M1 MacBook Air: External display not recognized after waking from sleep

[drsox]

I spoke to a Genius in the Apple Store today, who seemed more knowledgeable than most.

My issue is that my M1 Macbook Pro sometimes 'forgets' my 4K monitor on wake.

When I unplug and replug the monitor, it hangs for a few seconds, then kernel panics (pink screen) and restarts.

He said this sounds very much like a software level error, rather than hardware.

He thinks it's likely to get ironed out in an update - although conceded that this might not be soon, given that it affects a small number of users.

So, I don't think I'll gain anything by sending my Macbook away for 'repair'.

Two restarts a week is annoying, but I can survive.

And I'll likely sell up and buy a 16-inch Apple Silicon model when they're released.

I've had this problem with an M1 MBA (on the MBA display) and an M1 Mini driving a Sony Bravia TV.

Persistent problem with the MBA so I sent it for repair - nothing changed - so I sold it in annoyance !

Now I've had it twice in a month on the Mini - I can live with this. If MacOS 12 fixes this then I'll buy a new MBA when they launch next year.

 

[dr.wong]

Just an update on my own struggles with this issue as I have been trying to work around it by turning on the monitor first before waking my Mac Mini (occasionally still required a reboot which was frustrating).

I've since disabled the "auto select [source]" feature of my monitor and the problem seems to have gone away. It's been almost a month now and I've yet to see the problem come back *touch wood*

I use my monitor with multiple devices connected and this was on by default. The Mini no longer fails to wake the display now but I do have to manually set it to the correct source if it happens to be on another input when last used but at least the display would come on every time.

I was really hoping this would work. 11.5.1 MBA - disabling auto select source on my display did not fix the issue.

 

[livmatus]

I also experience this problem with my Lenovo ThinkVision P44w-10 monitor and M1 MBA connected via USB-C DP altmode (also carries data and power).

It just won’t wake up even if I restart. I have to fiddle with reconnecting, powering off (both macbook and monitor), restarting till is catches (sometimes maybe 10 tries).

It’s definitely a fault on Macbook side because my Lenovo ThinkPad laptop and Dell Latitude have no problem whatsoever and monitor catches up a second after I physically connect them.

Seems like Apple and their display support implementation is botched on purpose so people get mad and buy those Apple approved LG displays or a PRO display XDR. And it’s purely SW issue… same as with DP MST I’d say.

It drives me crazy.

 

[dioncodes]

I have the same issue on my MBP 2021 with M1 Max. Displays that are connected to a TB3 Dock aren't recognized after the Macbook went to standby/sleep... One display that I have connected directly always wakes up. But I can only get the macbook to detect the other displays by un- and replugging the dock (the displays are connected to) from the MB...

Is there any solution to this issue yet or are we still waiting for software updates from Apple?

 

[SeenJeen]

I have the same issue on my MBP 2021 with M1 Max. Displays that are connected to a TB3 Dock aren't recognized after the Macbook went to standby/sleep... One display that I have connected directly always wakes up. But I can only get the macbook to detect the other displays by un- and replugging the dock (the displays are connected to) from the MB...

Is there any solution to this issue yet or are we still waiting for software updates from Apple?

Oh gee, I have an M1 and am having this issue. Sad it's carried over to the new models! Haven't seen any solutions yet in my hours of research.

I also experience this problem with my Lenovo ThinkVision P44w-10 monitor and M1 MBA connected via USB-C DP altmode (also carries data and power).

It just won’t wake up even if I restart. I have to fiddle with reconnecting, powering off (both macbook and monitor), restarting till is catches (sometimes maybe 10 tries).

It’s definitely a fault on Macbook side because my Lenovo ThinkPad laptop and Dell Latitude have no problem whatsoever and monitor catches up a second after I physically connect them.

Seems like Apple and their display support implementation is botched on purpose so people get mad and buy those Apple approved LG displays or a PRO display XDR. And it’s purely SW issue… same as with DP MST I’d say.

It drives me crazy.

I also have a ThinkVision monitor (P27h-10). The only thing that works is me turning off the display and turning it back on, but since my Time Machine drive is connected to it, it turns it off, and then macOS complains to me that I didn't eject the disk.

What a frustrating experience. Never had any such issues on Catalina with my Intel touch bar MBP!

