M1 Display All Grey After Screen Calibration

[honkin]

I'm in a real bind.

I used my Datacolor Spyder 5 again to calibrate the display of my M1 iMac. This is maybe the 3rd time I've used it and no issues ever before. I used it on my old workhorse 27" iMac for years without issue.

Long story short, when the calibration finished this time and I clicked save as always, the whole display went grey and black and I now cannot see anything. I mean anything. I cannot see any of the icons down in the system bar to open System Preferences and reset the display. I have tried keyboard shortcuts to open the Display Properties, but again, I can't see anything to make any changes.

I went in to the mac repair place here in Thailand and they said they could wipe everything and start again. Jesus...I can do that. I need to reset the display so I can what is going on

I have tried everything I can find to boot to Safe Mode, but this is also not working, for whatever reason.

So I have an almost brand new machine with some vital data on it I need to access, but am unable to do so. When I reboot, the login screen is full colour, but as soon as the login takes place, it all turns grey and black, obscuring what is open or not and allowing no view of anything

What the hell can be done? I entered the Restore mode and reinstalled Monterey, but it all stayed the same. I can just erase everything as there are some files I really need to get (yeah, I know, but the machine is 2 months old).

Any suggestions gladly accepted as I am desperate.

cheers

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Start up your Mac in safe mode

Starting up your Mac in safe mode may help you diagnose problems with your Mac.

support.apple.com

Going forward there’s no reason to calibrate the displays. Most Apple displays, including the current iMac, are some of the best calibrated in the industry as tested by Rtings and Notebookcheck. Anything you do would be minimal or maybe even worse.

 

[honkin]

Start up your Mac in safe mode

Starting up your Mac in safe mode may help you diagnose problems with your Mac.

support.apple.com

Going forward there’s no reason to calibrate the displays. Most Apple displays, including the current iMac, are some of the best calibrated in the industry as tested by Rtings and Notebookcheck. Anything you do would be minimal or maybe even worse.

Cheers. I know how to boot to Safe Mode, it's just that there is no such option when I go that route. What I mean is, when I hold the power button and get Loading startup options, I then select the volume and hold the Shift key, but the button says Continue, not Continue in Safe Mode. When I click it, the machine reboots to the same normal mode; everything is in colour up until the login screen, but as soon as I login, the display preferences turn it black and grey again. There simply is no Safe Mode option available, unfortunately.
There is a keyboard shortcode to open the Display Preferences, but even if it IS open, I simply can't see it to make any changes.
I have seen certain preferences can stop that from happening (FileVault etc). Thing is, I have not set any such preferences, so it begs the question, who has? Safe Mode should be readily available as it is a valuable tool to aid diagnostics
I think I'll reserve judgement on the calibration of the new iMac displays for a while longer, but I do a lot of video, photography and graphic design, so an accurately calibrated display is vital. I just couldn't trust the display to remain correct for extended periods and rely on anything Apple has done to assist calibration. That's not really what they do. I bought the Spyder a fair while ago and it has always kept my displays spot on, on the previous 27" iMac and now on this, but this is something out of the blue. It's an accurate piece of kit, but something obviously went awry this time.
Thanks again

 

[hobowankenobi]

Sounds like you need to sort out Safe Boot first.

I have done this on at least a dozen M1 iMacs without issue...seems like you are missing something or three is a different config with this Mac.

Have you tried it with a USB keyboard, if you are using the default BT Keyboard?

How about booting to Sharing mode to copy off all critical data? If you can, then it would be safe to wipe and reinstall an OS. Would also be interesting to see if you could delete of move the new profile you created...to see if it would fall back to the default profile.

Could be time to try OS 13 too.

 

[Pressure]

Either you need to SSH into the OS and change the display to the default color profile and then back to the newly created one or connect a secondary display (perhaps use SideCar with an iPad?) and do the same.

I've had this happen a few times as well and switching back to the original color profile (or any other) always fixed it.

 

[USB3foriMac]

Perhaps attach an external display?

 

[honkin]

Sounds like you need to sort out Safe Boot first.

I have done this on at least a dozen M1 iMacs without issue...seems like you are missing something or three is a different config with this Mac.

