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Will not wake screen from sleep, BLACK SCREEN. OS Catalina

Since upgrading to OS Catalina unable to wake screen from sleep without doing HARD RESET.

Computer is awake as Touch Bar active and can turn Music up and down, but SCREEN BLACK.


I know others have this problem but the search bar didn't find anything so decided to re-post.


MacBook Pro

Posted on Oct 10, 2019 2:41 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 10, 2019 11:09 PM

This appears to work as a solution.


This was NOT my idea, but from another Black Screen thread but I can't get the link thread to work.


Restart your computers in SAFE MODE (hold down the shift key during the reboot)

You will know if you have correctly entered SAFE mode because it appears in RED in the menu bar


In SAFE MODE my laptop returned to normal Wake / Sleep behaviour including closing and opening the lid.


Then RESTART as normal (literally make no other change, just restart SAFE restart normal) and it seems to be FIXED !!!

  • There is no explanation for why this makes a difference it just works.


13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 10, 2019 11:09 PM in response to DRPJQ

This appears to work as a solution.


This was NOT my idea, but from another Black Screen thread but I can't get the link thread to work.


Restart your computers in SAFE MODE (hold down the shift key during the reboot)

You will know if you have correctly entered SAFE mode because it appears in RED in the menu bar


In SAFE MODE my laptop returned to normal Wake / Sleep behaviour including closing and opening the lid.


Then RESTART as normal (literally make no other change, just restart SAFE restart normal) and it seems to be FIXED !!!

  • There is no explanation for why this makes a difference it just works.


Oct 10, 2019 12:34 PM in response to DRPJQ

This same exact thing is happening to me as well. I updated to Catalina and ever since, on wake it just displays a "black" screen. But, the computer isn't sleeping as my Apple Watch makes the "unlock" sound and vibration telling me it unlocked my iMac and my keyboard lights come on.


I have an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017).


I tried to reset the PRAM but couldn't seem to be able to do that. I did reset the Mac's SMC, but that didn't work.

Oct 11, 2019 8:43 AM in response to lyle225

Did not work for me either. If I close the screen right away, it will come back. However, normal use has my screen lock and close lid. I tried everything I've seen suggested, including the safe mode, but the issue still remains. My watch unlocks the screen - I can hear sounds - just no display. There is enough out there (through the betas and now gold release) that this is a major issue that needs to be addressed.

Oct 13, 2019 2:05 AM in response to DRPJQ

Noteworthy: multiple reports of this problem, but no fix or response from Apple. Same with Catalina breaking Time Capsule. This release has definitely been rushed to market and isn't much more than another beta-build. If the bugs being reported so quickly are this numerous who can tell how much is really broken "under the hood."


I have a definite fix that I'm implementing as soon as I post this.


Recover from backup and wait for Apple to get their OS together.

Oct 25, 2019 5:02 AM in response to gbruneau1

Good idea to remove the start-up items. Tried it, but didn't work. But that did get me thinking so thanks for that.


Here's what did work for me ... so far,


Enable the energy saver setting "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off."


The overpaid developers in Cupertino should have caught this before they released this mess. Mine has a 1Tb hybrid drive, a known product that code-jockey's have been trying to back away from understanding since Apple release this iMac build.


End result is I'll probably roll-back to Mojave again and wait to see if a patch ever gets released. Catalina means I either keep the computer running all the time or shut down after each use - which would be okay if it was Redmond explaining why Windows Vista was such a really cool OS. So there you go. So far, Catalina impresses me almost as favorably as Windows Vista.

Oct 31, 2019 10:38 AM in response to TrevorOseen

Thanks, the upgrade solved the problem for me as well. However, in trying to diagnose the problem knowing that it worked in safe mode. I noticed that I was loading a displaylink kernal extention for support of external usb video adapter. It was not being loaded in safe mode. The upgrade to the latest version of Catelina removed this kext from loading. I can't prove that this was the issue. If I was still having the issue I would explore this further as a potential solution.

Will not wake screen from sleep, BLACK SCREEN. OS Catalina

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