Password keyboard entry unresponsive on my 2018 15" MacBook Pro after manual screen sleep followed by login timeout.

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Password keyboard entry unresponsive on my 2018 15" MacBook Pro after manual screen sleep followed by login timeout.

My 2018 15" MacBook Pro, running Big Sur 11.6, with an external 27" usb-c connected monitor, will consistently refuse to let me enter my login password after I manually put the display to sleep (via a hot-corner mouse position), followed by my login timing out. I can bring up the login screen, where it's requesting me to type in my password (because the fingerprint login has timed out), but after I click on the password input box location, both the laptop keyboard and logitech bluetooth keyboard are unable to input any key strokes to the password box. My only remaining option is to hold down the power (fingerprint login) button on the upper right of the keyboard until the mac reboots. This is a consistently and easily recreatable problem/issue.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bruce

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Oct 14, 2021 2:54 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BruJohnson Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 18, 2021 12:08 PM in response to ColleenD1

Colleen,

Thank you for the suggestion to try the Mac without the external monitor (Dell S2719DC). That did prevent the hang. I've run my MBP with that external monitor since I bought them both in Jan 2019, and this issue just began within the last 2-3 months, so I didn't think to try removing the monitor.

I then went on to try a variety of other changes (none worked), including:

removing usb-a webcam and mic/headphone, hooked to back of 27" monitor,
removing usb-c backup drive, hooked to laptop,
replacing the bluetooth keyboard/mouse with usb connected keyboard/mouse,
removing the Logitech Options software, used for optional configurations to the bluetooth keyboard/mouse,
powering the laptop with the standard power supply rather than relying only on the monitor's usb-c supplied power,
bringing the laptop up in safe mode by holding down the shift-key while powering up.

The only thing the prevented the machine from hanging was to remove the external 27" monitor.

I'm now running the MacBook Pro without an external monitor, and instead have the external monitor hooked to a Lenovo P53 laptop (Feb 2020) workstation running Linux Ubuntu 20.04, which works fine. The bulk of the work that I do on the larger screen I can do on either Mac OSX or Linux, though it is easier on the Mac.

Thanks again for your help,

Bruce

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Answer 2

ColleenD1

Community Specialist

Oct 15, 2021 1:08 PM in response to BruJohnson

Hi BruJohnson,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're having an issue with your keyboards after the MacBook Pro goes to sleep. We'd like to help.

Have you tried to see if this issue happens if you're just using the MacBook Pro without the connected monitor? This can help you start to isolate this issue. Then, booting into Safe Mode may isolate this even futher: How to use safe mode on your Mac

Let us know how that goes.

Cheers!

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Answer 3

ColleenD1

Community Specialist

Oct 20, 2021 6:22 AM in response to BruJohnson

BruJohnson,

We appreciate the updates on what you've been trying. Sounds like you were on your way to resolving this but that didn't pan out.

At this point, since the issue is isolated to when the MacBook Pro is connected to the external monitor, it may be best to Contact Apple Support to see if they have any other suggestions.

If you need help again in the future, we'll be here.

Take care!

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Answer 4

BruJohnson Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 18, 2021 6:16 PM in response to BruJohnson

Success! It's now working fine.

In System Preferences / Desktop & Screen Savers / Hot Corners (upper right), I changed the selection from "Put Display to Sleep" to "Start Screen Saver", and the issue went away. Now when I slide my cursor to the upper right corner of my laptop (which sits to the right of the external monitor) the Hot Corner invokes the Screen Saver ("Album Artwork"), and the MBP doesn't hang after my login times out. While there is still likely an issue with putting the display to sleep and then having the login timeout, I have a very acceptable work around.

Thanks again!

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Answer 5

BruJohnson Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 19, 2021 4:54 PM in response to BruJohnson

Problem Not solved. I retract my previous "Success!" comment. The problem has returned. Changing the Hot Corner to "Start Screen Saver" temporarily prevented the problem, but upon a full reboot, the problem returned. The problem still appears to be dependent upon having an external monitor hooked up to the MacBook Pro.

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Password keyboard entry unresponsive on my 2018 15" MacBook Pro after manual screen sleep followed by login timeout.

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