Have you tried it with a USB keyboard, if you are using the default BT Keyboard?

How about booting to Sharing mode to copy off all critical data? If you can, then it would be safe to wipe and reinstall an OS. Would also be interesting to see if you could delete of move the new profile you created...to see if it would fall back to the default profile.

Could be time to try OS 13 too.

Thanks for your reply.

Not having any luck with Sharing Mode. I mean, on the machine with the issue, I have clicked sharing and selected the drive, it's just the other iMac does not then see the drive which is being shared.

 

[honkin]

Sounds like you need to sort out Safe Boot first.

I have done this on at least a dozen M1 iMacs without issue...seems like you are missing something or three is a different config with this Mac.

Have you tried it with a USB keyboard, if you are using the default BT Keyboard?

How about booting to Sharing mode to copy off all critical data? If you can, then it would be safe to wipe and reinstall an OS. Would also be interesting to see if you could delete of move the new profile you created...to see if it would fall back to the default profile.

Could be time to try OS 13 too.

Incidentally, got hold of a USB keyboard and was able to boot into Safe Mode. It looked worse than normal mode, as 100% black after the login screen

 

[glaze2]

If you’re not on AppleCare, pay the hundred odd dollars and contact their specialist technical support. They’re awesome, and worth every cent.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Incidentally, got hold of a USB keyboard and was able to boot into Safe Mode. It looked worse than normal mode, as 100% black after the login screen

Interesting. I would not think that Safe Mode would have any connection to the profile in the OS. Seems like it is behaving as if it needs a PRAM or SMC reset...except there is not a full SMC reset anymore. I find this for M1:

All the functions the SMC handled are now embedded in the M1 processor. Apple support also said that the M1 chip performs something like resetting SMC. Just shut down your M1 Mac and power on it after 30 seconds.


You could also try Internet Recovery to see if it behaves any differently.

M1 Macs internet recovery​

1. Press and hold down the Power button while your Mac starts as it shows the Apple Logo and makes the startup chime
2. Let go of the Power button once a message appears that says "Loading Startup Options"
3. When the screen loads, click on Options to enter the Recovery Mode window
4. Select the language you want and click on the next
5. The internet recovery screen will now load

 

[honkin]

Interesting. I would not think that Safe Mode would have any connection to the profile in the OS. Seems like it is behaving as if it needs a PRAM or SMC reset...except there is not a full SMC reset anymore. I find this for M1:

All the functions the SMC handled are now embedded in the M1 processor. Apple support also said that the M1 chip performs something like resetting SMC. Just shut down your M1 Mac and power on it after 30 seconds.


You could also try Internet Recovery to see if it behaves any differently.

M1 Macs internet recovery​

1. Press and hold down the Power button while your Mac starts as it shows the Apple Logo and makes the startup chime
2. Let go of the Power button once a message appears that says "Loading Startup Options"
3. When the screen loads, click on Options to enter the Recovery Mode window
4. Select the language you want and click on the next
5. The internet recovery screen will now load

cheers hobowankenobi
So the M1 Mac has been off for a while, so turning it back on saw no changes. Also, had already done the reinstall of Monterey using the internet and it kept the display settings as they were. I thought it would have reset them to default, but that didn't happen.
It's frustrating as up until the login screen, the machine is fine, but as it logs in, it turns grey and black.

I've tried the Share Disk method, but the Macbook Air I have connected it to didn't see the shared drive at all in Network. I'm slowly running out of options
Thanks so much for trying

Either you need to SSH into the OS and change the display to the default color profile and then back to the newly created one or connect a secondary display (perhaps use SideCar with an iPad?) and do the same.

I've had this happen a few times as well and switching back to the original color profile (or any other) always fixed it.

 

[honkin]

Interesting. I would not think that Safe Mode would have any connection to the profile in the OS. Seems like it is behaving as if it needs a PRAM or SMC reset...except there is not a full SMC reset anymore. I find this for M1:

All the functions the SMC handled are now embedded in the M1 processor. Apple support also said that the M1 chip performs something like resetting SMC. Just shut down your M1 Mac and power on it after 30 seconds.


