After Catalina upgrade, MAC mini not connecting to tv via HDMI

Question

Level 1

10 points

After Catalina upgrade, MAC mini not connecting to tv via HDMI

After upgrading from Mojave to Catalina, my Mac mini is suddenly having trouble connecting to my Samsung 4K TV via HDMI.

The issue is definitely related to the iOS Catalina upgrade. In fact, as soon as my Mac mini finished updating and tried to restart, the HDMI connection was lost. I had to force-shutdown the Mac mini and try rebooting multiple times. The connection was finally established.

However, the same issue keeps happening every time I put the Mac mini to sleep or shutdown. Upon waking or booting-up, the TV shows no signal. I have to force-shutdown, reboot, and pray over and over.

Does anyone know if a Catalina fix is in the works for this issue? I don't have another monitor to test on, but I am positive the issue is not the TV nor the HDMI cable.

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 4, 2019 9:44 PM

Reply

Answer 1

raina_b22

Community Specialist

Nov 9, 2019 9:26 AM in response to SpikeySF

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities, SpikeySF.

If I understand your post correctly, since upgrading macOS your Mac mini no longer connects to your HDMI display. I’d like to help.

Follow the steps in this article:

Get help with video issues on external displays connected to your Mac

Let us know if that resolves this issue for you.

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Take care.

Reply

Answer 2

SpikeySF Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 9, 2019 10:34 AM in response to raina_b22

Thanks for the reply. I'm still having the issue, since upgrading to Catalina.

When I boot-up my Mac mini, it no longer connects to the tv on the first try. If I then hold down the mini's power button and force-shutdown, then boot up again and again, I'll get a connection usually after 3-4 tries.

When I put the mini to sleep then wake it up, I'll maybe get a connection on first try but not always...sometimes I have to put the mini back to sleep and try waking again and again...usually get a connection after 2-3 tries.

I had no connection issues before upgrading to Catalina.

I also tested the tv by connecting a Macbook Pro laptop (which is NOT updated to Catalina) via HDMI to the tv and it works perfectly every time.

I looked at the steps in that article, but there is nothing there to help my specific issue. I searched the web and found hundreds of others having this same issue, so I'm hoping Apple will release an update soon to fix this bug..?

I also see Luis's comment (thank you Luis), but I don't fully understand it, as I'm not that technically savvy. :-(

Reply

Answer 3

Lee Wi

Level 1

30 points

Nov 16, 2019 9:33 AM in response to SpikeySF

It is an issue and Apple knows it, but they are refusing to comment, too many people are having the same issue. You can't even roll back to Mojave as it appears to be firmware related and the issue persists, there are other posts in the community forums that go into this issue in greater detail. The usual links to the Apple support pages provided above are nonsense, it will not fix this issue.

Reply

Answer 4

SpikeySF Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 6, 2019 9:55 AM in response to Lee Wi

Thanks for the info, Lee. Please let me know if you hear any updates about this issue, it's driving me mad!

I've been using a USB-C to HDMI adapter as a work-around. However, when I'm watching streaming video I now see some random flickering that I've never seen before...so I'm assuming it's because of the adapter. I never had any flickering video issues with straight HDMI to HDMI before upgrading to Catalina. :-(

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 9, 2019 9:54 AM in response to SpikeySF

Have you tried: resetting NVRAM; resetting the SMC?

Try restarting in Safe Mode. Does the tv show an image in Safe Mode?

Reply

Answer 6

Nov 16, 2019 4:34 PM in response to Lee Wi

A clean install of the latest version of Mojave and importing my data has solved this issue for me. I'm staying away from Catelina as long as I can. Apple have really botched this one.

Reply

After Catalina upgrade, MAC mini not connecting to tv via HDMI

Similar questions