HDCP Errors on Internal MacBook Pro Display

I'm going to attempt to keep this as pithy as possible, But I have had a 2016 and now a 2018 MacBook Pro 13 inch give me problems playing iTunes movies and with Netflix and Hulu playing from within Safari. I would eventually get an HDCP error with iTunes and other "cannot play" messages from within Safari. There has never been an external display plugged into these laptops or any third party Display mirroring software installed.

I could literally format the drive and do an Internet Recovery install...not install or bring over ANY personal data or software and it would fail just the same.

What seems to trigger this is resetting the PRAM. After doing some testing and even installing Mojave Beta...it seemed to correct it....until I reset the PRAM. I know "Don't reset the PRAM then?!"...lol....well...sometimes this is a requirement.

Other things worth noting. Chrome is unaffected by this bug. I wouldn't bother me if not for the fact that iTunes movies will NOT play. Youtube content in Safari work fine...I believe that is due to the lack of HDCP protections. AND I installed Windows 10 via BootCamp and everything works exactly as expected.

This would lead me to believe that software is the main culprit...but there is something also wrong with the firmware of the MacBook causing this as well.

I searched everywhere to see if I am alone in this. Everything related to HDCP is with the struggles with lack of HDCP support on external monitors about 6 years ago.

I have an open support request open with Apple and they are hopefully getting to the bottom of this. I have been fighting with these issues for over a month now.

I mainly want to know if there is anything you know of I can try in order to resolve this...or at least if I seem to be the only one bitten by this horrible bug.

Posted on Jul 24, 2018 11:08 AM

Top-ranking reply

mattrogers Author

Level 1

21 points

Posted on Aug 23, 2018 11:57 AM

**HDCP Errors iTunes\Safari fix**

Symptoms:

*You had to reset the PRAM on your Mac for whatever reason

*iTunes movies won't play. You either get a black playback window or an error related to HDCP.

*Hulu and Netflix movies won't play within the Safari browser.

*YouTube is unaffected by this.

*Hulu and Netflix still play within Chrome web browser.

*Windows 10 (VM nor Bootcamp) are unaffected by this bug

Fix (workaround):

*Boot into Recovery Mode on your Mac (command+R)

*Open terminal and type in the command EXACTLY as written:

nvram 8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c:epid_provisioned=%01%00%00%00

and then press RETURN

It will go back to the prompt. Type reboot and RETURN.

Use this information at your own risk. If this sort of thing makes you uncomfortable, perhaps you should contact Apple support directly and have them walk you through this.

If you have to reset your PRAM again for any reason, this will have to be done again in order to restore functionality. Apple is aware of this and will likely provide some sort of update to perminantly fix this.

This is truly a workaround, not a fix. But it should provide you a fully functional Mac in the mean time

If this does not work for you. Please try this again and triple check what you have typed. This command is case sensitive and it will NOT throw up an error or success message to let you know the result.

Good luck and good day.

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HDCP Errors on Internal MacBook Pro Display

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