You could also try Internet Recovery to see if it behaves any differently.

M1 Macs internet recovery​

1. Press and hold down the Power button while your Mac starts as it shows the Apple Logo and makes the startup chime
2. Let go of the Power button once a message appears that says "Loading Startup Options"
3. When the screen loads, click on Options to enter the Recovery Mode window
4. Select the language you want and click on the next
5. The internet recovery screen will now load

cheers hobowankenobi
So the M1 Mac has been off for a while, so turning it back on saw no changes. Also, had already done the reinstall of Monterey using the internet and it kept the display settings as they were. I thought it would have reset them to default, but that didn't happen.
It's frustrating as up until the login screen, the machine is fine, but as it logs in, it turns grey and black.

I've tried the Share Disk method, but the Macbook Air I have connected it to didn't see the shared drive at all in Network. I'm slowly running out of options
Thanks so much for trying

 

[honkin]

Either you need to SSH into the OS and change the display to the default color profile and then back to the newly created one or connect a secondary display (perhaps use SideCar with an iPad?) and do the same.

I've had this happen a few times as well and switching back to the original color profile (or any other) always fixed it.

cheers Pressure
I've had no luck with SSH. I have the ip address if 192.168.1.95 and the username when I used Terminal in Recovery Mode on the original iMac shows as sos, but that times out when I try to connect via SSH. The only iPad I have is a seriously old one which I doubt would take sidecar

My wife has a new Macbook Air M2 and I tried to use that as a secondary monitor, but only had a USB-C cable and got nothing there. I assume it needs to be a thunderbolt cable

 

[Pressure]

cheers Pressure
I've had no luck with SSH. I have the ip address if 192.168.1.95 and the username when I used Terminal in Recovery Mode on the original iMac shows as sos, but that times out when I try to connect via SSH. The only iPad I have is a seriously old one which I doubt would take sidecar

My wife has a new Macbook Air M2 and I tried to use that as a secondary monitor, but only had a USB-C cable and got nothing there. I assume it needs to be a thunderbolt cable

Connect it to your TV or ask a friend, neighbour or relative if you could borrow a display.

 

[Mike Boreham]

cheers Pressure
I've had no luck with SSH. I have the ip address if 192.168.1.95 and the username when I used Terminal in Recovery Mode on the original iMac shows as sos, but that times out when I try to connect via SSH. The only iPad I have is a seriously old one which I doubt would take sidecar

My wife has a new Macbook Air M2 and I tried to use that as a secondary monitor, but only had a USB-C cable and got nothing there. I assume it needs to be a thunderbolt cable

Maybe have to put it in DFU mode using Apple Configurator 2 from your wife's MBA:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator-mac/apdd5f3c75ad/mac

Try "Revive" option first.

If that doesn't work you would have to use "Restore". Then migrate from your backup.

EDIT Another thought .....since you can boot to Recovery (since you managed to reinstall Monterey) try Disk Utility > First Aid.

 

[mr_roboto]

cheers Pressure
I've had no luck with SSH. I have the ip address if 192.168.1.95 and the username when I used Terminal in Recovery Mode on the original iMac shows as sos, but that times out when I try to connect via SSH. The only iPad I have is a seriously old one which I doubt would take sidecar

My wife has a new Macbook Air M2 and I tried to use that as a secondary monitor, but only had a USB-C cable and got nothing there. I assume it needs to be a thunderbolt cable

The SSH problem is likely just that you don't have the "Remote Login" box checked in the Sharing System Preferences pane. If it's unchecked, Macs deny incoming SSH connections.

You can't use the M2 Air's display as a secondary monitor for another Mac by just hooking up a cable, even if it's Thunderbolt, so that's why that didn't work.

Something to try: Use the Finder on your wife's M2 Air. Open a new window, click "Network" in the sidebar, and hopefully your iMac will pop up. If you've enabled Screen Sharing or File Sharing on your iMac, you should be able to log in to your iMac through this path.

If you get in with Screen Sharing, you should be able to actually see things. Maybe. My theory is that your issue is simply and only a bad color profile which effectively compresses all colors on your display to gray and black. When you share your iMac's display with another computer, hopefully the image it shares is taken from the pre-color-correction image. That would allow you to select a different color profile.

