Disconnecting MacBook from external display

Is there anyway to disconnect the Applr LED external display from the MacBook pro without having to shut all the way down or is is safe to just yank the mini display out while running?

I've always just unplugged the display with no problem. The screen may go dark for a second as the system brings all the open windows over to the one screen (if you are using it as a second monitor instead of mirroring), but that's about all.
The only thing you have to watch out for is if you have any USB peripherals that are connected via the monitor. Then you need to be more careful.

Similar Messages

Disconnecting from external display changes background, disconnect server shares, inactivates desktop icons.

I have a user working on a MacBook Pro, Lion OS X 10.8.2, connected to an external display. When disconnecting from the external display the background picture changes, he can’t open documents saved to desktop, and the connection to the server shares is lost. Rebooting does not resolve the issue while it is disconnected from the external display. If he reconnects the MacBook back to the external monitor sometimes he has to reboot to get everything back to normal. It almost seems like it is logging him into a different account or profile or something like that (please excuse my messy terminology as most of our users are still using PCs). However if you look at what account is logged in, it is still the same account that he logged in with that morning. The Mac is not authenticating to the network, just connecting to server shares. Has anyone experienced this issue before and if so is there a fix for it?

The Mac has a long history of assuming that ANY adapter still present means the display is still present -- you need to remove the adapter as well as the cable, if present.
So my theory articulated above is that the disconnect is not registered correctly. This would mean that the second display is still seen as present. You could check this by invoking:
System Preferences > Displays ...
and looking for the Arrange pane (shown above) which is ONLY present when multiple displays are attached. More detailed information can be found in About this Mac > ( More info ) Graphics & Displays ...
... specifically the NAME of each attached display is shown or an indication (no display connected):
ATI Radeon HD 4870:
Chipset Model:          ATI Radeon HD 4870
Type:          GPU
Bus:          PCIe
Slot:          Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width:          x16
VRAM (Total):          512 MB
Vendor:          ATI (0x1002)
Device ID:          0x9440
Revision ID:          0x0000
ROM Revision:          113-B7710C-176
EFI Driver Version:          01.00.318
Displays:
Cinema HD:
Resolution:          2560 x 1600
Pixel Depth:          32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Display Serial Number:          CY8360UFXMP
Main Display:          Yes
Mirror:          Off
Online:          Yes
Rotation:          Supported
Display Connector:
Status:          No Display Connected

Brand new Macbook 13" - external display won't detect through mini dvi-dvi

As per title, it's a brand new Macbook 13" white plastic, (so version is whatever the recent model is.)
As the adaptors are an absolute rip-off, my brother posted me his old one, which he swears was working, and I have no reason to disbelieve him. I've not got another mac to test it on. If it IS the adaptor, then I'll just have to mortgage the house and buy a new one, but I'd like to rule out anything first...(why DO Apple insist on making what must be several thousand % markup on Chinese stuff when it's an essential thing that should have been provided with the Mac like they used to? Anyway....)
What happens is that it either flickers once, or just does nothing. Either way, it doesn't detect another display. Anything else I could or should try before I splash the cash?

How are you getting from miniDVI to HDMI? (adapter(s) type?)
Have you been able to test your macbook on another tv (or DVI monitor?)
It could be a software thing (e.g. related to a system update) as in this thread:
Macbook (Late 2007) External Display Not Working
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2055760&tstart=45
Or it could be something else entirely more mysterious:
Macbook stopped working with a certain specific display (external DVI)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2081807&tstart=0

Windows 7/vista & macbook pro & external display unrecognized on reboot

Hello,
I have my new macbook pro 13 with an external display, keyboard and mouse connected. With MacOs that's ok, when I reboot the macbook closed the image comes to the external display all the time (booting the system, too).
But when I do the same on windows Vista or seven (I installed both with the same result) I just can't do it. I have to wait windows to be booted, disconnect the minidisplay to vga cable and connect again, and then, it's again recognized.
I don't know why it does not recognize the external display without doing this. Is there any way to do it?

I figured out that you are referring to booting in Windows, and inserting the Snow Leopard DVD, launching the Windows installer. The Boot Camp drivers installer is therein.
I ran this installer, and when I rebooted to Windows, I got a couple BSODs, the display was reset to 640x480, and one time it hung during boot. I managed to view the display adapter driver, and it was blank! I installed the latest NVidia display driver, and it resolved the crashes and hangs, but the external display is still unrecognized when the lid is closed. The best that I can do is to configure dual monitors in the NVidia control panel, and move application windows over to the external display. This isn't useful while the lid is closed because the start menu is located in the MacBook display.

