Apple Studio Display black after selecting an unsupported or incorrect resolution on a Mac Studio M1 Max

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Level 1

8 points

Apple Studio Display black after selecting an unsupported or incorrect resolution on a Mac Studio M1 Max

I just solved an issue where I used EasyRes to change the display to 2560 x 1880, which is an incorrect / unsupported resolution. Since this utility doesn't have fall back error handling, where it asks you to confirm the selected resolution, the screen went black and stayed there.

Hooking up a 2nd display allowed the Studio Display to operate normally, but as soon as that 2nd display was removed the Studio Display went black. Changing the Thunderbolt port the Studio Display was plugged into didn't resolve the issue.

Rebooting into Recover Mode by holding down the power button allowed the Studio Display to function, but starting into Safe Mode would result in the same black screen. Booting into Options from Recovery Mode and reinstalling the operating system (macOS Monterey) didn't resolve the issue.

I eventually found this article and this site: How do I restore the display settings - Apple Community. It's a different setup than what I had, but I figured since nothing else had worked why not delete these two files:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist

/Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.*

Thankfully deleting those two files* and shutting down the system, then booting back up, resolved the issue! Why they were't removed during reinstallation and/or why they were being read during Safe Mode booting is beyond me. I've updated the Mac+ Sr. Advisor of my findings, so hopefully this gets back to the engineers.

*If you don't have a second monitor you'll need to boot into Recovery Mode, go into Options, launch Terminal, and use the UNIX commands to navigate the folder structure to those two locations, and delete those two files.

Mac Studio

Posted on Dec 25, 2022 4:57 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 26, 2022 1:30 AM in response to Daren_SF

I seem to have the same issue: I mistakenly clicked on a [I suppose unsupported] resolution for my Studio Display and the screen went black. I tried waiting and restarting in Safe Mode but nothing seems to work and the screen remains black.

I only have the Studio Display for my M1 Max Mac Studio so I tried locating these files via the Terminal but they do not seem to be present and I am currently stuck with the black screen. I am running macOS Ventura.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

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Answer 2

Daren_SF Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 26, 2022 8:32 AM in response to riccardomenny

Do note that what I did was to reinstall the macOS (Monterey in my case) using Recovery Mode. That didn't work so I then deleted the two files listed, restarted, and it worked.

So perhaps try that? I found this handy guide this morning (2022-12-26) on Terminal commands: https://www.macupdate.com/how-to/mac-terminal-commands-list

Tip: You can command-click on the folder icon in the Terminal window to see a drop down list of the folder path you're in. The "ls" command will list the contents of that folder by filename. Important to know for the "By Host" path since it might have a string of numbers where the "*" is in that path.

The Sr. Tech I was working it did assure me that reinstalling macOS wouldn't affect my user data. I can say that my Steermouse registration was lost and had to be reentered. But that's it.

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Answer 3

Dec 26, 2022 8:39 AM in response to Daren_SF

Thank you. I ended up formatting my disk and reinstalling macOS (Monterey) which did work, without needing to delete those files. I am glad I was able to fix the issue but it’s pretty annoying that just selecting a wrong resolution can cause such major issues. I hope Apple engineers will investigate and fix the issue in the future.

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