M2 Air display sometimes stays black after waking

[boss.king]

Hi all,

I've recently started having an issue with my M2 Air that I believe to be software-based rather than hardware-based. Sometimes, I'll leave my mac to go to sleep (screen goes black, I think that's sleep, not sure what to call it) and when I come back to wake it up, the display stays black. I can interact with it, get media to play, even plug it into an external display and use it that way, but the built-in display will stay blacked out (but still active) until I restart. Closing and opening doesn't seem to do anything. EDIT: I tired adjusting display brightness from the keyboard too, does nothing.

It's only happened a handful of times in the last few weeks, so I think it might be a bug related to an update, but I can't really find anything definitive online.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there some way to test for the cause short of wiping my computer and starting fresh?

 

[chabig]

Before you try anything drastic, try using the keyboard to increase brightness if this happens again.

 

[boss.king]

Before you try anything drastic, try using the keyboard to increase brightness if this happens again.

That's the first thing I tried, it doesn't do anything.

 

[diego.caraballo]

Hi all,

I've recently started having an issue with my M2 Air that I believe to be software-based rather than hardware-based. Sometimes, I'll leave my mac to go to sleep (screen goes black, I think that's sleep, not sure what to call it) and when I come back to wake it up, the display stays black. I can interact with it, get media to play, even plug it into an external display and use it that way, but the built-in display will stay blacked out (but still active) until I restart. Closing and opening doesn't seem to do anything. EDIT: I tired adjusting display brightness from the keyboard too, does nothing.

It's only happened a handful of times in the last few weeks, so I think it might be a bug related to an update, but I can't really find anything definitive online.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there some way to test for the cause short of wiping my computer and starting fresh?

I have the exactly same issue. I believe this started around version 13.2.1.
I was about to post a new thread to see if someone was experiencing it.
The way that I discovered it (and I can reproduce it every time) is to  > Lock Screen and then
clean up my keyboard. Not sure why, but the rapid-key stroking somewhat triggers this when the screen is locked.
After it goes black, only a hard power off seems to work.

 

[boss.king]

I have the exactly same issue. I believe this started around version 13.2.1.
I was about to post a new thread to see if someone was experiencing it.
The way that I discovered it (and I can reproduce it every time) is to  > Lock Screen and then
clean up my keyboard. Not sure why, but the rapid-key stroking somewhat triggers this when the screen is locked.
After it goes black, only a hard power off seems to work.

At least it’s not only me experiencing it, so hopefully it’s nothing too severe. I’ll try your method this evening and see if I can reproduce it.

 

[boss.king]

I have the exactly same issue. I believe this started around version 13.2.1.
I was about to post a new thread to see if someone was experiencing it.
The way that I discovered it (and I can reproduce it every time) is to  > Lock Screen and then
clean up my keyboard. Not sure why, but the rapid-key stroking somewhat triggers this when the screen is locked.
After it goes black, only a hard power off seems to work.

So I tried your method and couldn't reproduce it, but I'm not sure I'm doing it completely right.

After you lock the screen and clean the keyboard (and press a bunch of keys) how do you get locked into the black display? Do you close and open the display at that point? Or wait for the screen to time out?

 

[diego.caraballo]

So I tried your method and couldn't reproduce it, but I'm not sure I'm doing it completely right.

After you lock the screen and clean the keyboard (and press a bunch of keys) how do you get locked into the black display? Do you close and open the display at that point? Or wait for the screen to time out?

Try the following:
 > Lock Screen
Press the ESC key and then other key to wake-up the display
Press again the ESC key and then another key
After I pressed ESC for a third time it happened, pressing another key didn't wake the display.
I was able to reproduce the issue in this way just now, if you can't, try to repeat the key presses a few more times.

Edit: Not worked a third time unfortunately. But the ESC key is important to trigger the bug.
Try to put a wrong password, press F1, F2, then ESC each time. I don't have a exact formula but I can make it happen in less than 20 second playing with the keyboard and using ESC while the screen is locked.

 

[diego.caraballo]

This is my Console > Diagnostics Reports with the crashes that I triggered just now while trying to find a consistent way of reproduce the issue.

 

[boss.king]

Try the following:
 > Lock Screen
Press the ESC key and then other key to wake-up the display
Press again the ESC key and then another key
After I pressed ESC for a third time it happened, pressing another key didn't wake the display.
I was able to reproduce the issue in this way just now, if you can't, try to repeat the key presses a few more times.

