So you are trying to wake your Mac from sleep, and it just wouldn't. All you see is a black screen on your MacBook Pro, no matter what keys you are pressing. Below you'll find a couple of solutions (mostly based on users' cases) to bring your Mac back to the light.
Nov 12, 2020 To use a light background for maps while Dark Mode is turned on, open Maps and choose Maps Preferences, then select 'Always use light map appearance.' In earlier versions of macOS, click View in the menu bar in Maps, then deselect Use Dark Map. Buy Bluetooth Keyboard for Mac OS, Jelly Comb Ultra Slim Wireless Keyboard for Mac OS/iOS/iPad OS Rechargeable Bluetooth Keyboard MacBook, MacBook Air/Pro iMac, iPhone, iPad Pro-Black and Gray: Keyboards - Amazon.com FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases.
Reasons your Mac screen goes black:
- 3rd party apps that expand the screen
- Recently upgraded operating system
- Corrupted display and energy settings
- Cables not connected
Easy fixes for MacBook black screen
1. Adjust your display's brightness
You may have accidentally pressed the brightness keys on the keyboard, so your screen dimmed down. Could it be your cat stepping on keys? Use F1 and F2 buttons to light the black screen on your Mac.
2. Check if the power is on
Examine your charger cable is intact and if your Mac is charging. Is the green light on? To rule out the power issues, check if your Mac produces any noise — from the hard drive or fans. If you still see the black screen on Mac, read on.
3. Disconnect all peripherals
Remove all external devices like printers or external drives. These devices may start their own dialogues, which could interfere with your display settings.
More solutions if your MacBook Pro won't turn on
Force restart your Mac
In most cases forcing your Mac to restart helps to fix it if your Mac won't boot. The variance of this issue is your Mac not waking up after sleep. Try to open and close the MacBook lid and press a few keys on a keyboard. It might help, but if it doesn't, in no way should you panic — first, let's perform a quick force restart.
- Hold down the Power key for about 6 seconds.
- Wait for your Mac to shut down and press the Power key again.
Reset your Mac's NVRAM settings
NVRAM stands for non-volatile RAM and is basically a functionality that stores in-memory settings for display, speakers, primary startup disk, etc. Everything remotely connected with the boot process (like your MacBook won't turn on) can be set back to factory settings during the NVRAM reset.
To flush NVRAM settings:
- Shut your Mac down.
- Press the Power key.
- Wait for your Mac to start loading.
- When you hear a startup sound, hold down Cmd + Option + P + R.
- Keep pressing the keys until you hear a second startup sound
Do basic Mac maintenance: disk permissions and Login Items
Did resetting NVRAM do the trick? Now that your display is back to the light, you should be able to do a bit of maintenance under the hood of your Mac. In many reported cases, removing old cache files and broken login items helped prevent the 'black screen' problem. Oftentimes, the reason for your Macbook black screen problem is broken disk permissions not allowing your Mac to boot normally. A good solution is to use the app called CleanMyMac on your machine and run the Repair Disk Permissions command.
- Download the app (it's free to download).
- Install it and go to the Maintenance module.
- Tick Repair Disk Permissions and click Run.
From my experience, it's the easiest way to optimize hardly-accessible parts of your Mac.
Another possible culprit — the corrupted Login Items. The truth is, some apps like antivirus software would inadvertently sneak into the list of your startup programs; if something goes wrong with the app, it will then affect your Mac's booting. So, it makes sense that you check your Login Items list and uninstall the unwanted app — both too can be done with CleanMyMac's free version.
Zap your Mac's SMC settings
SMC is a System Management Controller. What it controls is temperature, lights, keyboard, fans, and many other side-processes. According to Mac support forums, resetting SMC helps in 90% of the cases when your Mac's screen goes black. To perform this trick, follow the tips below.
For a MacBook with a non-removable battery:
- Shut your Mac down.
- Connect your Mac to a power outlet.
