Mac Air M1 dropdown menu not responding.

I had a similar problem using my MacBook Air M1, sys 11.1, with an LG 5K external monitor. In clamshell mode I had non-responsive dropdown menus too. Using WormEapple's suggestion I changed the monitor resolution from the current setting (in my case I was at the default resolution) to a higher resolution then back again. The menus then responded as normal.

Because the menus were non-responsive it was tricky to get to the system preferences to change the monitor setting. To get there I used the control settings next to the time and date in the upper right corner of the screen (not sure of the proper name for that little control center). When you roll over the Display Brightness setting a caret is exposed that provides access to the display settings control panel.

Changing the resolution to a higher or lower res and then back alleviates the issue temporarily. It's not a fix but a work around that gets you working again without a reboot. I have had it happen on my M1 Air about once a week and this has worked each time.

Same here (4k monitor, clamshell mode). Confirmed that changing the resolution temporarily fixes the issue.

My monitor seems to prefer "Scaled" rather than "Default for display".

Same problem here with my M1 Macbook Air: Every few days after waking the Macbook up (using it in clamshell mode with an external LG monitor), the left side of the menubar is unresponsive. Hot corners also don't work (that's usually how I notice it, because I use the upper left corner for Mission Control).

I haven't found a real solution yet, BUT: You don't need to reboot to fix it, logging out and logging in again is enough.

How to log out if you can't use the menubar: For Alfred users, it's easy, just type "log" in the Alfred search window and it shows a "log out" option. If you don't use Alfred, you can use a terminal command:

launchctl bootout user/$(id -u username)

Where you replace "username" with your actual username (if you want to log out other users this way, you need to use sudo). You could also create an alias for this. Open a terminal, edit .zshrc ("nano .zshrc") and insert this line:

alias logout='sudo launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u username)'

Yep, slightly different as the command above, I just copied what's in my .zshrc. Both works.

Not really a solution, but at least it's more convenient than rebooting.

Same problem with unresponsive menus (normally noticing it in Safari and Google Chrome) occurring on my MacBook Air M1 when I use it in clamshell mode with an LG UltraFine 24 external monitor. The easiest way to get them working again is just lifting the MacBook lid/screen for a few secs (as already mentioned by others here). Not a big issue, so I'm hopeful it will get fixed soon.

I have the exact same problem nearly every time my MacBook Air m1 resumes from Sleep (clamshell mode with external display). Workaround (change external display back from 100hz to standard) is also working...

Everyone - I found that by changing the resolution on the external monitor - an Apple Thunderbolt 2015 - and then changing it back again to max resolution, it seemed to 'unlock' this issue.

Got figure????????

Hey WormEapple,

We see that you're unable to use the dropdown menu on your Mac, and we'd like to help!

To help us further isolate the issue, let's try booting your Mac in safe mode and log in to a new user account. Please follow the steps from the articles below and let us know how it goes:

• How to use safe mode on your Mac

• Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Best regards.

This happens to me, too, and it's almost always after waking the computer up in clamshell mode with an external monitor. First, it takes several minutes for it to even wake up the monitor. Then, when it does, the monitor colors are inverted. Unplug/replug the monitor connection usually fixes that, but then the menu bar is not clickable. The icon tray on the upper right still works fine, the dock works fine, apps work fine, but the menus aren't clickable. They do update as you change apps, though.

Restarting fixes it for a while, but something about waking up throws the M1 MacBooks for a loop, especially it seems when in clamshell mode.

Same problem here. But the reboot is unnecessary – if you lift a lid of the Macbook for a couple of seconds and then close it again, the menubar on external monitor is accessible again. It is just a workaround, but it helps.

it happens on my external monitor (a Samsung 34" Ultra wide) when my laptop is closed. A workaround I’ve discovered through reddit is to open my MacBook to enable its display, then close it again.

Hope this issue will get fixed in the next OS update, it is very annoying for the price we pay for a MBP :(

Exactly the same problem, and the same solution. Resetting the external display to standard, and the menus is working again.

One trick I have found which is helpful is to define a hot corner (in the screen saver settings) that puts the display to sleep.

When you try to get the mac to wake up, but it does not wake up the screen, assume that it is actually awake and log in. That is, type your password blind and hit enter. If it wakes up the screen then, great. If not, move to the hot corner with the mouse, wait a second or two, and then move the mouse out of the hot corner. A lot of times this will wake up the screen for me.

If the screen comes up with the yellow/inverted/whatever color scheme, use the hot corner to sleep the screen, then wake it up again with the mouse. This is just as effective as unplugging/replugging the monitor cord, but without the wear and tear on the USB-C port.

I haven't really run into a situation where I actually had to reboot to fix it. Sleeping & waking the screen a few times has always worked.

Good luck, and along with everyone else I sincerely hope Apple has a fix for this in the pipeline.