Edit: Not worked a third time unfortunately. But the ESC key is important to trigger the bug.
Try to put a wrong password, press F1, F2, then ESC each time. I don't have a exact formula but I can make it happen in less than 20 second playing with the keyboard and using ESC while the screen is locked.

Yup, that did it. Was able to reproduce three times in a row, once by alternating between hitting esc and clicking, the next alternating between esc and another random key, and the third just hitting esc a few times and not touching anything else. Time to try file a bug with Apple I guess.

 

[Remara]

Glad I found this thread. I’m having the same issue. I had it checked by an Apple specialist and after a bunch of tests it looked like it was definitively a software, not hardware issue.

Perhaps it’s due to downloading certain apps that control sleep, like Lungo?

 

[morhop]

did you install Amphetamine in macOS App Store?

 

[Remara]

No, I used Longo as part of my Setapp subscription. I have since deleted it, but the issue persists. The bug is persisting and incredibly annoying. Also appears to be an issue for a small number of people which makes me think it is 3rd party software related.

 

[boondocks]

Happens to me too on a M2 MacBook Air with MacOS 13.5.1 (22G90). The way I am able to consistently trigger it is:
1. short-press the power button, which brings up the password/lock screen
2. then click on the "cancel" (below the login prompt) which puts the display to "sleep" (black)).
3. Pressing a key or moving the mouse turns the screen back again

I repeat the above a few times, and after a while, on step 3 above, the screen stays black no matter what and a hard-reboot (i.e. pressing the power button for an extended period) is the only fix.

Important:
I can reproduce this even in safe boot mode (which I believe should disable any third party sw/drivers) and regardless whether the macbook power is plugged in or not.

edit:
I could also reproduce this in safe boot mode even before logging in (using the "sleep" button on the login screen as a substitute for step 1+2 above). Additionally it seems to me that over time this issue has been increasing in frequency (especially with the latest MacOS update)

 

[Remara]

Happens to me too on a M2 MacBook Air with MacOS 13.5.1 (22G90). The way I am able to consistently trigger it is:
1. short-press the power button, which brings up the password/lock screen
2. then click on the "cancel" (below the login prompt) which puts the display to "sleep" (black)).
3. Pressing a key or moving the mouse turns the screen back again

I repeat the above a few times, and after a while, on step 3 above, the screen stays black no matter what and a hard-reboot (i.e. pressing the power button for an extended period) is the only fix.

Important:
I can reproduce this even in safe boot mode (which I believe should disable any third party sw/drivers) and regardless whether the macbook power is plugged in or not.

edit:
I could also reproduce this in safe boot mode even before logging in (using the "sleep" button on the login screen as a substitute for step 1+2 above). Additionally it seems to me that over time this issue has been increasing in frequency (especially with the latest MacOS update)

Concerning that this happens in safe boot mode. Would be interested to see if this happens in the Sonoma beta as well

 

[willpoweron]

Try the following:
 > Lock Screen
Press the ESC key and then other key to wake-up the display
Press again the ESC key and then another key
After I pressed ESC for a third time it happened, pressing another key didn't wake the display.
I was able to reproduce the issue in this way just now, if you can't, try to repeat the key presses a few more times.

Edit: Not worked a third time unfortunately. But the ESC key is important to trigger the bug.
Try to put a wrong password, press F1, F2, then ESC each time. I don't have a exact formula but I can make it happen in less than 20 second playing with the keyboard and using ESC while the screen is locked.

I was able to consistently reproduce the issue with above approach with my 13-inch M2 air and the same issue could occur randomly when waking the machine from sleep. I went to genius bar this weekend and I was even able to replicate the issue on their demo machines in the store. They've tried reinstalling ventura and reverting back to monterey but neither worked. A case has been filed to escalate this issue. I am still waiting for the result. If you have found a solution please do share with us. For folks who haven't submitted this issue to Apple, please do so as it may be a widespread defect.

 

[weiyang7888]

My M2 13" Macbook Air sometimes has this problem

 

[diego.caraballo]

I was able to consistently reproduce the issue with above approach with my 13-inch M2 air and the same issue could occur randomly when waking the machine from sleep. I went to genius bar this weekend and I was even able to replicate the issue on their demo machines in the store. They've tried reinstalling ventura and reverting back to monterey but neither worked. A case has been filed to escalate this issue. I am still waiting for the result. If you have found a solution please do share with us. For folks who haven't submitted this issue to Apple, please do so as it may be a widespread defect.

I didn't found a solution yet unfortunately.
I'm waiting for the Sonoma release however, I don't think that this will be fixed in Ventura.