HT3131 Macbook pro + external display sleeps when lid closed and 'clicking' noise

Hi all, new mid-2012 macbook pro non-retina user, I have an PC external display with Microsoft USB wired keyboard and mouse pair (the keyboard and mouse are wireless but connected via a USB desktop receiver) but even when all connected up, shutting the mac lid always turns off external display too and no amount of pressing keys or mouse clicking wakes up the display again. External display only wakes up when I open the lid again. There's also a clicking noise from the mac every time I close the lid with external display connected. Any ideas? I've tried a number of things, wondering possibly if my cheapo (non-Apple) VGA external display to Minidisplayport adaptor is the culprit? Also, everytime I connect the display I have to go to display settings to get it to recognise the external display. I haven't installed any software for the USB mouse and keyboard , the macbook recognises it ok.

Hi Itsfixed,
It sounds like you are having issues running your MacBook Pro in closed clamshell mode (computer closed but awake, connected to an external display). If possible, you may want to see if it behaves as expected when connected to a wired USB keyboard and mouse as outlined in the first section of the article; wireless USB (non-Bluetooth) keyboards may not be recognized by the system the same way for the purposes of running with the display closed.
Regards,
- Brenden

Connecting MacBook through external display in Windows Boot Camp partition

Hello everyone! I recently installed Windows Vista Home Premium on my MacBook 320GB. My Mac Partition of the drive works perfect, and connects through Mini DVI-Video through composite cables and into my T.V. When I tried this in Windows, I had no luck whatsoever. yes, all the drivers are installed for my chipset, processor, keyboard, etc. Windows is updated as well through Microsoft, But not through the Apple Software Update because the download failed again to the Boot Camp update. How do I connect an external display(ex. Projector, T.V., anything that has composite input)? Yes, I know some of you will say, "Your first mistake was buying Vista", but thats not the problem here. Windows Vista works perfectly. When you connect an external display, it re-adjusts its screen resolution but does not appear on the external monitor. Is the Boot Camp Update the solution? Please Help!!!
That was a lot of writing!
-Christian

I am using Vista on Macbook and when I connect my PC to my TV, lot of times, it hangs on me and a blue screen shows up with some errors and then it shut downs. I atleast do this 2-3 times and then finally it gets connected but there has to be a way where we can easily connect to TV without any issues. Any help guys?
Also I have noticed, my resolution on TV when I connect my macbook is 1900 x 1260 something... Is this related to resolutions?

How to revert back from external display mode to laptop display mode?

Hi, I'm new to this community. I'm not sure if this is where I should be posting my questions. Anyway, I accidentally pressed fn + f2, which switched my laptop into external display mode (I'm pretty sure), and the screen is now very narrow and small. I can't figure out how to switch it back to the laptop display mode. I tried fn + f3, which didn't do anything. I also tried the windows button + p, which wasn't the solution either (I was able to extend my desktop screen, but when I play my Steam games the screen is still very narrow and small). I'm very frustrated because I can't find any answers online. So any information would likely be helpful. Thanks in advance.
OS: Windows 8

Hi BorderingOnChaos,
Fn + F2 is a toggle. You press it again to switch back. If it doesn't work, then something is wrong with your notebook's SCM (system control manager) software or EC (embedded controller) firmware.
In the future, please do two things:
1 - Identify your notebook because the answer may vary depending on model.
2 - This question does not relate to the SteelSeries Engine. The correct place to ask it would be the general "Gaming Notebooks" forum if your MSI notebook is a gaming model. This "SteelSeries Engine" forum is a sub-forum under the "Gaming Notebooks" forum for the purpose of dealing with questions about it---but almost everybody new misses that. The SteelSeries Engine is used to configure keyboard macros and backlighting in MSI gaming notebooks that contain a SteelSeries keyboard as well as accessory devices from SteelSeries like gaming mice and USB headsets.
Kind regards, David

Starting a 10.6 MacBook from external drive

I'm trying to run disk utility on a 10.6 macBook ...
I also have a MacPro desktop running 10.8.2
I am guessing I should make a startup disk on an external USB drive -
does anyone have a suggestion as to the best way to do that, if I want to start the 10.6 MacBook from an external drive, then run disk utility on the MacBook hard drive from the external?
thanks!
w

Erase and Install Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. When formatting is complete quit DU and return to the installer. Install a lean as possible Snow Leopard system (no extra languages, fonts, no Rosetta and no X11.)
When done you have a bootable flash drive that has Disk Utility installed. There should even be space left for third-party tools like Disk Warrior.

