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I just bought a MacBook Air M1 and Ultrafine 4k display yesterday because I got tired of waiting for the new iMacs. I love this display, but I'm having the problem described here. Regardless of whether I put it to sleep manually or it sleeps on its own, it will not wake up the display. I have to open and close the lid. Every. Single. Time.

Setting it to not sleep isn't an acceptable solution for me, so I'll probably just have to return it and continue waiting for the new iMac.

Strangely mine is working now. Maybe threatening to return it fixed it! :)

I did switch to a Belkin TB3 cable rather than the one that came with the display, but I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it. But now if I just hit a key on my keyboard a couple times the display wakes up. Mouse movement still won't wake it, though.
 
This happens to me many times, and kinda forces me to not use sleep feature anymore.
And it’s not only M1, but MBP16”, Intel Mac Mini as well as M1.
The most frustrating is this happens sometimes, and sometimes it’s ok.
In addition, my M1 Mini when goes sleep forces my 27uh88 to turn on and off on and off while M1 mini is asleep.

Only screen that functions as intended when wake up is built in screen like 16” MBP screen and iMac screen.
 
Just as an aside, I get this but only when I'm using two displays. If I just have one connected, by thunderbolt-to-Display-Port, I never have any issues. That may help track it down...
 
...
...In addition, my M1 Mini when goes sleep forces my 27uh88 to turn on and off on and off while M1 mini is asleep...

I have this problem also. SUPER ANNOYING. I can't use sleep either because mine wakes itself up every few minutes. I've ruled out any network requests or sleep/wake settings, nothing plugged in except one hub with a drive plugged into it and it turns on and off when my M1 Mini is asleep.
Logs don't show anything happening before it wakes up, it just wakes then goes back to sleep after a few minutes. Off, on, off, on.....
 
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Some customers who have purchased an M1 Mac mini have been experiencing an issue that causes the machine not to wake a connected third-party display from sleep.

m1-mac-mini-vignette.jpg-feature.jpg

This is not an issue that's affecting all M1 Mac mini owners, but there are numerous complaints on the MacRumors forums and the Apple Support Communities dating back to November when the Mac mini was first released. MacRumors reader gooimac explains:MacRumors reader Mike, who emailed us about the issue, has seen the same problems.This issue appears to be affecting a wide range of displays that connect over Thunderbolt, HDMI, and DisplayPort adapters, but there are also plenty of people who are having no issues at all.

It's not clear what the problem is, but Apple has been looking into one M1 Mac mini display issue that causes strange pink squares to appear on displays connected to one of the machines.

Apple is aware of the issue, and there could be a fix in the works that's coming in a future update. One solution for now may be to disable the feature that puts the Mac mini to sleep, but that's not ideal. The other solution is to unplug and replug in a display that's not responding after a Mac mini wakes from sleep, but that too is an inelegant solution. There appears to be no other fix available at this time.

Article Link: M1 Mac Mini Won't Wake Connected Displays, Some Owners Complain
So far the display handling on the M1 is the only real big flaw. I use a external 4K display with a DP KVM switch and my M1-air really sucks. It is about 10 times as slow as my i7 mac mini, it even so slow that my quite slow display think no one is there and go to power save. And the software (bigsur) is a real disaster for external displays. It wont accept to the work as a being desktop. It ****up it's wake, it got narcolepsy or something. So it is a bidirectional problem. Both when the display wake the the computer or the computer wake the display. Both works very very poor. It's so poor that I dont think it is compatible with DisplayPort nor HDMI.
 
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As someone with an M1 MacBook Air, seems Apple is taking their sweet time at fixing these display issues.
Well, it might be a hardware issue. Apple seems not to acknowledge this issue indicate that is a hardware issue and might be very costly for apple to fix.
 
