Big Sur - Black Screen After Update?

There are two reasons to use Apple products. The first differentiator is the (relative) emphasis on privacy.

Second, the closed ecosystem means typically a better and more coherent end-user experience. So when an official and approved software update kills the target hardware, that's inexcusable. I'm paying the Apple premium on the promise of "it just works." For this brand, it cannot be the case that the customer has to worry about engineering failures even five sigmas out.

Okay, fine, making things simple is hard. Mistakes happen. Now, the true measure of the company is how this is addressed going forward.

Below worked for me (Macbook air 13-inch - Mid-2013) as a temporary fix, until i shut down and restart, i have to repeat this again -

1) Power off your mac by pressing power button for 10 seconds

2) Start recovery mode by pressing cmd + R button on powering up

3) Once we enter into the recovery mode, restart using the menu at the top, macos now reboots without any issue

Important that you don't restart or shut down the system again, in which case you have to repeat the same steps again.

I have a brand new early 2020 MacBook Air and the Big Sur update just glitched my screen. The Apple logo and load bar changed colors (green and red I believe), and pixilated. Ridiculous. This computer is BRAND new. I bought it last month.

That's a nice story.

I have a MacBook Air 2019. Everything was ok till Catalina. Now I am on Big Sur. The ONLY program that does not work as before is Redshift Astronomy. It gives a Redshift black window. All the other windows (Safari, Firefox, Stellarium, ... ) are ok!! I have to select Display Preferences > Color > Select any Color Profile (Default is Color LCD). And then it works ok. If I go back to Color LCD profile: no problem. But if I Quit Redshift and I start it again I have to go back to Screen Preferences and do it all over again.

What is the solution: inflate the tires of my car or the tires of my trailer??

Stay healthy!!

You clearly don’t have a hardware problem, NoSubject.

So my car towing a trailer analogy doesn’t apply to your situation.

Instead, you simply have a version of Redshift Astronomy that isn’t quite ready for the new Operating System (OS).

That’s simply not surprising, in the slightest.

It is good that you have a workaround, for now.

My recommendation is that you look to see if there’s an updated version available.

Cured my black screen of death after the latest software update.

I have an external monitor and hooked it up to my laptop via Thunderport and HDMI. Although my MBP screen was black, it worked on the monitor.

I thankfully had a recent TimeMachine backup. I brought that up on my external drive, updated to the last item, sorry, can’t remember the name. The one that wasn’t applications, or my profile. Whatever the last item was. It was a small file, so it was fast.

Once that was reinstalled on my laptop, everything worked again.

My MBP is an early 2011.

Welcome, Greg from Sactown, to Apple Support Communities!

With an early 2011 MacBook Pro, you could not have upgraded to Big Sur, so your «black screen» issue is not truly related to this discussion.

I am glad to hear that you were able to fix your particular issue.

Same problem with a MacBook Air 2020- can't get the built-in display to work after installing Big Sur twice. An external Thunderbolt LG display is working connected through an Apple branded USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter so maybe you might try an external display.

mur_furious Update: Contacted Apple Support, they spent some time with me resetting NVRAM, SMC, rebooting at single-user or recovery mode, etc., which I had already tried. When that didn't work, got transferred to a senior system analyst that sent some software to copy system parameters and used a piece of software to capture information from the monitor. Waited a few days to hear from them but then the computer died- won't startup under any conditions. Just fedex'd it to Apple Repair yesterday and waiting to hear back. I suggest you back up now in case your computer dies, and contact Apple Support.

Computer was returned on Dec 11 so same day turnaround on their part. They replaced Logic Board, Display, and Touch ID board. Came with a clean install of Catalina 10.15.7. I have no intention of installing Big Sur for quite some time.

That was a question I had submitted; whether BIG SUR was ready for release or not?

As CATALINA was such a mess--AND for me-it still is! i want to get rid of IT!

However, not IF IT IS STILL "NOT FINISHED" as Catalina, which gave me ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS & STILL DOES!

SO VERY SORRY I "LEFT" MOJAVE!

"NEW is NOT always BETTER" & should know to leave "things well enough ALONE"!

My device had been just repaired & worked perfectly UNTIL THE DOWNLOAD OF CATALINA! A whole 2 weeks!

Thanks for your reply BUT still am very nervous!

APPLE suspended me when CATALINA was first installed on my DEVICE---as Catalina was RELEASE before IT was "READY"!

ALL I DID WAS ASK WHAT HAPPENED TO SCREEN SHOTS!

BUT THEN received about 87 NEW COMPLAINTS via OUTLOOK. NO one else was suspended & I was told

I will be permanently SUSPENDED--reason---UNKNOWN!

"AFRAID TO ROCK the BOAT w/APPLE" of EVERY ONE ELSE'S COMPLAINTS/CONCERNS,

though I did post a QUESTION of my own~asking

OTHERS' if IT is ready OR still "glitches"? AS in CATALINA...WHICH STILL CAUSES ME PROBLEMS!

Which obviously [like your question] THERE STILL ARE!

THANKS so much, [afraid I will never see these questions answered], as APPLE told me I would be "permanently" REMOVED from this community, to ask a QUESTION!

First, elmarklimov, do you have a verified hardware failure, or simply a symptom that you, and some others, interpret as such?

Second, even if you do have a verified hardware failure, did you perform a clean install of the Big Sur major Operating System (OS) upgrade, or did you treat the upgrade the way you might treat an update? (Admittedly, I didn’t go the clean install route, but I did make sure I had a full backup. [Of course, my machine is still under warranty.] I know others that routinely perform clean installs of all upgrades [vs. updates]: it’s simply what their experiences have taught them.)

In this latter case, there are too many compounding issues that could have occurred to contribute to the hardware failure. (This is to not even mention the boarder-line hardware issue, which is ever present with anything short of pristine hardware.)

Ending on a positive note, those that didn’t have any actual hardware failures, have found that they can (with care and some skill) install Big Sur version 11.1, and regain a fully functioning machine!

Not helpful. If I buy a new car, the OEM better not put a piece of software on my car that makes it unable to do something that I did before. In fact, every update should state what computers will not run on the update. Simply stating “Official support says - You update OS on your own risk”, is unprofessional and a cop out.

I have the same problem. This is a ridiculous situation. I will not take my computer in to an Apple tech to be fixed because an updated OS was installed. I will switch to Microsoft.l.

The primary reason for using an Apple Computer is for its stability and reliability. When that reason disappears, so does the need for an Apple computer.