Cannot exit Target Display Mode with Command F2

OWC blog has this article http://blog.macsales.com/10899-target-display-mode-and-thunderbolt that mentions the F2 key, but not as being a problem. There are lots of responses and maybe you could ask your question there. And of course right here in the Communities is a Thunderbolt Display forum https://discussions.apple.com/community/peripherals/thunderbolt_display

I have the same issue, if you unplug the Thunderbolt cable it drops out of Target Display Mode but the mouse cursor disappears, so something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

I think it probably needs a patch. Am using new Macbook Pro and new iMac 27 with a single Thunderbolt cable.

Goes into TDM with CMD F2 but then will not exit

Here's the solution: I had the same problem using my 27" iMac as an external display. The issue is, when you go to Target Display mode, your target computer, the iMac 27" locks the screen with your password.

To switch off TDM, type your password in on the iMac keyboard and press the enter key.

Now press COMMAND - F2 and the displays with switch back to two separate displays. :-)

I had to think like a computer to figure that out but it makes sense.

I also have the disappearing mouse pointer and have not figured that one out. I did all the software updates and I did not have this problem until I upgraded to Lion. It is definitely a software issue. I might have to open a case with Apple support. Not happy.

Derrick

Brilliant! Works great! Maybe it'll be better for me to just disable requiring a password after sleep/screensaver to make the transfer easier or faster. Wow, thanks so much for your tip.

Excellent, glad to hear it worked and to give back to the community. FYI, my disappearing mouse pointer got better after the last Lion software upgrade. It appears to only happen 10% of the time now.

THANK YOU JohnAtBurn! I lost an entire morning to the same problem after updating to 10.7.2. Repairing permissions fixed target display for me.

Calling apple didnt help..

This is how I fixed this:

Open Security & Privacy, under General, uncheck require password.

Press COMMAND+F2 to connect, and then COMMAND+F2 to disconnect...works like a charm.

This happened to me recently. I was running screen sharing to the iMac that was in TDM and the screen was not locked. I tried changing keyboard settings for Fn key.. CMD+F2 was just changing the brightness instead of exiting TDM as usual.

Rebooting the iMac has cured the problem though.. TDM in general is a bit glitchy some times because I have to hit CMD + F2 every time I wake my main system from sleep.. and some times it doesn't work properly. It leaves the desktop wallpaper blank. There was never a problem before Lion I might add.

Thank you! Your comment solved my problem ;-))))

As has been mentioned by @DAK, iMac doesn't respond to Command+F2 to exit the TDM beacuse iMac is locked and needs to be unlocked by entering the password. It is tricky to enter the password without seeing the screen so here is an alternative.

Press Command + Option + Eject on iMac keyboard. This puts the iMac to sleep by blanking the screen out. Press any key such as Esc to wake up the iMac and you will see the iMac screen now prompting you to enter the password. This works well for me out of the box (OSX 10.8.3).

To enter TDM: Command + F2 on iMac

To exit TDM: Command + Option + Eject on iMac, wait till screen blanks out. Press any key (Enter, Esc, etc.) to wake up iMac.

Command + Option + Eject on macbookpro puts macbookpro to sleep which also makes iMac's own screen come back. So this is also an option.