Turn off power on when any key pressed?

[pavvel]

Hi I have a Macbook pro 16" - I know there is a command to turn the Auto on when lid opened function but I actually quite like that. What I don't like is any key press or touching the trackpad switches on the computer too...very annoying.

Does anyone know if it is possible to select ONLY the power button to turn on the laptop? Now the 16" has a physical power button I presume this should be possible?

Thanks

 

[jerryk]

I don't know if there is a way to disable this. It has been the same since the 2016 MBP and they went to the fingerprint reader/power button combo switch.

 

[revmacian]

The power button in old machines was a physical power button. Given that Apple appears to be wanting to remove physical buttons from their devices, albeit slowly, I highly doubt that Apple incorporated physical power buttons into every key. The fact that the machine powers up when any key is pressed, I'm suspicious that newer Apple computers are never completely powered down anymore - something has to be running in order to detect a keypress. So, I'm guessing that the physical power button is no longer a physical power button as we understand it.

Of course, this is all speculation but it may help us understand what is happening with newer machines.

 

[iMacDragon]

There'll basically be a sleep-wake hardware interrupt on keypress in T2 of some sort that turns it on with keypress, so, yes, there is always some very slight trickle of power in system.

 

[revmacian]

There'll basically be a sleep-wake hardware interrupt on keypress in T2 of some sort that turns it on with keypress, so, yes, there is always some very slight trickle of power in system.

Ah, the T2 chip. I now wonder if macOS actually does power down but BridgeOS (running on the T2 chip) never actually powers down and this is what helps boot the computer on key press.

This makes it sound doubtful that the keys can be separated from the power button with regard to powering up the machine.