vim + tmux visual mode not highlighting

Question

When I run vim in tmux, the syntax highlighting works fine except for the visual mode, it works but doesn't change the colors of the selected text, which I find quite annoying.

The problem stays the same even when I switch the colorscheme(I am currently using molokai) I have the option set t_Co=256 on my vimrc My .tmux.conf file is the same as the t-williams.conf example(just added the line "set -f default-terminal "xterm"")

I already tried some solutions to problems related to the 256 color support

any tips?

Answer 1

The recommended setting for tmux is

set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"

and you don't need

set t_Co=256

in your ~/.vimrc.

Answer 2

Make sure your terminal declares itself as a 256 color supported terminal (for example, xterm-256color). This will set the TERM in bash, which is read by tmux, and will automatically set the default-terminal setting to screen-256color.

For example, in the Terminal on OS X you can change this in the settings under the "Advanced" tab. The "Declare terminal as" option: