My MacBook Pro Screen Is Black – How To Fix It?

Apple MacBooks are considered one of the most reliable laptop brands on the market. However, these laptops, too, experience some issues from time to time. One of these issues is when your MacBook Pro screen suddenly goes black and unresponsive.

On this page, we will discuss how to fix this issue, as well as some other common problems that some MacBook users are facing.

How to fix your MacBook Pro black screen problem?

There are two common reasons why your MacBook screen suddenly goes black and they are not as critical as you may think:

1. The display could have gone to sleep mode.
2. The Mac notebook might be out of power.

In the first scenario, when the screen has gone to sleep mode, this is an energy-saving mode where the display automatically goes black when the computer is not in use. When you press a key from the keyboard, move your mouse or the touchpad, this should activate the screen immediately.

Your Mac may also go to sleep mode for the same energy-saving reason after some time. You can set the sleep and wake settings for your Mac, set a time for the sleep mode, etc., from the Settings menu.

If your Mac’s screen is not in sleep and is not getting activated when you press a keyboard key or move the mouse/touchpad, it might have gone out of power.

If that is the case, do the following:

Mac Black Screen Fix #1

1. Attach the power adapter to the computer and plug it into a power source.

2. Unplug all external devices plugged to your machine with the exception of the power adapter.

3. Press the power button while holding down the Command and Control keyboard keys. This will restart the computer.

4. Wait for the battery to get at least 10% charged before resuming your work or connecting external devices. Look if the battery icon in the menu bar shows that it is charging.

In case that none of the above helps and the MacBook’s screen is still black, then move to the next instructions below:

Important! Make sure that all your data is backed up before you proceed with the instructions.

Mac Black Screen Fix #2

1. Shut the computer down, wait a few seconds and then restart it again.

2. Disconnect all peripheral devices.

3. Reset  the PRAM and NVRAM of your MacBook.

4. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)

5. Reset the Sound preferences and the startup disk.

6. After you have done all of the above, enter the computer in Safe Mode and check if the black screen problem still exists. Then, reboot the MacBook normally.

7. Another useful thing that you can do is to run an Apple Hardware Test to check if there are hardware malfunctions.

Hopefully, you should be able to fix the black screen issues with the help of the instructions above, but if none of them works in your case, then try one of the following:

• Download and install the latest MacOS updates. Sometimes, the problem could be hiding in outdated files.
• Try repairing the permissions in your home folder. You may be able to fix the black screen problem by modifying your home folder’s permissions for certain objects.
• Set up a new user admin account. Log out of your existing account and login into the new account. If your black screen issue disappears, try transferring to the new account and uploading your data to it. (See copying files to another user account.)
• Another alternative is to reinstall OS X from the Recovery HD by pressing the Command and R keys from the keyboard.  Select Reinstall OS X when the Utility Menu appears on the screen, then press Continue and follow the wizard.

If the black screen issue still persists, it might be best to book an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar and give your MacBook for service.  In case you need to find the closest Apple Store, the most convenient way is to search for it online.