- While your Mac is still shut, Press the Shift + Option + Control and Power key simultaneously.
- Let go of the keys and boot your Mac again.
For a Desktop Mac: iMac, iMac Pro:
- Unplug the power cable.
- Wait for about 15 seconds.
- Plug your Mac back in and leave it for about 5 seconds.
- Start your Mac in a normal fashion.
Enter your password — a surprising trick that works
Though it looks counter-intuitive, you may try this solution when your Mac screen goes black. Still, with your Mac's black screen on startup, enter the password — as if you would normally do. Now press the Return key. Lots of users have reported that this option helped to bring their Macs to life.
A variance of this trick has been found on many Mac forums. Once again, it implies that you press the keys on your Mac in a 'blind' mode, hoping that it will light up.
- Press the Power key — just once to summon the restart dialogue.
- Press the S key to send your Mac to sleep.
- Press and hold the Power key to perform a forced shut down.
- Wait for about 15 secs and start your Mac as usual.
Check for any magnets nearby
Inside your MacBook's lid, there's a tiny magnet that reacts when the lid is closed. But when there are other magnets nearby that sends a wrong signal to your MacBook telling it to shut down. For example, this happens if you place your computer atop of an audio speaker.
Placing your MacBook next to a magnet may accidentally shut it down, even if the lid is open.
MacBook asking you to reset your password on bootup?
It may happen that your Mac became unresponsive and asks you to reset your password. However, after following all the on-screen instructions and changing your password, nothing happens — you still see the black screen. Don't worry, there is an easy fix.
When the screen is black, shine the light behind the display through Apple. This will help you see the login icon and put the cursor in the correct place. Then just log in, and the screen will come back.
The last-ditch solution to MacBook black screen
Re-install the macOS
The lion's share of issues we deal with on our computers is software-related. The MacBook display not working is not an exception. So it makes sense that you update all your apps to their latest versions, including the macOS.
Here is the guide on how to quickly re-install the macOS:
If all of the above didn't work, let go of it and take your Mac over to the service — you've done all you could. We hope this article was fun and helpful — feel free to share.
Today we'll discuss the issue of black screen on Mac and tell you the reasons and relative solutions. When you try to wake the Mac from sleep, the iMac/MacBook screen goes black and unresponsive. Even worse, the Mac screen goes black randomly and ruins the files that you was working on. If your MacBook Pro/Air, iMac is stuck in black screen and doesn't respond, check out these solutions.
You May Need: Top 5 Data Recovery Software for Mac/PC
Why Does My Mac Go Black?
The possible reasons why Mac screen goes black could be listed as follows:
1. Battery Drain
Running out of battery is one of the most common reasons why your Mac screen goes blank. Even if your Mac is plugged in, a bad battery or a faulty cable can stop your Mac from charging and thus the Mac showsss black screen and becomes unresponsive. So the first thing you should do is to check the Mac's battery and charging cables.
2. Display Issue
In most cases, the Macbook or iMac goes black on startup. However, the activity indicator, fan or bootup noises still work which indicates your computer has turned on. So it seems like a problem on the Mac screen.
3. Incorrect Disk Permissions
The permissions on Mac control users and system processes's access to the files. If disk permissions are incorrect, it could also make your Mac go black screen or unable to boot up.
4. Login Items
Some login items in auto startup list stop your MacBook from booting up normally.
5. Bugs in An App
A bug or a glitch in apps, especially third-party apps, could cause the blank screen. If the Mac black screen of death happens when you are using an third-party apps or you recently install a new app, the problem may be caused by the app.
5. macOS Operating System
The upgraded operating system might produce compatibility issue which might sometimes result in the black screen. Also, there are known bugs in macOS that could cause black screen of death.
We have talked about the reason of black screen. Next we would like to show you a couple of methods to fix the black screen issues on MacBook/iMac.
