10.12.4 display sleep bug

Sadly, this is proving to be my experience as well.

I returned to my iMac Retina after a long weekend, and the main display was off. 😟

The satellite Dell displays were still working, though, and I was able to logged in. When I looked at the Displays pref pane in System Preferences, it was showing both satellite displays, but the main display was gone!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do next.

Hi All,

Energy Saver "Turn display off after..." is what is causing the issue. Set that to "Never" and pick a dark screen saver to activate after a few minutes. I have a login screen activate after interrupting the screen saver. That works fine. I do not think much power is being wasted since LEDs are pretty efficient. Hopefully Apple gets a fix in soon and lets us know so we can change setting back to normal.

Sadly, this doesn't work for me.

iMac 27 5K - Tried NVRAM/SVC reset, disconnected 2nd monitor & all USB devices, killed all power saving options.

Any time from 2 to 20 minutes after logging in, black screen and need to hard reset.

no problems before 10.12.4

I can confirm that the SMC Reset doesn't last - which is pretty bizarre when you think of it. Lasted a couple of days.

I will also state that I was not handled very well by Apple support - my system is still under warranty and I have AppleCare.

They have not asked for any diagnostic info.

They just told me to reset SMC and reinstall the OS. Pointless.

No further communication.

And let's see if they have a fix out before WWDC - I doubt it.

If they don't, it turns out I won the lottery and actually got into WWDC this year, and so I have something to chat with Apple about.

Changing Energy Saver back to Never turning off displays.

I also use a Dell monitor with my 27 inch late 2012 IMAC and have had the 10.12.4 display sleep bug since the recent OS update to Sierra 10.12.4. After unsuccessfully trying several

possible fixes, I updated the Nvidia web driver. Specifically, I downloaded and installed Nvidia web driver 378.05.05.05f01 package and installed it. The problem has not reoccured since I did this.

Same here. A Dell 4K at the left and a dell "2,5k" at the right.

At this point, only the iMac (in the middle) has gone black. So I was able to restart using the Dell/external screens.

But today all screens went black. Had to use the iMac button restart. Arghhh!

Apple has "introduced" monitor issues since 10.7 (maybe earlier). Before that there was no problem. They were the leaders in this area. After that there has been all kind of issues with multi screen setup.

Suffering from the same issue. Mid 2015 iMac 27 + Dell 4k + Cinema Display.

I have been on developer beta builds and this issue started immediately after introduction of "Night Shift" feature in one of the incremental updates. I guess some low-level support code added for this new feature started causing this issue.

I have a 27" iMac11,3 May 2010, 20GB ram with a display/wakeup problem.

It did not occur until after the Sierra 10.12.4 update.

I do not have an external monitor.

After wakeup, sometimes the system shuts down, sometimes the system reboots.

I also have this issue. iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015, VESA option), Radeon R9 M395X, 32 GB ram, with 2 Dell p2175q monitors connected via mini display port. Also on macOS Sierra 10.12.4.

Typically after a longer sleep (10+ minutes), the iMac display will not power up, but the external monitors will. I've seen a few cases of just prior to completely wake up, the iMac display will flash some life for a moment, and then power off, leaving just the external monitors alive. A majority of the cases of this issue result in the iMac display not coming on at all, with the external displays powering up and displaying a portion of the desktop without issue! The only solution to get the iMac display going again is to reboot.

I've tried changing various Energy Saving options, including disabling Power Nap. I've reset SMC and PRAM, with no change in behavior. Night Shift schedule is "Off" and have never enabled the feature.

If it helps any, my usual method of getting the displays to go to sleep is using the "Keychain Access" Lock Screen feature from the menu bar in the status icon area.

I have never experienced this issue until the 10.12.4 upgrade, so I suspect it's something to do with this new version.

Edit: Absolutely happy to assist in debug/logging for Apple if they give me a buzz.

I have this same bug with dell 4k monitor and LG 39'' monitor! and even with HP 24'' but on my MacBook Pro 2016 ( with touch bar ).

And I have very strange behavior with desktops while using external monitor:

When I run some program on fullscreen (let's say on my MacBook's monitor) then my external monitor become black. When trying to move desktop (by touch pad) it's moves on both monitors.

P.S. yea, I am always here to help apple if they need me

I've found a cure, for me at least.

I've been experiencing this issue since installing MacOs10.12.4 as noted in an earlier post under this topic.

I removed all apps that loaded on startup that also directly affected the display including the Caffeine.app. I did this under System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items. Then, I shut down my iMac completely, and let it sit for a few seconds. Then I turned it back on. (Restart may have been enough. I don't know.) I tested it over the course of the day after it slept for at least an hour and overnight. This fixed the problem.

Just to be sure that was what was causing it, I reinstalled Caffeine and set it to load at startup and restarted the Mac. The problem returned. Removed it and deleted it from my hard drive. The issue is gone and everything is working fine.

Some time back, I noticed that the caffeine.app had been removed from the app store. I wonder if this was why. Too bad. This was a great little app until it caused this issue.

Note: I can't edit my previous post, so I'm amending my post.

Problem continues. Occasionally, both external monitors won't display anything in the same manner as the iMac, but the iMac continues to run. Rebooting is still the only fix for getting all displays working at once.

I'm not running caffeine or any other display/sleep altering applications (that I know of).

This is happening with my new MacBook just received 2 weeks back. I've upgraded it to 10.12.4 and I don't even connect external monitors. Have submitted the diagnosis logs to apple support. Only solution is. reboot once it enters this black screen mode. Really nasty bug as I need to reboot every day.

I also have the same issue however mine is a late 2012 iMac without any external screen. I am however using an external SSD drive. The problem started after one of the recent Sierra updates. I had no problems before the update with the same configuration.

I'm so frustrated with the issue that I'm considering switching to the new Microsoft Surface desktop but am hoping Apple issues a fix soon.

Same issue again, MacBook Pro Early 2015 even without any attached monitor. About half the time, opening the lid won't turn on the display. Usually to close the lid and retry a few times, and more than once a reboot has been needed. Again it seems a new issue (or very much worse) since 10.12.4, but I wouldn't assume the type of monitor is a huge factor. My other Mac, a Mini with two displays attached, is very noticeably much more sluggish at starting the HDMI display compared to the mini port one. Feels like a timing issue to me, but I am glad Apple's on the case. This is frustrating to say the least.