New white macbook, no external display option !

I recently got my white macbook replaced with a new one. My old white macbook was great, once i pluged in my mini-vga adaptor to my macbook i hooked it up to my tv, when into display settings and set it appropriatly. Now i got a new white macbook. I plug my mini vga adaptor in, put it to the AV channel on my tv and nothing. And when i go into my macbooks display settings theres no arrangment feature! theres nothing for external displays at all ! Whats happened?!

I downloaded that - when i click on This Mac it simply says "This Mac Model Can Not Be Found, Please Check You Have The Most Up To Date Version Of Mactracker". Then when i search for updates it says i have the most up to date version. Bahumbug! Useless!
I've not been having a good relationship with technology lately at all! Obviously my adaptor is now useless, and unless I have a plasma/LCD TV or a new computer monitor, I'll have to deal with not having any ability to hook this up to my television. That was a feature I used on a regular basis.
Im getting more and more frustrated - I had the opportunity to buy the new Aluminum macbook but it didn't even have a firewire connection which i rely on for my home studio, so i settled for this lesser spec'd white macbook which now also can't do the TV-out function i used regularly. Brilliant.

Disconnecting MacBookPro from Cinema Display

Here's a stupid question that appears to be too elementary to address in the documentation: When I want to disconnect my MacBookPro from the Cinema Display, do I simply remove the connections or do I have to shut the laptop down first?
Related stupid question: when I return with my laptop, can I simply plug in the Cinema connections, or does the laptop have to be powered down?
Thanks.

You don't have to shut it down.

Applications not working after resetting macbook from external hard drive

I installed Snowleopard a few weeks ago. Everything was working fine, though a bit slow for a while, I figured it was just because I have had the computer for a while, but about a week ago it shut down and wouldn't restart. It would go to the login page where i would type in my password but wouldnt log in to my desktop. I did what apple suggested on their website and reset everything and restored my computer settings from the time machine backup on my external hard drive and reinstalled snow leopard with the install dvd. Everything was seemingly back to normal, but now most of my applications are not functioning correctly. I can't use isight with skype (though it works with photobooth), I can't import photos from my camera to iphoto, imovie won't even open (displays "imovie quit unexpectedly" and other things of this nature.
Since seeing that multiple applications are not functioning correctly, I kind of figure that its not an isolated problem with just one application but maybe something wrong with my OS since I reinstalled it? I've tried resetting my PRAM and NVRAM but that hasn't made any noticeable change at all.
I'm about ready to give up and take it in somewhere to be looked at unless someone can give me some good advice on how I can fix it myself? All suggestions appreciated.
Thanks

I realize this post is from quite some time ago, but it showed up as relevant in my own search to resolve this problem. So hopefully my answer will be equally visible and thus helpful.
Select the movie file within iTunes (not the actual file(s) in the finder) and drag it to the desired location on your external hard drive. While doing so, you'll notice an indicator showing that you're in fact moving two files: the movie (m4v) file and the associated Extras (ite) file.
The first time I attempted this process, I selected the files within the Finder and dragged them to the external hard drive. I was able to play the movie itself from this location, but the Extras wouldn't play. After spending a considerable amount of time searching for a solution I tried the afore mentioned and it worked.
No promises, but hopefully this will work for some of you out there and save you some time and frustration.
Signing off...
~B

Transfer files to MacBook from external drives & MacPro without FireWire

I just realized my Macbook (13 inch aluminum) doesn't have a FireWire port. WHY? I can't believe I didn't notice when I bought the thing. I assumed that a FireWrire port was standard like USB. I know that I can transfer files from my MacPro Desktop using migration assistant. However, it doesn't let me pick and choose which files to transfer. Is the best plan to transfer everything all at once and then delete what I don't want from the MacBook? I've also got a lot of individual files & folders on external FireWire drives that I'd like to copy to my MacBook. Is there a way to hook up an external FireWire hard drive to my MacBook? Are there FireWire to USB adapters? Am I going to have to transfer these files via USB memory sticks, CD-R's & DVD-R's? Or maybe it would be a better idea to dump them on my MacPro, use Migration assistant to copy it all at once and then pick and choose what to keep on my MacBook.
I know I've got a lot of questions. Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I assumed that a FireWrire port was standard like USB.
It is, just not on the aluminum Macbook.
It can be done with USB, but it is slower and less reliable.
The hard drive is fairly easy to remove on the aluminum Macbook. I would remove it and install it in an external Firewire enclosure temporarily to transfer your files quickly and reliably, then put the drive back in the Macbook.
Firewire allows two operating modes. One is asynchronous, like USB which suffers from latency, bus contention and collisions.
The other is isochronous mode, and it lets a device carve out a certain dedicated amount of bandwidth that other devices can't touch. It gets a certain number of time slices each second all its own. The advantages for audio/video should be obvious: that stream of data can just keep on flowing, and as long as there isn't more bandwidth demand than the wire can handle, nothing will interfere with it. No collisions, no glitches.

My admin password stopped working. Can't restart in recovery and tried terminal but need more specific guidance there. Am operating macbook from external drive

My macbook pro admin password has stopped working. Can't start it in recovery mode and am having no success with terminal command although I could do with more in depth instruction on that. Have been operating it from an external drive (Yosemite) for 3 months after a stuck reinstall of mavericks and it was working fine till last week. I am currently downloading another copy of Yosemite with a view to trying to install it on my internal hard drive which has been erased. Help

Hey JustSomeGuy,
Thanks for the response. It is the external drive that has the data I need to keep. Reboot did not do it...
What I did get done just now is going into Safe Mode and delete the problematic files there and Empty Trash. That worked - so one step closer hopefully. I did not do the .DS Store files (will do that after done writing this).
How do I do a copy with cp rather than the finder?
Repair permissions is grayed out in DiskUtil - I did do a Disk Repair in Safe Mode and that turned up without error. However, now back in normal mode - Disk Repair gives an error again saying that the drive cannot be unmounted.
Thanks for the help so far.
Cheers

Booting macbook from external hard drive- Is it doable?

I've had my white macbook since 2006. (I LOVE IT) However, I'd like to use it as a "desktop" until I can get a mac mini. Is it possible to move EVERYTHING thats on it to an external hard drive (terabyte) and boot it up from there? Also, once I get the mac mini, will I be able to restore the macbook to its "original" state? I ask this because I only have a little over 6gigs left on my hard drive. (Lots of music, graphics, videos and apps) I bought a terabyte to free up some space, but still haven't been able to free up enough to make a difference. I am assuming (and i could be wrong) that I could just take everything on the mac and move it to the hard drive, boot it from there, and all will be well in the world.
So is it doable? (If it is… I might not even need to get the mac mini.)
Thanks a bunch in advance for any help...
"O"

Yes.
First, Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Second, Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Third, Open Startup Disk preferences, change the startup disk to the external drive, then click on the Restart button. The computer will now permanently boot from the external drive.

13 inch Macbook Pro External Display Issues (Fully up to date as of 28th of June)

Hi,
Basically I 've got a 13" MacBook Pro which I've been trying to get working with a 20" Samsung SyncMaster 2033HD Monitor using the Displayport/Thunderbolt Port to VGA adapter. I've applied every update even the newest ThunderBolt firmware update which was released today (28th of June) and nothing has got it working. As the photo shows the screen has artifacts at the bottom and the monitor knows it's putting out the incorrect resolution, despite the native resolution being selected
I'm tempted to try a DVI adapter but I don't really want to spend even more money without some indication of it being worth while.
So my questions are:
Is there some way to get the monitor working over VGA that has been discovered by other users?
Has anyone else had success using the DVI adapter where the VGA adapter has failed?
Thank You

Did you ever fix this. I had a macbook pro, and then upgraded to a new one at the beginning of this year with the
AMD Radeon HD 6750M. I have had nothing but trouble with the display adapter since. The monitor keeps blacking out suddenly, or flickering. I tried using a new display adapter, but the same trouble. I tried a different Samsung Syncmaster 193T display, but it also has the same problems. I tried a different Samsung crappy VGA monitor, and it wokrs okay. I think the thunder bolt adapter is more tempremental than a dedicated display port, and there is a bad contact.
Looking around for video drivers, but I doubt that will fix it. As a last resort I may get apple to check the port, but for all the hype, I think the adapter was a cost cutting measure, and the DVI was too bulky to accomodate. The quality is worse. I also have an old Powerbook G4, and the build quality on that was great. The product is not getting better, just promoting different stuff to keep the economy rolling in my view.

Disconnecting MacBook from external display

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