 

[joshtreimer]

Same issue with M1 Max MBP with thunderbolt 3 dock and 2 displays. The only solution so far is to unplug and plug the dock back in after sleep. Hopefully, someone at Apple is aware of this and they fix it soon, but after looking at how long this thread is It's questionable.

 

[anomaly44]

Same issue here with m1 Max MBP & caldigit TS3 dock with 2 display connected (1 DP and 1 HDMI). The annoying thing is I had it 1/10 times with my old intel based MBP, was thinking/hoping that upgrading to M1 would surely fix it, But it has gotten worse. With the m1 I m having to reboot my machine 5/10 times after it went to sleep.

Some things I ve noticed:
- It does not seem to happen after a short sleep ( 5 - 10 mins) only if it sleeps for like a couple hours.
- It does seem to happen more after heavy use, lots of programs and tabs open.
- Sometimes reconnecting the dock helps to get everything to wake up.
- If reconnecting does not help, it sometimes helps to unplug the screens power connector wait a couple of seconds and plug it back in again.
- If the above doesnt help I have to do a full reboot.

Its really annoying to buy a 4k euro PRO machine and having to interrupt your work to restart your PRO machine. Fix your **** please apple.

 

[dioncodes]

I can remember that I had lots of external display issues with the 2019 16" Intel i9 MBP when it came out. They eventually fixed these issues after a couple of months (not sure if by a firmware or usual macOS software update).

Update: I just chatted with the Apple Support about this issue. According to the support Apple is aware of this issue and investigating...

 

[CSBBody]

I am having the same issue, although mine is random, it will happen maybe 1 a day, rest of the time it wakes.

I am on a MBP M1 2020 not the M1pro or max yet, i noticed this behavior start when i updated to Monterey, it was pretty stable before for a long time.

 

[SeenJeen]

This YouTuber is complaining about external display problems with Monterey on his iMac and 16" (~ 2 min mark):

Hopefully it's on Apple's radar!

 

[trees1411]

I just updated to 12.1 and the issue is still there (base 14"). How you guys going?

 

[macskiman]

MacBook Air 2020 Intel and Asus monitor connected by HDMI through Apple's multiport adaptor. FWIW: I never had this problem with my setup while I had Big Sur. It seems to have started once I installed Monterey. I did have a desktop picture with possibly a problematic resolution, however that was fine until Monterey. Today, after a restart, I selected one of Apple's desktop pictures to see if that could be a solution. Yesterday I did use QuickTime Player full screen and tried Amazon Prime's App fullscreen. I will avoid that today, since someone was speculating that using an App that took over the full screen could alter the resolution. Seems like this won't go away for everyone until Apple addresses it in the system software.

A few days later, it hasn't happened again, but I stopped turning off the monitor at night now, as well. So if it's "fixed", I can't be sure which action cured it.

 

[SeenJeen]

I just updated to 12.1 and the issue is still there (base 14"). How you guys going?

I gave up and use a USB-C hub that has HDMI out. Although now very rarely macOS 'forgets' resolution settings on my external, but at least I don't have to turn on/off my monitor every time.

Still not the most ideal solution.

 

[xam15]

For those who are still having issues with this, you can can examine the OSX sleep mode configuration and see if there's any application that is preventing the system from going to sleep.

Open terminal, and run the command

pmset -g

You should see a list of attributes. Focus on the sleep parameter and see if there's any applications that says it's preventing it.

In my case, I actually found 1 user application that is preventing it. It turns out that the application has a feature to keeps it running and prevent sleep, so I have to explicitly go to the application settings and disable that. Once that is applied, everything was working fine for me - all my external monitors booted up after I wake the computer up from sleep.

 

[ryukk]

My problems with this issue went away when I started using an OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock ?‍♂️

 

[dioncodes]

I think the latest macOS 12.2 update finally fixed this issue! I installed that yesterday and didn't encounter any problems since. Before the update it happened after every 2nd standby wakeup.

 

[spinalnormy]

I think the latest macOS 12.2 update finally fixed this issue! I installed that yesterday and didn't encounter any problems since. Before the update it happened after every 2nd standby wakeup.

I'm having it (intermittently, of course) with a new MBP and a Pluggable USBC dock. So the gremlin still lurks.