Back in time, when Catalina launched, several Macbook Air and Pro suffered an issue in which the keyboard and
trackpad would become unresponsive after sleep. Sometimes even the Bluetooth keyboard assistant would popup (as if the machine wasn't detecting the hardware). It took almost an year to fix that, so my expectative is low 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[willpoweron]

I didn't found a solution yet unfortunately.
I'm waiting for the Sonoma release however, I don't think that this will be fixed in Ventura.

Back in time, when Catalina launched, several Macbook Air and Pro suffered an issue in which the keyboard and
trackpad would become unresponsive after sleep. Sometimes even the Bluetooth keyboard assistant would popup (as if the machine wasn't detecting the hardware). It took almost an year to fix that, so my expectative is low 🤷🏻‍♂️

I see. I’m afraid that it's a hardware defect for some machines. As far as I know, not all M2 airs have the same issue. I'll post an update as soon as I hear from apple.

 

[oogletoff]

Hi everyone, just registered a new account to share my experience as I'm having the very same issue and have a tried and true way to replicate the problem every time. I bought a Demo model M2 Macbook air base spec from the pre-owned iStore and returned it. They swapped mine out with a different demo unit from their stock and it has the exact same issue straight out the box. So here's how you replicate the fault. simply close the macbook lid slowly (not all the way) until you see the screen go black and immediately open it back up and you'll be left with a black screen. your keyboard will still be lit and if you press Caps lock the green light will still go on. I've also plugged in an external monitor and was able to get a picture and use the mac while the main display was still off. Unfortunately the only way to get the main display to work is to still force shutdown and restart.

 

[sk25]

I have been watching this thread and I figured I’d chime in as well now. M2 MacBook Air belongs to a family member, and two weeks ago they told me about this same issue happening for the first time. It just eventually happens after a random amount of sleep/wake cycles (i.e. closing/opening lid, clicking Touch ID button for either sleep or wake, sleep on idle, etc). I didn’t take a look at it for myself until yesterday, but when I did I was able to reproduce the issue after a macOS reinstallation, after booting in Safe Mode, and after logging into a fresh user account. I contacted support, they escalated the case to a senior advisor. Will post updates after the conversation is done.

 

[diego.caraballo]

Hi everyone, just registered a new account to share my experience as I'm having the very same issue and have a tried and true way to replicate the problem every time. I bought a Demo model M2 Macbook air base spec from the pre-owned iStore and returned it. They swapped mine out with a different demo unit from their stock and it has the exact same issue straight out the box. So here's how you replicate the fault. simply close the macbook lid slowly (not all the way) until you see the screen go black and immediately open it back up and you'll be left with a black screen. your keyboard will still be lit and if you press Caps lock the green light will still go on. I've also plugged in an external monitor and was able to get a picture and use the mac while the main display was still off. Unfortunately the only way to get the main display to work is to still force shutdown and restart.

I was able to make it to fail following your procedure.

 

[AcademicStork]

I have been watching this thread and I figured I’d chime in as well now. M2 MacBook Air belongs to a family member, and two weeks ago they told me about this same issue happening for the first time. It just eventually happens after a random amount of sleep/wake cycles (i.e. closing/opening lid, clicking Touch ID button for either sleep or wake, sleep on idle, etc). I didn’t take a look at it for myself until yesterday, but when I did I was able to reproduce the issue after a macOS reinstallation, after booting in Safe Mode, and after logging into a fresh user account. I contacted support, they escalated the case to a senior advisor. Will post updates after the conversation is done.

Had the call with the senior advisor. They concluded that I should get it into a Genius Bar or authorized service provider since the limited warranty is still active.

 

[halledise]

I have same issue with both Ventura and also Sonoma which leads me to agree that it's a hardware issue.
I have one of the first 2022 M2 Airs.
whenever I clean the keyboard, screen goes blank and only a hard reset brings it back - fortunately all apps and screen restores to how they were.
it must be peculiar to M2 Airs, as a friend with M1 MBPro doesn't have the same issue - unsure about M2 MBPro though … …

ps. doesn't occur when 'waking from sleep' on mine

 

[willpoweron]

I just got an update Apple and they said they had escalated the issue to the engineering team but ETA was unknown. They could not confirm if it's a hardware issue. I am quite frustrated by these updates. If anyone has a solution, please do share with us.

 

[halledise]

it'd be interesting to know if the M2 MacBook Pro of same spec has this issue … 🧐