MacOS – How to make external display go to sleep after xx mins

displaymacossleep-wake

I'm using my new 2016 12" Macbook as a "desktop" by connecting it to an external display, USB Keyboard/mouse and running it in "clamshell mode". Works beautifully except the display never goes to sleep. I was kinda figuring it would go to sleep just the same way the internal display does but it will stay on for hours if I let it. I did set up a hot-corner to sleep the display and that works fine but that means I always need to do it manually. How can I get this to work so that it acts normally? Do energy saver settings not apply to external displays?

Best Answer

As a first step I would reset both your NVRAM and SMC, as well as double check your Energy Saver settings.

Resetting the NVRAM on an early-2016 12" MacBook model

Follow these steps:

  1. Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
  2. Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
  3. Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
  4. Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Resetting the SMC on an early-2016 12" MacBook model

  1. Shut down your computer
  2. Keep the power cable plugged in.
  3. Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
  4. Let go
  5. Turn your computer back on with the power button.

Energy Saver Settings

You don't specify in your question how you've configured your Energy Saver settings, but you may want to double-check what you've actually set under the Power Adapter tab. I've come across many instances where MacBook users forget that there's two tabs you can configure.

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