Big Sur - randomly goes screen to black.

Just got new macbook pro M1 running Big Sur. Got it up and running yesterday. Today the screen went black.

Went to System Preferences>Display and turned off Auto Adjust Brightness and dragged the brightness bar to a setting that seemed good. Been a few hours now and no darkness.

Will watch to see if the issue comes back.

Hope this helps.

Tom

The real question to this problem is when are they planning on a fix for it? I have been dealing with it for months now and it is very annoying. Clearly Apple doesn't give a **** about their users or they would address this issue and fix it.

11.2 does not fix the issue for me. Within 10 minutes of upgrading the screen blanked and I lost the USB attached speakers again. Back onto the AirPods (which don't drop when the screen blanks...). Very frustrating if we have to wait for some 11.3 now to fix this...

I have this issue too (which I'm calling Fade to Black) - im getting it every 5-10 minutes now though, so wondering if its safe to try an upgrade as the screen could go blank and then i won't be able to see progress on the upgrade and closing the lid could cause the upgrade to fail mid way and i then worry about bricking the laptop!

Doesn't seem to help anyway according to Archi_07. So at this stage there is no known cause or cure?!

I solved this by replacing my HDMI cables. I had two brand new usb-c to hdmi cables, I switched the brand and am now using on usb-c to hdmi and the other is usb-c to (dock? Multi plug) and then just a normal HDMI. I was able to replicate the issue and isolate because I have 4 screens and two macs - I was also able to replicate the issue in Catalina - with these cables. Hopefully this is helpful to someone else. (Cables work fine by the way on Mojave) both laptops are MacBook pros one is a 2018 and the other is a 2019. The cables that I am using with out issue are :

PowerBear: 4K HDMI Cable 6 ft

Cablecreation: USB C to HDMI Cable for Home Office 6ft

Another update. I reported my screen blacking out and system shutting down on Dec 14th. After the first update, I reported nothing had changed other than it seemed it shutdown a little sooner.

Now 2 more updates later (11.2.1) and I'm still seeing shutdowns, but maybe not as many as I was seeing before. It was shutting down as I was in the middle of typing. I haven't seen that yet, but its still shutting down.

I'm beginning to wonder if the problem is being addressed directly or are these changes in the blackouts symptoms from addressing other problems. Apple has the brightest, most talented developers in the world. Testing is second to none. Replicating this problem isn't difficult based on the number of people reporting it. This is why, after 3 updates, I wonder if the problem is being directly address or are we just considered anomalies because the problem isn't big enough to spend resources? I'm not mad. I'm frustrated and disappointed. Please help?!

It happens to me very often. Bought my Macbook Pro 2020 (intel v.) last November and I never had this experience until I updated my MBP to BigSur. My screen keeps turning black often. It happens when I turn on my laptop; when I move the laptop (lifting it up); or when I adjust the screen angle. It's very frustrating. Apple really needs to address this issue. I haven't even had this laptop for a year and I'm already experiencing abnormalities.\

I also tried disabling the Night Shift and True Tone, but they haven't resolved the issue.

I excitedly updated to 11.2.2 (20D80) this morning. Unfortunately this hasn't fixed the issue. M1 MacBook Pro + LG 5K screen. Still cutting out to black randomly every hour or so.

Come on Apple... there must be a fix somewhere!

Well, that's sad to hear. My system updated 1.2.2 overnight. So I just wait because it's coming. Now I can say that the difference in this one and the last two, was the blackouts happened almost immediately and much more often. I've been running for hours now and I'm waiting for the first blackout. So let me close this out before it shuts me down. Thanks for the feedback.

Well I have to agree that it is sad as well, I just updated this morning to Big Sur 11.2.2 and am already getting black outs on my screen. Most of them are only a couple of seconds and once in a while it is what feels like 10 sec. or more. Very frustrating, come on Apple IT let's get this resolved.

Update: it just blacked out while typing this message! ugh

I don't believe it. I responded yesterday morning that my Mac updated overnight and had not seen a blackout yet, but was just waiting since there were already a report. Well, I literally went over 24 hours without a blackout, before that changed this morning. My screen has blacked out 3 times in the last 4 hours, while typing. I didn't make any system changes. I don't know what provoked it. Like I said before, I don't know if Apple is working on this problem specifically or just hoping it comes along the back of another fix. Once again, disappointed and frustrated.

So 11.2.2 has made it worse, can’t get the screen back above 1080p (4K BenQ) even with nvram etc resets, and any combination of cables unplugged or switching on and off etc. And the random blackouts still happening. Really hope 11.3 fixes this 🤞🏻

I have the same problem. Big Sur 11.2.2. I think this issue started happening on Big Sur 11.2.1. I did not have this issue before OS update, so that rules out any problems with my hardware.

For me, I have an external monitor connect via USB-C (PX7 Prime) running in "Mirror Displays" mode so that both my MacBook Pro and the monitor are displaying the same thing. The screens are scaled to the "More Space". I have automatic brightness and automatic night shift disabled. I also have "Optimized Battery Charging" disabled.

The external monitor will go black for 3-5 seconds then come back. But the MacBook Pro's laptop screen will not go black. If I don't have my MBP docked to an external monitor, I never see any black screens on my MBP.

Same problem. But my MB Pro 2017, running with the latest OS Big Sur, does NOT have True Tone, and Night Shift is already turned off. ZERO help or suggestions from Apple - except the standard "send it in for a total bulking of your SSD and repairs."

Exactly same problem. ZERO suggestions from Apple. I'm wondering if the problem gets worse with time (more frequent blackouts) and whether this may be causing damage to the computer or it's ability to function. In the old days, this was a sure sign of impending hard disc drive CRASH. Not sure what it might mean in an SSD.