2020 Mac mini M1. The screen saver has been randomly coming on. Moving the mouse or pressing a key does nothing. I can see the cursor moving around so I know that that input is still working. The few times it has happened so far I’ve had to hold the power button in to shut it down and restart. I have disabled screen saver in system settings. I’m wondering if this is a bug with Big Sur.
That's happened to me a few times, too. Same deal: screensaver is set to off but it suddenly comes on anyway, no clicking or typing will wake it. But I found that if I close and reopen the lid it'll go away, no need for a force restart!
[EDIT: Sorry, I missed the bit that you're on a Mac Mini, so the lid trick is not an option for you. I'm on an M1 MBP.]
I am having the exact same issue - using a new Apple mini M1 running Big Sur 11.1, - I have found as a work around touch the power button to send the Mac mini to sleep and then once its sleeping - wake up and it gets you back in, that at least avoids a force restart. Seems to be getting worse so have logged an apple support case
It's a bug I guess, - completely threw me when it first did it, I thought maybe I had inadvertently hit the screen saver hot corner but I cannot replicate, I have also checked console logs and nothing stands out. Hopefully 11.2 will fix it :)
I'm having this too and found that sometimes pressing power doesn't work either - so my workaround is to press CTRL+SHIFT+EJECT
Seems to work.
I think it's something to do with fast user switching, I have two profiles set and switch between them, the screensaver seems to come on within the primary profile, even though I don't have a screensaver set.
Hi - I press CTRL+SHIFT+EJECT, I'm using the magic keyboard and eject is the one to the right of F12.
Kills the screensaver, in fact screen goes black, I then hit return to get back in.
It's a pain, I hope they sort it soon.
Try setting Energy Saver to "Turn display off after..." to never (far right seting) and uncheck Put hard disks to sleep when possible. Reboot.
I have changed these settings it has still happened. Infrequently but still not right.
I just got the MacMini, M1, 2020 and experienced my first unexpected screensaver. I could do nothing expect hold the power button and then restart. This really sucks!
Another work around is to touch the power button to send the Mac mini to sleep and then once its sleeping - wake up - that avoids the restart
I haven’t tried that. Noob question, what’s the eject button? Or are you on MBP/MBA?
That’s worked for me as well. However the last couple times it didn’t so had to do hard shutdowns.
Do you mean the esc key? I am having same problem
Screensaver randomly coming on
