Control Strip (Touch Bar) randomly disappears

I notice my touch bar on my late 2016 MacBook Pro, disappears randomly also. No consistent pattern. Sometimes it's when I am using it, sometimes when it sleeps and doesn't wake up. It happens while I am using different programs (all apple) apple mail, Safari, etc. The computer can be plugged in or not. To fix it I usually either switch programs and it comes back or shut the lid and it returns. Restarting my computer brings it back too. I do not have additional hardware plugged in. The additional problem, that is somewhat alarming, is that there are times when I open my lid and my screen is black and unavailable. Other than annoying I don't want to ignore it if it signifies a warranty issue within the hardware or a more complex issue.

Same symptoms here.

Macbook Pro 13"

Official Apple HMDI/USB/Power to USB-C dongle

Secondary display

Now while I cannot say if the issue is specifically related to having the monitor plugged in, I did have an issue where I would lose the second monitor when I plugged in the power cable as well. The solution was to unplug the entire dongle, and while that is a totally separate issue, it makes me further suspect something with those drivers.

Unfortunately for me, tapping the "fn" key does not seem to resolve this and I have to restart my Mac. It's pretty frustrating seeing how I use the touchbar quite often, and contrary to some, I like the feature. Until this happens and I can't turn the sound down on a music app/etc.

Same issue, Touch Bar disappeared but invisible keys are still working... I had the laptop just 2 days ago 😟

I've checked most of the forums and i found some solutions suggestions that:

- pressing to Fn keys will bring back the buttons. Not working.

- reset the SMC and NVRAM. Not working.

- refreshing Touch Bar. Not working.

and some ideas about the problem:

- Maybe it is a second screen (using Usb-c adaptor with) problem.

- It's a software problem which couldn't fixed about 3 years by Apple 🙂

So my Touch Bar's screen went off and no solution that i can do. Best option is to take the laptop to the Apple service. As far as i understood from the other people who done it before, Service's are changing the parts but can not fix it. And some users report that this problem exist till this crap Touch Bar added to MacBooks.

So this should be a very big issue to Apple but no any respond or a single word.

Still nothing found for this problem... 😟

I have been having this same issue, particularly with the Messages application. Extremely frustrating, and I haven't found any information on fixes. Unacceptable glitch for such a high price point for this new MacBook pro 2016 that I use for College and Work daily.

This happens to me as well. I took the computer to apple and they ran a whole bunch of tests and found nothing wrong. They told me that its probably just a problem that has not been reported enough but to look out for an update that could fix it.

Apple does still not reply? This is outrageous for a product that cost so much! The sound icon in the touch bar disappears whenever a DCMI (secondary screens) is plugged in on my macbook pro 15". I'm really getting tired of Apples poor relation with it's costumers!

Anyone able to test if it sill occurs on one of the newest betas? I just set up macOS from ground, after some timethe problem occurs again. I use a prolink adapter to a hdmi monitor.

Also this threads has some nice pictures of the problem: Touchbar not behaving (parts switch off)

seems that way...although I have only just bought the LG ultra wide display, used it last night with and unplugged the MBP from it this morning, to find the missing touch bar. Mine came back on after a restart. Will have a go again tonight to see if its a persistent issue. The small issue I had was that it had trouble detecting the display, but eventually did.

The "tap the fn" key fix doesn't seem to solve a disappeared escape key. This is probably because there's no change to the display for the escape key (while the others are refreshed).

I'm also encountering the issue with a connected external display, but didn't verify it yet without a display.

It seems the keys disappear after a bit of inactivity (when the keyboard backlight would also be dimmed), but are not reinstated.

I also noticed that the keys work even while they're not displayed (although they're hard to find). So it's just a display error.

I have a Macbook Pro 2016 touch bar 15 inch.

The following things happen to me at different times:

- entire touch bar disappears; or

- all buttons appear, except the escape key; or

- only 1 1/2 buttons appear at times (the 1 1/2 buttons on the far right);

Ways to reproduce:

- Having an external hdmi monitor plugged in, then disconnecting, then putting macbook to sleep, then walking it up --> escape key missing.

- I haven't found a pattern to reproduce either:

- all the keys missing

- 1 1/2 keys missing

Hacks for showing buttons when one or more are missing:

- Shows all icons every time (but it takes a while to do): going to Settings --> Keyboard --> Customise Control Strip

- pressing on the button where it should be (but doesn't appear) makes just that button appear

- pressing function key: shows all the keys again EXCEPT they escape key.

So quickest fix is:

1. press function key

2. press where the escape key should be

However these are all hacks. There is obviously a problem here that Apple needs to look into.

It is interesting that apple never heard of a single problem ever even if it would be on the front page on every major news site.

Thank you for the "fix" though, my system worked great for 3 weeks and today this started...

The fn key to show the 'F' buttons is a good solution. I have had this happen also, no external monitors connected. Laptop monitor turned off/sleep and so did the touchbar. When I woke it, the bar didn't come back up. I went into settings and made a change in there to have them come back up. I also noticed if I touch a spot on the bar where there should be a button, that button shows again. It's almost like it needs to refresh once you rewake the laptop.

I have also found that this happens when I connect the MacBook Pro to an external display. However once disconnected the problem still persists until I reboot the machine. What's more is that the buttons, although not visible, are still completely responsive. Sometimes only half of the control strip will disappear or even just random individual toggles! I have to reboot my laptop at least once a day, which is serious considering I would only have to reboot my 2015 MacBook (The Super thin one), once every few months! Pressing the fn key will sometimes solve the problem but other times it won't.

My 2016 15" MBP started doing this as well. If I tap it, that one button will return.

I use Mission Control and 2x HDMI monitors and the laptop display.

I recently changed the Touch Bar shows to Expanded Control Strip (Sys Prefs>Keyboard). Turning this back to App Controls with Control Strip resolved it, but I don't like that setting personally.

Pressing the fn key resolves the issue until it reoccurs.

Obviously this must be a software issue? and I don't think its MacOS - because it didn't happen to begin with, only after I filled it with software.

The only thing that I can think of is it seems to happen more when I am using "Parallels" for my windows VM