Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Resolved disable clamshell mode

fisherking

fisherking

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jul 16, 2010
11,323
5,644
ny somewhere
just moved from an M2 mini pro to a macbook air, and now using my dell monitor as a second screen for the air.

how can i disable clamshell mode, so that closing the macbook lid will also sleep the external monitor? (new territory for me)...
 
In clamshell mode, you'll keep the MacBook Air lid closed all of the time. To wake the Mac and the external display, just tap a key or the trackpad (mouse?). To sleep the Mac and the external display, I would suggest a Hot Corner, but you can also select Sleep from the Apple menu.
 
i don't want to use clamshell mode, i want to close the lid on the air and have the external monitor also sleep.

right now, i use a key command (i set up 'command-option-s') to sleep the air and the dell. but if i simply close the lid, the external monitor stays on. i don't want it to.

wondering if there's a way to disable clamshell mode; in system settings perhaps, or a 3rd-party app. or...?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pezimak
I don’t think there is a way, built-in, anyways. FYI the global Mac sleep command is command-option-eject, if you have a keyboard with an eject symbol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chabig and Jhonjhon236
FNH15 said:
I don’t think there is a way, built-in, anyways. FYI the global Mac sleep command is command-option-eject, if you have a keyboard with an eject symbol.
Click to expand...
And lock/power is in place of eject on keyboards that have that instead. And Ctrl shift ejec/lock/power turns the display off without putting it to sleep, ctrl opt cmd eject/power/lock shuts down and Ctrl cmd eject/lock/power reboots.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chabig
Jhonjhon236 said:
And lock/power is in place of eject on keyboards that have that instead. And Ctrl shift ejec/lock/power turns the display off without putting it to sleep, ctrl opt cmd eject/power/lock shuts down and Ctrl cmd eject/lock/power reboots.
Click to expand...
my custom command-option-s sleeps the air and the dell screen; then i can close the lid. better (for me), than the default ctrl-shift-power.

if anyone knows of a way to sleep the dell when i close the air lid, please post. for now, will do the key command first...
 
Pezimak said:
Amazing, just got a new Mac and I cannot believe Apple is so stupid it won't even allow you to disable an external monitor from coming on every single time you close your lid. what idiot engineer thought that was good I wonder?
Click to expand...
It’s what most everyone wants; to use a MacBook in clamshell when connected to power and an external display. Most just let their MacBook sleep when the time of non-use triggers it.

Edit: Another solution is to unplug your MacBook and the system will sleep immediately.
 
Do not blame engineers, please. It is better to blame management first, but I suppose in this case we should blame users: google The Tyranny of the Marginal User ™ ;)

There is a very powerful piece of software to control power management settings on Macs: pmset. It is a command line utility created by Apple itself. But how many users know about it?

I would like to get these settings in the GUI in “System Settings” app, but this will eventually clutter the GUI. Modern users do not like complex interfaces.

But, thanks to Apple, MacOS is relatively open operating system: you could use any software you want. So, use Clamshell and make feature request at apple.com. May be the corporate gods would be favorable to us and bless us with this functionality in the next versions of MacOS ;)
 
Btw, the next version of Clamshell is coming at this month with some fixes and more mainstream GUI. It’s free, now and always.
 
jdb8167 said:
It’s what most everyone wants; to use a MacBook in clamshell when connected to power and an external display. Most just let their MacBook sleep when the time of non-use triggers it.

Edit: Another solution is to unplug your MacBook and the system will sleep immediately.
Click to expand...

So waisting electricity and costing you money, just leave it on till it auto sleeps. Hardly practical and from what I’ve seen not everyone wants Apple to be controlling this feature. And lots use their MacBook screen as well as an external one, luckily that piece of software has fixed the issue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back