Question

When I use the arrow keys in vim in insert mode I get letters inserted instead of movement.

• Up produces an A
• Down produces a B
• Left products a D
• Right produces a C

Does anyone know what would cause this?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

If these keys work fine in normal mode, but do not in insert then you must have some mappings to the first one or two characters (normally <Up> is either <Esc>[A (terminals that use CSI) or <Esc>OA (xterm)). Try checking out output of

verbose imap <Esc>

, there should be not much mappings starting with <Esc> in insert mode (I have none, for example). I can say, that with arrow keys working normally in insert mode, using

inoremap <Esc> <Esc>

produces just the same behavior as if you had problems with terminal recognition or had ‘compatible’ set.