Sikander

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Comments

Bradley Bush · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-17 17:57:04Z

0

If what you or anyone reading this desires is the tab key in VS Code to accept an inline suggestion when one is visible, and otherwise behave like a normal indent, this setup worked for me.

Add these two entries to keybindings.json:

{
    "key": "tab",
    "command": "tab"
},
{
    "key": "tab",
    "command": "editor.action.inlineSuggest.commit",
    "when": "inlineSuggestionVisible"
}

You might already have similar entries in your config; if so, adjust those instead of adding duplicates. But this is the configuration that worked for me.

If you want something similar alongside/instead of this type of inline suggestions, you might need something slightly different. This handles those ghost-text inline suggestions that appear inline as you type.

edited Nov 17 at 17:57

answered Nov 17 at 17:51

Bradley Bush

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