If you get in with File Sharing rather than Screen Sharing, try navigating to /Users/<your username>/Library/ColorSync/Profiles and deleting the troublesome profile.

Yet another possibility: Do you have a second user account on the iMac? If so, try logging in to that, it probably won't have the same color profile. That could serve as a path to get things working again.

 

[honkin]

Connect it to your TV or ask a friend, neighbour or relative if you could borrow a display.

cheers Pressure
I have a USB-C to HDMI cable, so can give this a try. My question would be, will the tv receive anything if I don't change the display options on the iMac with the issue? I always thought you had to let the host one know there is a second monitor, but this isn't possible due to the unviewable display

 

[honkin]

OK, an update. It took a while, but plugged the iMac into my Sony Bravia using a USB-C to HDMI cable. It didn't work just on the USB port, but then moved it across to one the Thunderbolt ports. It allowed me to see things as they truly were and adjust the display settings. This took literally 10 seconds, but to get here took ages, after trying so many different options.
Thanks so much to everyone who tried to help. I am relieved to have the machine back in a workable state. If I calibrate again in a month or so, I won't be saving the profile, as that was the moment when it all changed...not the actual calibration, but the saving of the new profile
Cheers

 

[Gudi]

I used my Datacolor Spyder 5 again to calibrate the display of my M1 iMac. This is maybe the 3rd time I've used it and no issues ever before. I used it on my old workhorse 27" iMac for years without issue.

You act as if the difference between Intel and ARM iMacs is just a faster CPU. The entire boot sequence and security architecture is new. The graphic cores and drivers are no longer from Nvidia. Every single line of code in the OS was at least recompiled, if not rewritten. Even if your (Late-2015 or younger) 5K iMac already had a P3 color gamut and not sRGB, there’s no reason to expect an old calibration tool would work exactly the same. At best you ruin the factory calibration, at worst you lock yourself out of the computer for good.

 

[honkin]

You act as if the difference between Intel and ARM iMacs is just a faster CPU. The entire boot sequence and security architecture is new. The graphic cores and drivers are no longer from Nvidia. Every single line of code in the OS was at least recompiled, if not rewritten. Even if your (Late-2015 or younger) 5K iMac already had a P3 color gamut and not sRGB, there’s no reason to expect an old calibration tool would work exactly the same. At best you ruin the factory calibration, at worst you lock yourself out of the computer for good.

I act in no such manner. I don't froth at the mouth over Mac like some. The fact is, I have found the M1 to be underwhelming, both with strange performance from some apps as well as pointing and input devices. The "old calibration tool" as you put it, has had software updates regularly at least every year to keep up with ALL manner of new machines. It calibrated the machine fine this time, just as it had 2 or 3 times previously. It was only when the profile was saved that the issue occurred.

You added nothing constructive to the original thread, which was resolved; nothing except being able to get on your soapbox and lecture like you were some guru, rather than simply Gudi

Your comments are not required and certainly not appreciated. The issue was resolved here with aid of kind people looking to assist rather than preach. You'd do well to learn something from those offering assistance in that manner

 

[Mike Boreham]

OK, an update. It took a while, but plugged the iMac into my Sony Bravia using a USB-C to HDMI cable. It didn't work just on the USB port, but then moved it across to one the Thunderbolt ports. It allowed me to see things as they truly were and adjust the display settings. This took literally 10 seconds, but to get here took ages, after trying so many different options.
Thanks so much to everyone who tried to help. I am relieved to have the machine back in a workable state. If I calibrate again in a month or so, I won't be saving the profile, as that was the moment when it all changed...not the actual calibration, but the saving of the new profile
Cheers

Glad you are sorted. It is a very strange story. It doesn't seem to be a widespread issue. It is as if this one profile it made for you was corrupt.

Bit puzzled about your intention to calibrate again without saving the profile. Doesn't the profile have to get saved to be used?

Now that you have a simple 10 second recovery route I would be tempted to try again.

