Turning off Macbook Display when using External Display on Lion

The magnet tip definitely works on my macbook air 13, winter '12. The spot is near the power input, toward the top left of the keyboard,left of the tilde key.

Once powered, which is fast thanks to the half decent stock ssd drive, i'll just swipe the magnet by that area if i'm lucky, the integrated panel display will shut off and stay off. I don't feel comfortable leaving the magnet there, but that would work. It's just a way for me to test my luck. Sometimes I can pull it off in one shot multiple days in a row.... usually takes 2-3 swipes..

terminal method did not work at and the hot corners method is cumbersome.

if i had a weaker little magnet at my disposal, that would be perfect.

For the late 2013 15" Retina MacBook, the magnet spot is right next to the audio jack. The hot corners method doesn't work, it puts both displays to sleep.

Still, it should be simple for Apple to provide a nice polished solution. Funny enough, this is the most annoying lacking feature since I made the transition from Linux to Mac OS. In Linux it's as simple as "xrandr --output LVDS1 --off".

hmmm

I came here looking for a solution. You do know this right?

sudo nvram boot-args="iog=0x0"
This reverses the "Clamshell" mode for Apple's laptop systems, where when you close the display but connect the system to an external monitor and keyboard the system will stay awake. After running this command, when connecting an external monitor, the internal display will be disabled, which can be beneficial in some situations such as those where you are mirroring your desktop but wish to run the external display at a higher resolution than your laptop can run.

Fear of terminal is apparently helping the fridge magnet business. Of course, you can always use fridge magnets, and they are pretty fun. Spell out witty things and post fridge wisdom. Also, you can warn people to stop doing stuff.

Very useful.

Nevermind, read in some other posts you have to restart with the lid closed or boot with the lid closed. After doing this step it works and the laptop display stays off with the lid open.

Do you have you have to do this everytime? (reboot-lid closed or boot with lid closed)

After reading about several ways to do this, this seems to be the one that makes the most sense. It doesn't seem to work for me, though.

I use two external displays with a late-2013 15" MBP. After executing the command and restarting with the lid closed, it seems to act as though there are two displays, but only one actually gets any input. The internal display stays off, which is the desired effect.

A little more detail: I'm able to open system prefs and mess with the Display settings. No changes I make will bring the second external screen on (turn mirroring on/off, reposition the menu bar, drag the monitors around). I say it seems to detect the second monitor because I can 'lose' my mouse off one side of the screen that does come on. The display that works is connected using Thunderbolt(MiniDisplayport) to HDMI, the one that doesn't work is connected HDMI to HDMI.

If anyone has gotten two external displays to work with the internal display turned off on an rMBP running Mavericks, please let me know how!

i found a solution for this.. my solution is to put a fridge magnet on the lower left speaker.. so the laptop thinks the lid is closed and so the display is off.. lol.. try it.. it works..

Don't need to do that. I posted some method here in page 17

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3190417?start=60&tstart=0

I have the same request. I hate Apple's display setting. Windows is way better. Wait for a good answer from Apple together.

Have you tried just lowering the brightness to zero? To control heat there is always iStat. But I agree, it would be nice to have full control.😉

this does in fact work, however how stupid that you have to do that...for those who dont know, on the 13 inch macbook, the speaker is located precicely in the lower half of the keyboard.

I don't find the spot on my MacBook Pro 13 (mid 2010). Could anyone help me?

I really need to control the display too...

I was able to get a copy of 10.7.2 developers release. This issue is not addressed in it either.

Can u please show us where to put it so we don't scew something up. How big of a magnet. Pictures would be super.

Hello

Does this work in Lion