M1 Mac Mini, Displays wont turn on after wake from sleep

Abandon all hope of any fix - my 2018 Intel Mac minis still have the issue (there are long threads on these forums about that).

What I've found works (for me) is to ssh in from my 2012 Mac mini (running FreeBSD, but I doubt that matters) which wakes the Mac mini and also the monitor. I also have "Wake for network access" set in Energy Saver in Preferences.

That's the whole point - I want my MBA 13 M1 to go to sleep to limit electricity usage/be more eco as well as ensure the hardware lasts as long as possible although with no fans and virtually no heating on the M1 it should not shorten life span of my mac significantly as opposed to overheating Intel ones.

Someone suggested ticking then unticking Mirror Displays in Displays in System Preferences and apparently it solved this problem for them (it was for older Macs though). I did that and since yesterday am getting 100% all monitors wake ups - will report when get a failed one again.

@hcsitas - not as entertaining as your unhelpful replies to the first question asked here.

@others - so far not a single time the problem reoccured when ticked and then unticked the 'Display mirror' checkbox in display settings.

I was having a similar problem with a M1 Mini connected to a monitor and it was not always waking up. In an "Aha!" (or perhaps "Doh") moment, I rerouted the USB3 to mini DisplayPort cable away from all power cords. I have had no problems for a couple of weeks.

I bought a M1 MAC MINI less than a weeks ago. I was using a HDMI-to-VGA adapter to connect to an ASUS 24" monitor. The screen went black (not blank) during the migration assistance process. I tried each of the following methods and each worked just once (after the next sleep, or restart of the machine): clicked on power button; turned off, unplugged monitor; unplugged mac mini. The migration was successful, but the screen never recovered, so the mini was worthless to me. The solution: I took it to the Apple store, and they (said they) updated the firmware, and whatever ware required. The result: The screen works ok now after many tests with restart, sleep, shutdown. But, it works only if I used the USBC-to-VGA adapter; i.e. the HDMI-to-VGA still does not work at all. I do not intend to bother Apple (and myself) in the short term for this HDMI problem. (Note: When I got my MINI back from Apple, the first time I turned on power, the screen was again blank or black, until I unplugged the MINI power cord while the MINI power was still up: That is another trick, then, or another worry, isn't it?)

I have discovered something that seems to make a difference in my particular setup.

Into the left-hand thunderbolt/USBC port I've got a monitor connected via an HDMI>USBC adaptor.

Into the right-hand thunderbolt/USBC port I have an external SDD drive connected.

In this arrangement, I don't seem to have problems with that monitor failing to wake up.

However, with the monitor plugged in via the right-hand port, I do. This is how I had it previously - and was continually having problems. When I swapped it around (unintentionally) when moving my computer, the problem went away.

I tried swapping it back and the problem returned. I've now swapped it back again and things seem to be OK.

Won't be surprised if it starts happening again for some unknown reason though!

Having a monitor plugged into the left-hand USBC/Thunderbolt port, instead of the right-hand one, continues to make quite an improvement for me. I don't now have the same problems waking from sleep.

I do still have some issues restarting from a shutdown though. Installing 11.5.2 does not seem to have made a difference.

Disable sleep.

Disable sleep, be happy.

There’s a software update out today (11.1) Hopefully this fixes the problem.

Same here with an EIZO display connected via Thunderbolt to Display port adapter.

To get around this problem I use a display port switch.

I did purchase a USB C hub adapter (Brand: XSPUS for $19) from Amazon and tested it ( just plugged this hub to one of thunderbolt 3 on mac mini and plugged a HDMA cable between the hub and the monitor). I have had no issue with it anymore....I hope this will help you out..

As said before not a single time since yesterday have had this problem after ticking then unticking "Mirror Displays" checkbox in Preferences > Displays > Arrangement tab - maybe this is a workaround for some and this forum has solved my problem after all - time will tell and will report back in a couple of weeks time.

This is likely to be a hardware issue connected with low level of HDMI sygnal, but fortunately solvable, though still irritable. I like to think I may have figured that out and I hope that this will help you lot. one day, I was watching Netflix when I was called off on an errand, after which I found my Mac Mini (M1) asleep. Normally, it would on occasion unlock with my iWatch, but then again sometimes I would get the haptic reaction on my watch and nothing would happen, and I had to hard-reboot it, which obviously I hate, because of data corruption issues that may ensue. That one time, however, I discovered that the Mini did wake up, because I could start and pause Netflix. While this may not be an issue on Apple monitors, apparently the signal was too week for my 27" widescreen Samsung display. It was getting some signal, but apparently not enough to wake it, and it kept swotching between HDMI and analogue (VGA). The reason why I think I think it was generating HDMI signal as opposed to no signal is that when there indeed is no signal, the display says check cable, no signal message, which it wouldn't on all previous instances.

NOW FOR THE SOLUTION: I disconnected my iWatch charger, that was permanently hooked to the Mini for convenience. This seems to have worked like a charm (fingers crossed), and I can only guess that the charger was draining just too much power for the HDMI signal to conform to the level needed to wake my display.

I tried doing this last night also. Set the system for the monitor to never turn off and just turned the monitor off manually when I was done with it for the day. I am connected by HDMI. So far that seems to work!