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My new MacBook Pro powers on automatically when the laptop lid is opened.

Can I disable it ? If yes, then how to do it ?

Anish B.
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3 Answers3

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This article has the info for you.

Steps :

  1. Open the Terminal from this location /Applications/Utilities/

  2. Enter the command - sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00 to turn off autoboot feature.

  3. Hit return and authenticate with the admin password (necessary due to sudo).

  4. Exit terminal when finished

Note : If you want to reset to defaults, then enter this command - sudo nvram AutoBoot=%03

IconDaemon
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  • Can I do without terminal ? – Anish B. Feb 08 '20 at 16:58
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    Nope. So far as I know, the only way to modify nvram settings is through Terminal. – IconDaemon Feb 08 '20 at 17:02
  • If I want to revert back, then what will be the command ? – Anish B. Feb 08 '20 at 17:08
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    It does the trick but please notice that, as mentioned in this post it does not prevent the machine to boot. – Ousmane Mar 10 '21 at 18:59
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    While this may work for Intel Macs, this does not work for M1 Macs, and the only nvram setting there is auto-boot, not AutoBoot. auto-boot is set to true by default, but setting it to false will cause the Mac to be unbootable. I have not found a way to prevent boot on lid open on an M1 Mac. – user1533191 Dec 28 '21 at 02:18
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Update :

For those who are using Intel Chip based Macbook Pro/Air laptops (on/before 2019) :

This command sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00 will partially disable the autoboot only when the lid is opened. But there is a limitation to that. If you press any key or touch the trackpad, it will start booting up which is kind of annoying.

For those who are using Apple M1/M2 Chip based Macbook Pro/Air laptops (from 2020 onwards) :

Unfortunately, Apple team didn't add the feature of turning off the autoboot for Apple M1/M2 Chip MacBooks. We have to wait until any new update comes for M1/M2 Chip which includes turning off the autoboot.

Anish B.
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    I miss Jobs, Tim Cook Ruined everything good from apple, If I need to clean my MacBook keyboard I need to open a notepad to be able to clean my keyboard or for another example, I don't want to turn on my MacBook to clean the screen but they force to start the mac, this feature is so annoying. – Mohammad_Hosseini Mar 10 '22 at 10:16
  • I can confirm it does not work on a MacBook Air M1, 2020, but I've found a site that says it works on MacBook Pro M1. Can't confirm (https://iboysoft.com/howto/disable-macbook-boot-on-lid-open.html) – user 99572 is fine Oct 22 '22 at 11:18
  • @Mohammad_Hosseini I am in the same boat. Have you found any solution to this? – Apurv Feb 26 '23 at 08:08
  • @Mohammad_Hosseini Not yet! – Anish B. Feb 26 '23 at 08:36
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    Doesn't work on M2 either. So far, this is the limitation for all Apple Silicon laptops. – Y. E. Mar 25 '23 at 06:30
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I confirmed with my 2021 16-inch Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro that changing the auto-boot variable using the nvram command in Terminal will cause the computer to refuse to boot.

https://eclecticlight.co/2021/01/21/system-management-and-nvram-on-m1-macs/

If this happened to you, recovery is easy. Hold the power button during boot for "boot options" -> click "Options", then click "Continue". Choose a user, then click "Utilities" in the top menu, and open a new terminal.

https://eclecticlight.co/2020/11/28/startup-modes-for-m1-macs/

The default value for auto-boot is "true". Setting this value in nvram can be done like this:

~ nvram -x auto-boot=%01

Listing values in nvram can be done like this:

~ nvram -x -p

Note: -x means use HEX to set and show values.

Allan
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Sam Heuck
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