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Thunderbolt Display will not wake up after sleep!!!!!!

It seems like a lot of us are having an issue with the THUNDERBOLT DISPLAY opening after it goes to sleep. I have the display connected to a new mac mini server and I can not get it to wake up after it goes to sleep unless I unplug the power or the thunderbolt cable and then plug it back in.

Thunderbolt Display-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Oct 1, 2011 12:49 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 9, 2011 11:37 AM

UPDATE:


I have through support a work around to this issue that seems to work for me until this gets resolved in a software upgrade. They know that there is an issue with the Thunderbolt display with it waking up when the AUTOMATICALLY ADJUST BRIGHTNESS is checked. I have unchecked this in my display settings and I no longer have the issue. I hope this helps everyone - I was very frustrated by this and hope they fix it soon but Id rather live with adjusting the brightness myself than unplugging all the time. I already has to send one Thunderbolt back because it quit working - That was the original monitor that I had when I started this thread. The new monitor had the same issue as the first where it would not wake up so I called support because I was afraid it would break again if I kept pulling the plug to get it to turn on. I HOPE this works for everyone else.

231 replies

Oct 26, 2013 8:57 AM in response to enamic5

I'm running Mavericks, and there is no change in the operation of the TBD. It works flawlessly and wakes every time from sleep. I posted earlier on this page, and for me, the problem was the Combo cable (I think that is why the solution of connecting an individual TB cable to the TB port on the back of the TBD works). A trip to the Apple Store (thanks Apple Care!) and my TBD has been working flawlessly for months. Replace the combo cable.

Oct 26, 2013 1:13 PM in response to Stephen Hanson

Mavericks has made no differnece to these on going problems with the TBD.


working fine. then Unplug: TB monitor WILL NOT START UP

when USE external TB cable it works for awhile, then it goes black again. have to restart the computer and unplug and plug in the monitor power source.

USB PORTS WORK RANDOMLY but not reliably.

When TB monitor goes BLANK, SOUND RETURNS TO THE MBP

RESTART MBP AND ALL MAY OR MAYNOT WORK.

Playing a video on TB and sound moves to MBP, video still active.

Then TB goes black and MBP doesn’t work either. Audio still playing. Mouse won't work.

TB won’t work at all with monitor TB cable, only with external TB cable


THESE ISSUES HAVE SHOWN UP ON 3 TBDs using 2 MBPs and variety of mice & keyboards.

Oct 28, 2013 8:59 PM in response to GooberGrape70

I've been tracking these threads (re: Thunderbolt display won't wake up, and similar) for a couple months, desperately trying all of the suggested solutions. Intermittently my display would shut off and then not come back on without disconnecting the power and reconnecting.


Meanwhile, seemingly unrelated, we were having an occasional flickering of our lights, sometimes almost like a "brown out," where the lights would dim and flicker for 10-15 seconds. Well, the power company came out and found a lose connection in our transformer box (near the street). My Thunderbolt display has been working flawlessly ever since.


Theory: There's protective circuitry in the Thunderbolt power supply that, when it detects irregular line voltage, trips off. This is to protect the display, but requires a disconnect/reconnect of power to reset. The voltage drops in my house were causing the display to "protect itself."


So, if you are having this trouble with your Thunderbolt AND you've noticed the lights in your house flickering occasionally, you might want to have your power company or an electrician investigate. In our case, no other electronics or appliances had trouble with this; only the Thunderbolt.


In our case it was a problem at the transformer. Line voltage drops can also be caused by lose connections in your breaker box, a breaker going bad, a short in your house wiring or even a lose lightbulb arcing in its socket. Some of these situations can be very dangerous, so perhaps your Thunderbolt is telling you something important??

Nov 7, 2013 6:23 AM in response to Sky King

Make sure you are looking in the system Library and not the User folder Library for the files.


User uploaded file


And, this is a "me too" post. Mac mini, Mid 2011, 2.5 GHz i5, AMD Radeon 6630M with Thunderbolt display. Occasionally, when the computer goes to sleep, the Apple thunderbolt display will not turn back on. The only "fix" I have found so far is to unplug the TB cable from the mini and reattach it. Was happening on 10.7 and still on 10.9 (skipped 10.8).

Nov 16, 2013 2:19 AM in response to GooberGrape70

Alright found the solution>>

had my Thunderbolt display at a Apple maintenance centre and was told that my MBP being 2011 it would not wake up from blutooth keyboard or mouse. The solution is to have any USB device plugged in the MBP then it works. For example just leave a USB thumbdrive and your Thunderbolt display will wake up from your mouse or keyboard.

If you use the latest MBP then you should not have this issue. As I also have an non thunderbolt Apple Display I didn't have this problem before and yes they came with a USB cable.

Thunderbolt Display will not wake up after sleep!!!!!!

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