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Sonoma: Macbook Pro (M1 2020) Touch Bar is not working after update (Flickers during restart then once logged in, it disappears)

I upgraded to Sonoma yesterday on my Macbook Pro (M1 2020). Touch Bar keeps flickering during startup (looks like it is glitching) then once logged in, it disappears. What could be a issue?

Tried safe mode, tried sudo pkill from terminal, and everything else online.


Could this be a hardware failure because of Sonoma?




MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Sep 30, 2023 11:33 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 7, 2023 6:11 PM

I upgraded to Sonoma and experienced Touch Bar strobing after upgrade. I reinstalled it again thinking I had a bad build. After fresh install, Touch Bar strobed until it went dark. Now I don't have an escape key which is irritating. I've tried everything online to fix it to no avail. In addition my activity monitor crashes every time I open it!


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48 replies

May 26, 2024 9:21 PM in response to MoTahboub

I am also experiencing this issue and sometimes have troubles booting up the laptop. Also on MBP m1 2020 with 14.5 (23F79). Don't really know if it's the physical damage of the touchbar or just a software glitch. It's really annoying cause I can't boot up the system for a while. Did you try switching it off and on via terminal? killall -STOP "ControlStrip" / kill -CONT pidnum

Oct 1, 2023 2:35 AM in response to MoTahboub

Try this to reset the SMC of your Mac

Make sure that your Mac is plugged into power, then take one of these actions. 

  • Restart: Choose Apple menu  > Restart.
  • Or shut down: Choose Apple menu  > Shut Down. Then press the power button on your Mac to turn it on again.



If this is not working, please boot your Mac in the safe mode to see if the issue persist


  1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.
  2. Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.
  3. Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.
  4. Select a volume.
  5. Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.
  6. The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.


If it does not persist in the safe mode, it is caused by an external piece of software, you might want to evaluate the software you've installed on your Mac.


For your question if this is a hardware error caused by Sonoma, I want to stress that correlation is not always causality. What I want to say with that is that the error might have occurred after updating to Sonona, it is not yet proven that it is Caused by the update to Sonoma.

Oct 4, 2023 5:28 AM in response to UdniwEcam

apparently, i have an apple silicon computer w/ an "apple m2"' chip & the only instructions of resetting the smc is to just simply restart the computer ....which doesn’t work & has never worked for the touch bar issue. i've also gone to multiple genius bars at multiple different apple store locations just to be gaslit love that for me

Nov 13, 2023 6:27 PM in response to MoTahboub

See, I have the same model and issue. Mine is like it is frozen. It will recognize a few commands but most of the time, it just sits. If I hit a button, it will spasm and flicker for a second before doing some random command. The rest of the time it just sits frozen and useless. I have tried the pkill and the power, ctrl, opt, shift and none have worked.

Nov 22, 2023 9:41 AM in response to MoTahboub

Hi, I have the same problem on a Macbook Pro 13 Intel Late 2018. After upgrading to Sonoma the Touch Bar doesn't work. It doesn't turn on. I checked everything, did various resets and tried all the various solutions but nothing. It worked perfectly before.


I noticed that the Touchbar process in the system monitor is not active. Is it possible to launch the process via terminal? I don't know what else to check

Dec 7, 2023 6:51 PM in response to MoTahboub

So I have the similar issue with strobing but mine is a bit different. I have a 2020 M1 Mac Pro. When I upgraded to Sonoma, the touchbar froze completely and I couldn't access any of the commands. However, when I jumped through all the recommended hoops, I ended up with a strobing touchbar that constantly sent commands to my computer. I had to change the settings because I can't turn it off. I have it set to window control, which is the least damaging because when it starts strobing, all it does is switch windows really fast.

Sonoma: Macbook Pro (M1 2020) Touch Bar is not working after update (Flickers during restart then once logged in, it disappears)

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