MacBook – Fully disable MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar

macbook protouch-bar

I constantly keep touching my MacBook Pro's Touch Bar by accident. I have larger hands and my fingers accidentally press buttons on the Touch Bar without me noticing all the time.

I like the Touch Bar and I'd like to use it, but I can't seem to find anywhere that will allow me to enable a lock screen type feature on the Touch Bar.

I'd really like to disable input unless explicitly enabled. How do I do that?

Best Answer

You can tinker with the Keyboard Settings to get something close to your desired behavior. Here's one idea:

Set "Touch Bar shows" to "Expanded Control Strip" and remove all buttons on the Control Strip using "Customize Touch Bar...". Then set "Press Fn key to" to "Show App Controls".

Now your Touch Bar will be empty unless you press fn to show the App Controls.

—

I also outline some ways to use Better Touch Tool to temporarily disable the Touch Bar in my answer on a related question.

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MacBook – Disable the sleep function of the macbook touch bar

You can use my script until Apple adds a preference for the Touch Bar.

It simulates keyboard activity by sending the command for the fn-key every 60 seconds. You should not notice it while typing. Keep in mind, however, that this will prevent display sleep / system sleep as well.

Copy and paste the following code into the "Script Editor" application on your MacBook Pro with Touch Bar:

(*
1. Save as an Application: Script Editor > File > Export… > File Format: Application
2. Check "Stay open after run handler"
3. Run the app or add it to your login items: System Preferences > Users & Groups > User > Login Items > Press the "+" button

# http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/269174/disable-the-sleep-function-of-the-macbook-touch-bar
*)

on idle
    tell application "System Events" to keystroke (key code 63) -- press fn key
    delay 60
end idle

Please let us know if this solves your issue.

MacBook – Keyboard Touch Bar MacBook Pro late 2016

No, you're not the only one.

I'm aware of people who have used BetterTouchTool to modify the Touch Bar buttons and, in some cases, move the ESC key to the right somewhat because they have the same problem.

BTT offers much more customisability then what Apple does via System Preferences. Also, you can associate buttons with your own scripts (using AppleScript) or use it to trigger Automator workflows.

You can download it for free to give it a try.

Note: I am not affiliated in any way with BTT.

Best Answer

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MacBook – Disable the sleep function of the macbook touch bar

MacBook – Keyboard Touch Bar MacBook Pro late 2016

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