14 DAY TRIAL // Some Apple Macs powered by the new M1 chip introduced in November are reportedly struggling with a bug causing the screensaver to activate all of a sudden, making it impossible for users to dismiss it without closing and reopening the lid.
According to a report from MacRumors, the whole thing happens on macOS Big Sur and only when Fast User Switching is enabled.
The workaround, unfortunately, is super inconvenient, as users can just disable Fast User Switching or turn to the aforementioned lid closing/reopening trick for the whole thing.
While very little information in this regard is currently available, a thread on Apple’s support forums has already received more than 600 “I have this question too” upvotes, which means there’s a chance the whole thing might be more widespread than initially thought.
Fix said to be there in the latest beta
The original post was published on November 23, shortly after Apple started selling Apple Silicon-powered devices.
“I just purchased the baseline M1 MacBook Air and I’m having trouble with the screensaver taking over the computer. It will come on even while using the device and then there’s no way to dismiss the screensaver. I have to switch users, log out, and/or restart the machine to get the screensaver to go away. At this point I’ve disabled the screensaver (which for me is fine) but I’m hoping there’s a fix out there somewhere,” one user explains.
Several users have reached out to Apple Care, only to be told they are unaware of the issue, so it’s not yet known if Apple is currently working on an official fix or not.
On the other hand, someone says Apple has already resolved the issue in the most recent beta version of macOS Big Sur, though, at this point, no confirmation in this regard is available.