 

[alwaysadapters]

Hey all,

Searched for this topic a few months ago because I was having the same issue - Asus external monitor, Macbook Air M1. Wouldn't wake the external monitor up, was driving me up a wall, eventually got used to a quick power cycle.

The other day I swapped out my USB-C to HDMI adapter - previously I'd been using a Dell (I don't know the specific, but it was a few years old) adapter, or also a CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock (bought from Apple at the same time as this laptop.) I'm still on Monterey 12.0.1. For a work laptop, I bought an Anker USBC-HDMI adapter - and, with it, no more problems with this when I tried using it for my Macbook.

I've tested against the old two, and still the old behavior - would suggest it might be an adapter problem/software problem with recognizing something in certain adapters.

Huge relief, to be quite honest! Thought I'd share in case it was helpful for anyone else.

 

[Tanmay]

Facing this issue on macOS 12.3 on a Mac Studio (M1 Max) with dual LG 27GN950 in DP(DSC) mode.

I can consistently replicate this issue, every time I put the Mac to sleep and come back to wake it up after 15 mins or more, I face one of the following issues at random:

- Only 1 of the display works
- Resets refresh rate preferences
- Resets HDR preference
- 1 of the monitor has a weird windowed desktop wallpaper

I have filed a radar (#FB9965756) with Apple about this. But from past experiences and also fact that this issue has been going on for more than a year, I'm skeptical that Apple will take this seriously.

 

[Jasonondesign]

Just to let people know, ALL my problems went away when I switched to a larger, 85w, power adaptor. I was having all sorts of problems with my monitor changing resolutions and not showing up. The only times I've had this problem in 6-10 months now have been when my power was accidentally disconnected, and when I had an off-brand USB-C cable that was causing problems. If you're still having these problems I suggest you get a new 84w Apple power brick and a new USB-C cable.

 

[dieselm]

Just to let people know, ALL my problems went away when I switched to a larger, 85w, power adaptor. I was having all sorts of problems with my monitor changing resolutions and not showing up. The only times I've had this problem in 6-10 months now have been when my power was accidentally disconnected, and when I had an off-brand USB-C cable that was causing problems. If you're still having these problems I suggest you get a new 84w Apple power brick and a new USB-C cable.

It's probably the cable. I ended up buying the official Apple TB cable and it sorted a whole host of things.

 

[Bustermd]

It's probably the cable. I ended up buying the official Apple TB cable and it sorted a whole host of things.

I second this. I was having all sorts of problems with my LG Ultrafine 4K display waking from sleep, causing kernel panics, etc on both an M1 Macbook Pro and a 2020 Intel Macbook Pro. Problems were seen with using the Thunderbolt cable provided by LG with the monitor. Using USB C cable resolved issues.

Out of sheer curosity, as an experiment dropped the cash for the Apple Thunderbolt Cable: no problems seen since.

 

[kcjl519]

My problems with this issue went away when I started using an OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock ?‍♂️

Mine is opposite, didn’t have any issue when I was using hdmi to thunderbolt 3 on m1 max.

Then it started happening when I switched to caldigit ts4……. ?‍♂️

 

[supernova82]

Facing this issue on macOS 12.3 on a Mac Studio (M1 Max) with dual LG 27GN950 in DP(DSC) mode.

I can consistently replicate this issue, every time I put the Mac to sleep and come back to wake it up after 15 mins or more, I face one of the following issues at random:

- Only 1 of the display works
- Resets refresh rate preferences
- Resets HDR preference
- 1 of the monitor has a weird windowed desktop wallpaper

I have filed a radar (#FB9965756) with Apple about this. But from past experiences and also fact that this issue has been going on for more than a year, I'm skeptical that Apple will take this seriously.

Same issue. Haven't tested the HDR but otherwise it is behaving the same. First time using Mac and this issue is not giving me a good impression.

Besides these I am facing all kind of issues. In one week the Mac has restarted three or four time because of an error. Google meet has audio issue in every browser. I though blue screen of death is only a MS Window thing. Even Window dosen't have that much frequest crashes.

 

[PFchesapeakeDCP]

This might not work for everyone but when I turned off nightshift mode, it started to detect my external monitor again..
doesn't hurt to try.