Black Screen But Can See My Cursor

Yay yay yay Jesse!!!! You saved my life! I had a huge job due today and could NOT get any of the Apple suggested fixes to work! It took me twice to figure out entering a keystroke and hitting "enter" (as like someone else here I couldn't remember what username we were using) but hit a letter I thought might work and "enter" and it came back. Beware the 10.9.3 upgrade is RIGHT. I kept putting off installing the upgrade, but did so last night with the black screen result this morning. Bad, bad job Apple!!!! How many people are having their day ruined with this nonsense? (i also have 2013 iMac with retina display)

Thanks jesseinma, thanks so much!

this worked after I tried everything else! and no chance of having it looked at until the 9th of jan, so such a big help, I've got so many reports due!

(Running Mac OS Sierra on MacBook Pro Mid-2012)

Unfortunately I cannot get past this black screen. It starts up I see the apple logo and progress bar. Then the black screen appears. Sometimes I see in the upper corner the banner that's says some apps could not be updated. It doesn't allow me to click on it. Then it goes away. Is my Mac fried? I have tried all the different options and nothing.

This worked for me too (in late-Jan 17, with Sierra 10.12.2).. My Air has been doing this from time to time, but always came back to life after two or three boot attempts.. But the last time no such luck. Oh dear! That's when I found your trick Jesse .. It works! Big Thanks!!

Thank you thank you thank you !! Worked perfectly! Followed Apple instructions and viola it worked perfect. Can't thank you enough for your post!! I run a 2010 27" IMac. All photos and music untouched! OMG thanks!

I'm having the same issue here with a client's iMac.

I've followed the instructions but never get the spinning beach ball and it sits at the black screen every time.

Very frustrating.

I can SSH into this computer via the command line.. is there any way to fix this via the command line?

Thank You SO MUCH! Like almost everyone on here I was pulling my hair out on this until I tried the fix!! You are trully a lifesaver 🙂

I used the CMD +R button, that helped to get out of the black screen with active cursor.

I just wanted to share the fix I have if it happens to you instead of doing a format and reinstall.

1. Start computer holding up COMMAND + SHIFT (puts you into single user mode)
2. In the prompt enter: mount –uw / then hit return (please note spaces in command)
3. Enter: cd /Library/Preferences then hit return (please note spaces AND the Capital L and P – it is case sensitive)
4. Enter: mv com.apple.loginwindow.plist com.apple.loginwindow.plist.old (please note spaces) then hit return
5. Enter: Reboot then hit return
6. Once the computer restarts tap the trackpad (so you see the cursor) then enter the first letter of the username, which would be a (it is best to use the administrator account) then hit ENTER
7. Now enter in the password (groupmtech), then press enter

Hi Anaabend,

I had the same problem initially, but tried various combinations of: just pressing enter, typing my password and enter, and typing the first letter of my username and enter. In the end it worked. Sorry, I cannot reproduce the exact combination.

All the best. Hope you get it to work.

perfect solution!!! saved me a lot of time not calling apple support or stopping by the store. once i saw in the post that there was an install that did not complete I remembered i told the Mac to wait and try again tonight. it must have started a reboot on its own and didnt make it through the whole process.

Apple really needs to take care of that problem!!

your suggestion worked, I cannot thank you enough... I have spent hours rebooting, PRAM resetting, and your suggestion was the one that worked! the best answer on the internet!!!! ... thank you ever so much... glitch in the updating!

Hi Hoss,

Yes there is. Sadly the username trick didnt work for me but I did manage to fix the problem by using SSH. By connecting to the affected machine and cleaning up a few files you should be back in business.

1. ssh 192.160.0.1 -l username

2. sudo rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist

3. sudo rm /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist

4. sudo rm /private/var/db/.AppleUpgrade

5. reboot

Thats it! It's likely you'll have either one or the other of the plist files but not both - hopefully that shouldnt matter. Obviously in step one you would replce the IP address and username with yours.

We love you, jessinma! Perfect!

And Apple, really! Big rap on the knuckles for causing this awful situation. If I hadn't had a second computer, and thought to search using search terms, "osx 10.9.2 black screen no cursor", I probably wouldn't have found this.

Thank you jesseinma - worked for me, too. Saved me a 2+ hour round trip to the apple store and a whole lot of anxiety. I had file vault turned on sp I had to blindly enter my pw twice.. For those of you who might have the same settings