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

So I was on a 70 mins call with a senior tech team member today and he told me that this is a reported issue with new OS and their engineers are working on it, hopefully new update with sort it.

I was advised to put the lid down and wait for 10 seconds and laptop should work fine. Not ideal when every 15 minutes I have to shut the lid but that’s the best that could be done for now. 🥺

Brand new MBP and this issue started in my third week. Tried everything with no success. Closed and reopened the lid in frustration and everything was back to normal. It’s happened multiple times since with the open and close clearing the issue up. Frustrating though.

Check whether the menu for "fast user switching" is enabled (independent on whether you use fast user switching or not). I disabled it, and so far I didn't have the issue again.

Configuration / Users & Groups / Login Options / uncheck the item "Show fast user switching menu as..."

I have found that setting a hot corner to turn the display off works as a workaround. If the screensaver comes on, I pop the cursor in that corner, wait for the display to turn off, and bring the cursor out of that corner - the display turns back on and the screensaver is gone. No need to shut the lid.

Same issue here too, making machine unusable. Maxed out brand new Macbook Pro M1. :(. Could someone from APPL comment here on whether this is addressed in 11.2? If not, I need to return the machine before the return window closes.

Welcome to the Apple User-to-User Support Communities. Readers are other Users like you. Apple employees rarely post here.

Apple never promises what is in unreleased software. If the work-around of disabling Fast User Switching does not solve the problem for you, start your return immediately.

Same issue on two different M1 MacBook pros. One on Big Sur 11.0 and one on 11.1. I trouble shooted for hours with Apple support and finally exchanged it it for a new one. 4 days in with the new one and I am having the same problem. Super bummed because it’s a phenomenal laptop but this problem looks extremely widespread judging by the amount of people with the same issue. Wonder if it is an Big Sur problem or an M1 problem?

For what it is worth this happens frequently to me as well on a new Dec 31 2020 Macbook air. I have my SS set to never and after the last episode enabled hot corners. While actually scrolling a website page it came on. I was not aware of the close lid solution, thanks for that.

After I tried couple of things, with unresponsive screen saver still showing up, I have a quick and dirty solution. I just closed my MBP screen, waited a sec, and pulled it back up. I didn't have to enter my login and the screen saver is gone. I miss my SJ

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20 min since I posted it happened again to me.. but with a twist. A blank screen, had a mouse pointer and a black screen, the closed lid thing worked though.

After a 30 year Microsoft user I am trying to convince my wife "Apple" is worth trying.. if this happens while she is using this Macbook.. a good chance the battle is lost.

I don’t have any accessories connected, so it may be a bit different to your use case. Did you touch any key after it is showing blank screen ? I am sure Apple will release a patch to fix this annoying issue. Until then, Hide your MBP from your wife. My 1st MBP is from 2006 and still works great even after I can’t upgrade OS for past 7 yrs. I am very frustrated as well for such a simple thing can’t work properly, but overall MBP experience is great and I see more pros than cons.

I do think it is BigSur issue. Not related to hardware. Whoever returned for new one or painfully reinstalled Bigsur not going to see it go away. Best is to find one or two workarounds that works for one

No, just moved the mouse around to see if my hot corners did anything then closed the lid. Before the lid trick the only way out for me was to hit that of/on button (probably has a proper name) that is at the top right on my keyboard, still even there it was hit and miss with often enough going right back into the SS.

Yes, pretty sure Apple will fix it with a patch sooner or later. I hope they include one for the other aggravations as well. A scroll bar that is a sliver and hard to grab. Fix the mouse pad when a bluetooth mouse is nearby thing.

I closed the lid for a second it worked, I found this one more convenient than setting up hot corners to being it back. The point is why do we need to do it after we disabled screen saver and it still shows up?

I agree that it's most likely a Big Sur OS issue and not related to hardware. So reinstalling Big Sur might not solve the problem. For me, this problem started when I enabled hot corners and disappeared when I disabled hot corners. Apple needs to update Big Sur or whatever that causes this frustrating problem.