So far the display handling on the M1 is the only real big flaw. I use a external 4K display with a DP KVM switch and my M1-air really sucks. It is about 10 times as slow as my i7 mac mini, it even so slow that my quite slow display think no one is there and go to power save. And the software (bigsur) is a real disaster for external displays. It wont accept to the work as a being desktop. It ****up it's wake, it got narcolepsy or something. So it is a bidirectional problem. Both when the display wake the the computer or the computer wake the display. Both works very very poor. It's so poor that I dont think it is compatible with DisplayPort nor HDMI.
Has toggling the KVM switch a similar effect as unplugging (& repluging) the display or do you also have unplug the monitor to get things working?
 
I had this problem and eventually fixed it with a new HDMI cable. I tried several cheap I had laying about, then a TB3 to hdmi then shelled out on a good quality HDMI cable and the problem went away. My display (very cheap 32” 4K) usually takes a second or two to wake after the Mac (M1 Mini) but always does now.
 
Maybe this is why Apple doesn’t want to make a branded monitor for the masses? They know they would then be 100% responsible...

I wonder if it’s a conflict with the energy saving settings of the monitors. Everyone is forced to implement all these energy star features and I postulate they aren’t always 100% compatible.

What’s funny is that my AppeTVs (HD and 4k) work great with any TV, automatically waking turning them on and switching to the right input when you wake the aTV, and allowing the TVs to turn off after time when the aTV sleeps.

So I know Apple knows how to properly communicate with with various displays using HDMI and Energy Star.
 
17 months into my MacBook Pro 2019 Intel with zero issues, EGPU box, 3080 card 32 in Samsung G7 Odyssey display 240hz. Going to be hard to give up this computer some day for a new model. It has been a great system.
 
There are workarounds, and you won't like it :) These things are not designed to "just work". (perhaps Apple should adjust that saying) now
 
Yup. Same here. Doesn’t happen every time, but when it does I have to disconnect and reconnect the usb-c cable from the Mac and it works again. Kind of annoying.
 
Anyone tried making sure energy settings have display set to sleep well before the computer and not simultaneously? I kind of recall this helping with display sleep issues.
 
Occasionally my USB-C monitor will fail to wake, my HDMI has been fine though thankfully..
I have a similar issue, the USB-C monitor only wakes when macOS is loaded completely (and works perfectly). However during boot there is absolutely no way to get it to work.

Over HDMI it's perfectly fine though.

(This on my M1 Mac Mini)
 
This is a problem with my 2017 and 2019 MacBook Pros. Damn annoying it is too, especially when it also has a tendency to kernel panic the MBPs. Especially when using either my CalDigit/Belkin TB3 docks.
 
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I've had similar issues with all Macs since the 2016 MacBook Pro and the "mainstream" move to Thunderbolt-connected displays.
 
I still wonder if it is a Displayport issue, inside the monitors, and thunderbolt or USBC is being adapted to displayport inside the monitor, as that is how some displays with those connections work.

I had many issues with displayport, including failure to wake, flickering, etc and finally switched to HDMI over thunderbolt via a dock, which has been rock solid for years now with the same exact monitor and same exact computer that caused trouble via a direct displayport connection, and via a thunderbolt dock to displayport connection.

Displayport was designed to replace DVI and VGA by VESA, and doesn’t replace HDMI but is compatible. But HDMI, being a consumer electronics interface that was adapted to computer use as a cheaper alternative to DVI and first as a way to hook laptops to TVs and projectors, is both more limited AND more compatible than displayport, at least in the HDMI specs in existence from 2008 forward.

Because HDMI —as a display interface— is more compatible, more reliable and more forgiving, most people (not all) who are having trouble with thunderbolt or usbC carrying displayport, or displayport directly are not having trouble with HDMI, or usbc/thunderbolt carrying HDMI even on the same equipment.
 
Based on this theory, I've ordered a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI dongle to see if that performs differently to my Thunderbolt-to-DisplayPort dongle. Will post how I get on in a few days :)
 
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