 

[Pressure]

OK, an update. It took a while, but plugged the iMac into my Sony Bravia using a USB-C to HDMI cable. It didn't work just on the USB port, but then moved it across to one the Thunderbolt ports. It allowed me to see things as they truly were and adjust the display settings. This took literally 10 seconds, but to get here took ages, after trying so many different options.
Thanks so much to everyone who tried to help. I am relieved to have the machine back in a workable state. If I calibrate again in a month or so, I won't be saving the profile, as that was the moment when it all changed...not the actual calibration, but the saving of the new profile
Cheers

Good to see it worked (as expected from my experience) 👍🏼

You can use the created profile when you have switched it back from any other profile.

Glad you are sorted. It is a very strange story. It doesn't seem to be a widespread issue. It is as if this one profile it made for you was corrupt.

Bit puzzled about your intention to calibrate again without saving the profile. Doesn't the profile have to get saved to be used?

Now that you have a simple 10 second recovery route I would be tempted to try again.

The color profile isn't corrupted. Sometimes it will do the "screen is black" when applying a new color profile. It's safe to pick it again after you have changed it for any other profile.

 

[Gudi]

The "old calibration tool" as you put it, has had software updates regularly at least every year to keep up with ALL manner of new machines. It calibrated the machine fine this time, just as it had 2 or 3 times previously. It was only when the profile was saved that the issue occurred.

It can still be a bug of the tool, even if it appears only 1 out of 5 times. A third party vendor has only very limited knowledge of everything Apple changed with the transition. Furthermore they have no economic interest to tell their customers that their product isn't even needed or might be risky.

Your comments are not required and certainly not appreciated. The issue was resolved here with aid of kind people looking to assist rather than preach. You'd do well to learn something from those offering assistance in that manner.

Sure, and the very first advice you got from @Sheepish-Lord was that there is no reason to calibrate and that the color accuracy might get minimal better or maybe even worse.

Recalibrating a monitor five times in little over a year can't possibly lead to any better results than leaving everything at factory settings. Not because Apple is infallible, but because the Spider 5 adds much greater risks of failure at every application. You yourself experienced what could go wrong and you still insist on doing it the same way as before. That's why I have to stand on my soapbox and preach. Only because you got lucky and recalibration didn't mess up your display this time around is no good reason to do it again and again.

 

[Pressure]

It can still be a bug of the tool, even if it appears only 1 out of 5 times. A third party vendor has only very limited knowledge of everything Apple changed with the transition. Furthermore they have no economic interest to tell their customers that their product isn't even needed or might be risky.

Sure, and the very first advice you got from @Sheepish-Lord was that there is no reason to calibrate and that the color accuracy might get minimal better or maybe even worse.

Recalibrating a monitor five times in little over a year can't possibly lead to any better results than leaving everything at factory settings. Not because Apple is infallible, but because the Spider 5 adds much greater risks of failure at every application. You yourself experienced what could go wrong and you still insist on doing it the same way as before. That's why I have to stand on my soapbox and preach. Only because you got lucky and recalibration didn't mess up your display this time around is no good reason to do it again and again.

It's clearly a bug in macOS as I use entirely different colorimeters and software.

I don't think you really add anything to the discussion showing zero knowledge on the subject or a solution to the problem. Perhaps your time it better spend elsewhere than to chastise OP?

If you don't think there is a reason to calibrate your monitor that's fine (why bother participating in this topic in first place then?) but for anyone needing accurate color representation for web or print it is crucial for the workflow.

OP needed help, several people chimed in to help, one of them got the problem fixed with a workable solution. You are just here sidestepping the actual topic with your factless opinions.

 

[Gudi]

If you don't think there is a reason to calibrate your monitor that's fine (why bother participating in this topic in first place then?) but for anyone needing accurate color representation for web or print it is crucial for the workflow.

That's not what I said. There is good reason to calibrate a monitor once and for all. Which is why it is great that Apple is doing it so accurately at the factory. But you destroy this very color accuracy by recalibrating it five times a year. Unless you think the colors really change that much over time? If you care about color accuracy, you should avoid things that mess up color accuracy. You may want to raise accuracy by recalibrating, but you likely achieve the opposite.