Screensaver comes on randomly and prevents use in Big Sur and M1

I have the same issue, it's just ridiculous the screensaver enables itself while being disabled in mac os, and on top of that cannot be interrupted. I called the apple support, they don't know about the issue, so they shipped a new mac!

just lol

FWIW, that's very different than my experience.

I spent over an hour yesterday on the phone and was quickly escalated to a senior support specialist who uploaded a ton of diagnostic information from my Air to send to engineering. They are supposed to call me back on Friday.

on another forum they say it is related to multiple accounts, which is the case on mine: I have two sessions opened at the same time. I'll try using just one session at a time and see what happens;

interestingly I noticed I am able to move from my 1st session to my second via the little icon in the top nav bar, but the way back from my 2nd to my 1st session is not possible: the icon is hidden in this case.

Not sure, but there may be an issue with the management of multiple sessions/accounts.

Yeah- having single account may be a workaround, but is not a solution. I'm planning to do some further tests over the weekend as I need to remove my daughter’s account which is being used for remote lessons intra week. testing with user logged out as a workaround sounds also reasonable - looking forward for your feedback.

I have the exact issue still trying to figure out what's going on, have everything disabled would be nice if a dev replied, but when finding a solution will post again. If any one finds out please share.

It's not having multiple user accounts that is related to the issue -- it is Fast User Switching -- logging in on top of another user account.

The background account's screensaver seems to be inappropriately activating and taking over the screen.

Screen saver is disabled on both of my accounts and still it's triggered unexpectedly, while these accounts are both logged in;

I tried today using only one of them simultaneously, and didn't encounter the issue

Same here - I have screensaver set to never on both my accounts and it is still happening.

I will try to do some further testing with both having a single user logged in at a time and fast user switching disabled (which as I can see force the former anyways) to prove the workaround, but I think this still applies for the fix if being able to logged in via multiple users at the same time is a feature expected to work.

I am having this issue as well. I will be actively using my MacBook Air M1 and the screensaver will randomly turn on, rendering the computer unusable. No keystroke, trackpad input or anything will turn off the screensaver.

I will add, I have found that you do not have to completely shutdown the computer to turn off the screensaver. You can shut the laptop lid and open back up and it will turn it off. Even though this is a solution, this is not an ideal experience and certainly not the intended design.

Here's to hoping there will be a a fix to resolve this issue.

If you have "the exact same issue" under the same conditions, your solution is already posted above.

(as a work-around): Avoid Fast User Switching -- that is, logging in a new user before logging out the old User .

If you have a substantially different setup, or some different conditions, that mean those solutions do not work for you, please describe in excruciating detail.

Same issue for me 3x so far on MacBook Pro M1 with Big Sur 11.0.1. One of my 2 Fast Switch accounts had the screen saver enabled. Have disabled that so hopefully will not happen again.

Helpful tip on other forum was do Cmd+Shift+Q then Enter. Will log you out so quicker than rebooting!!

I’m afraid this itself will not help. I had screensaver disabled on both accounts and issue still occurs.

I’ve logged out from one account today and left fast user switching enabled - issue still occurs.

I have disabled now fast user switching completely - will see how it goes.

I am also having this problem on MacBook Pro 17,1. What I have found as a workaround though is to hit the power button which then takes you to the Lock Screen. Then choose switch user, then select the user you were previously using and type in the password for that user again. This seems to "unlock" the stuck screen saver. Very annoying though.

I happened upon a quick workaround - I have "Put Display to Sleep" as one of my hot corners, so if the screensaver pops on unexpectedly, I can put the mouse in that corner, and then wake the screen up again and I'm back in. No logging out, no closing lid, no hard restarts.

Not great though, and, I agree, something that really does need fixing.