How to Fix Mac in Black Screen
Method 1: Check Mac's Battery
You could check things as follow:
Check if your charger cable is undamaged and still connected.
Check if the indicator light is on.
Check if your Mac produces any noise from the fans or drive.
If the indicator light is off and there is no noise, your Mac probably runs out of battery. Keep your Mac plugged in and charge. When the Mac can boots up normally, check your battery cycles to see if it needs to be replaced. You could do this by following steps here.
STEP 1: Go to Apple Menu on the top left.
STEP 2: Navigate to About this Mac>System Report>Power.
STEP 3: Check the items: cycle count and condition for your battery. If the condition is poor or bad, You'd better purchase a new battery.
If you have ruled out all the things above,then move to next method for help.
Method 2: Restart Your Mac
In most of the cases,restarting your Mac might help fix the problems. If your MacBook is in black screen, try to open and close the lid and press any key on the keyboard or touch the trackpad first. If the MacBook screen still won't light up, you could try to force restart your MacBook.
OPTION 1: Long press Power button for around 6 seconds, then wait for 15 seconds till Mac shuts down and press the Power button again.
OPTION 2: Press Control+Eject keys and if a dialog box shows, press Enter to shut down your Mac. Then press power button to restart it.
OPTION 3: Press Control+Command+Eject to force restart your Mac.
Method 3: Restart Your Mac with Specical Keys
Some users found out a specific key sequence can get your Mac out of black screen of death quickly . Here are what you have to do:
STEP 1: Press power button once which will normally show you a shut down dialog box, however, you won't see it as you screen is black.
STEP 2: Press S key, which will put your Mac to sleep. Then long press the power button for 6 seconds.
STEP 3: Wait for 15 seconds and press power button to restart it. Your Mac screen will light up and start up normally.
Method 4: Reset the NVRAM/PRAM
If the Mac is still unresponsive and shows black screen or the Macbook Pro/Air screen goes black intermittently, you need to reset the NVRAM/PRAM to see if it works.
STEP 1: Hold power button for 6 seconds to shut down your Mac.
STEP 2: Press power button. Followed closely by holding down Command+Option+P+R.
STEP 3: Release the keys if you see Apple logo screen or hear other startup chimes.
To learn more about resetting NVRAM/PRAM, please read Full Guide to Reset the PRAM & SMC on Your Mac.
Method 5: Disable Suspicious Login Items
Some apps would launch automatically on startup without your consent. Here, we could identify such startup apps by running MacMaster. FonePaw MacMaster is a multifunctional tool to manage apps and data on Mac. One of its feature is to check all of the built-in as well as the third-party extensions, plugins, apps on your Mac, and then enable or disable them in one single click. Let's see the guide of disabling suspicious login items:
STEP 1: Download and install MacMaster on your computer.
STEP 2: Go to Extensions on the left and click Scan to scan extensions on Mac.
STEP 3: After scanning, choose Login and find the apps that start at login without your permission.
STEP 4: Click the circle button beside the information of the app. If the circle turns gray, it means that the app has been successfully disabled.
Black And Light Mac Os 7
Method 6: Reinstall the macOS
Black screen of death on MacBook could be associated with software issues. For this reason, we need to update all apps to their latest versions including the macOS.
Newest Mac Os System
However,before you update macOS,you need to make reparation as listed below:
Black And Light Mac Os 8
Backup your Mac. You could use Time Machine to backup your Mac. iCloud or USB would be also choices to backup your Mac.
Check up the generation of your Mac or MacBook to rule out compatibility issue.
Free up storage space on your Mac. You could try to store data in iCloud, optimize storage,empty trash or reduce clutter to achieve the goal.
New Mac Os 11
Having done all the things above, you can download the latest version macOS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra from the Mac App Store to reintsall the operating system. You can also clean install macOS from a bootable drive. If you have any data loss after reinstalling macOS on the computer, you can use FonePaw Data Recovery to recover photos, files, music and more.
