Turning off Macbook Display when using External Display on Lion

Please please please give us back this feature! I updated and like most people here I also ran my macbook with the internal display turned off and an external monitor attached. Why the **** did they have to change this is beyond me.

Same here. I read the article about the external displays, but this is obviously for Snow Leopard and hasn't been upadted for Lion. It is truly annoying that I cannot have my MacBook lid oped, while having display on it turned off. Apple, please, can you add some options to choose from?! I know that someone is happy with this status like this guyhttp://usingapple.com/2011/05/mac-os-lion-handles-external-monitor-better-video/, but it is really not cool!

Wow, this is a hot topic. I kown that there is no third-party software and plug-ins which can solve the problem. I kinnda have a suggestion. I hope Apple can consider our request.

We should be able to choose the display mode from the following:

1. Turn on 2 displays at the same time using one of them as extention display ( the apple preference)

2. Only external display ( whatever you open or close the lid) By saying this mode, I am not talking about SL, that's even more stupid. You close the lid to make it go to sleep and the wake it up using a keyboard or mouse. This is stupid!!! We should be able to directly turn off the orginal display!

3. Mirroring base on external display ratio but the internal resolution because no external display will have less pixels.

4. Mirroing base on internal display ratio and the internal resolution.

I think if we can chose from this 4 modes, it will satisfy most people.

Same issue here. This ranks right up there with Apple's design flaw that requires power adapter with external display. So, you can use an external display, but then you'll kill your battery life through unnecessary cycling.

On a Late 2007 Macbook, place the magnet above the Kensington security hole. Since the internal HD is on the other side, this should be OK as long as you don't overdo it. Keep in mind some fridge magnets (especially the printed vinyl kind) may not be strong enough.

Another method may be to use the pmset command in Terminal. Use the command pmset -g to find out your Power Manger settings, including the hidden ones, for the power source you're using at the moment. If you find the line lidwake 1 at the end, you can change this with sudo pmset lidwake 0. Keep in mind this will always disable waking up while raising the lid with that power source, not just when an external display is connected. To change it back, use sudo pmset lidwake 1 or reset the SMC.

I'll agree this is annoying, especially since my MacBook tends to overheat when run with the lid closed (I may have cooked a battery this way) and I'd been dealing with random-shutdown problems when using my MacBook as a DVR with EyeTV.

Furthermore..

They need to allow for the lid, clamshell to remain up and OFF while you use an external display. My older 2007 MBP cannot properly get a decent STRONG signal for my airport when its closed. The Mbps is obviously slower. My understandig is the antenna is housed within the keel of the clamshell?. Runniung Speedtest 3 times tells me this is the case. C'mon Apple - Give us control over display options like before.. please.

This magnet Mod is awesome! You can have the benefits of Instant Clam Shell Mode (no sleeping) and having the pre-Lion functionality. I have an early 2009 MacBook Pro and the "sweet spot" for the magnet seems to be on the side where the power switch is. It's at the bottom of the speaker, and the magnet attaches at a slant. I can live with this until Apple decides to issue a fix.

As far as the magnet causing problems, there's a magnet in the display that mates up to the one by the speaker. I don't see this beign a problem. We arew just using a different magnet to initiate Clam Shell mode rather than the one in the display.

Btw: there is one of the lid "close-holding" magnets next to the HDD..

Uh, that magnet is on the other side of the machine from the drive... but I am oldschool and used to use floppies, and so super paranoid.

Hi

I cut a 1/4 x 1/4 flat thin rubber magnet. They are on the back of magnetic business cars and some cheap calendars at OfficeMax. It is soft and weak.

On a early 2011 it is on the left side bottom left corner of the speaker grille on top just above the SD card slot even with the SD opening.

Mmm, if there is a factory magnet there, would you say it is ok when you have a SD card pluged in the slot. I will try a cheap on and see if I can read the data on it.

Lady Engineer wrote:

I cut a 1/4 x 1/4 flat thin rubber magnet...etc

Apple, are you seeing this? People are finding this Lion functionality so problematic that they are experimenting with magnets and risking data corruption. Please get a grip on this problem before your product becomes a laughing stock. How long before you start seeing solutions involving sticking plasters and gaffer tape?

Here the magnet sweet spot on an Early 2009 MacBook Pro.

I also used the old feature of the Mac Bookpro waking when the external monitor was attached. I never uset the laptop when at my desk always my large monitor. PLEASE undo this!!!! I like so many ohters want this to performe like it did in Snow Leapord.

This is such an amazing oversight by Apple. I am near ready to get rid of my Macbook Pro. This is absolutely required functionality for business users doing presentations. Its fairly typical during presentations to connect the laptop to an external projector and then shut down the laptop screen so that you can use the full resolution of the projector (importants for things like software demo etc where maximizing screen space really helps).

With current Macbook setup all I can do for presentations is enable mirroring which means that the max resolution I can display with on a projector with my 13.3 is 1280x800!!

APPLE have you lost it????

This is such an amazing oversight by Apple. I am near ready to get rid of my Macbook Pro. This is absolutely required functionality for business users doing presentations. Its fairly typical during presentations to connect the laptop to an external projector and then shut down the laptop screen so that you can use the full resolution of the projector (importants for things like software demo etc where maximizing screen space really helps).

With current Macbook setup all I can do for presentations is enable mirroring which means that the max resolution I can display with on a projector with my 13.3 is 1280x800!!

APPLE have you lost it????

Respectfully speaking, above is total crap. I just did a preso in keynote/lion yesterday and all went perfectly. First, u don't need mirroring and in keynote, you set up the laptop to display the speaker notes/timer/etc. The external projector can project to a resolution supported by the projector. Some projectors don't support high res, some do. If you don't want to see what's on the laptop, you can just dim the display...it won't harm anything. Second, if you need to show something mirrored, don't use the app in fullscreen and everything works just as it did in SL. Well, good luck with your rantings. 🙂

Lol. About 10 minutes after writing my comment I figured out that you can make the external display primary which allows you to use the full resolution of the external display (without mirroring enabled ofcourse). So I sort of take back what I had said. I dont mind that the Macbook screen stays on when the external display is primary. Yes you can simply dim the screen all the way to shut it down. However ideally there should be an option to turn off the macbook display altogether in such a configuration. Reason being that by simply dimming the screen you are not freeing up the video card RAM completely and your card+processor is still working double time to render on both displays.

That said, I dont care about that much. Presentations are not a power hog anyways and if I really want to do something truly extensive i'll put the laptop in clamshell mode and connect an external keyboard.

So comment taken back (95% of it atleast!) :-)

For anyone wondering what to do (if it was not already clear from the abundant posts on this thread). To use your external display to its full capacity with the macbook pro lid open:

1. Connect the External display

2. Make the External display the primary display. You can do this through Display preferences by dragging the menu bar from one display to another. But an easier way is to use the keyboard shortcut. Cmd+F1 . Works like a charm.

3. Dim the macbook display to shut the screen off if it irritates you.

Switching back and forth primary displays between external screen and macbook is extremely easy with the keyboard shortcut. I would have been rather unpleased if I had to go to display preferences everytime!

Presentation problem solved... 🙂