How to Turn Off MacBook Screen Without Closing The Lid

In this article we will show you how to Turn Off MacBook Screen Without Closing The Lid. If you use your MacBook with external displays, you may want to use it with the display off but the lid open. In that case, today’s tip should help you achieve this goal, with not one, not two, but three different ways to do this.

You can do this with the laptop lid closed, but with the increasingly powerful MacBooks out there, avoiding the heat that can build up there is probably worth leaving the screen up, right? By leaving the screen up with the screen off, the heat leaves the Mac via the keyboard, and the graphics processor can give all its energy to the external screen, which is useful if you’re working with graphics-intensive applications.

There are some cases when you want your Mac to be awake and doing something, but prefer to turn off the screen. For example, you may be doing a long software download at night and don’t want the glare of the screen to keep you awake. Another possibility is that you mirror your Mac’s screen to a TV, but don’t want to see the same images on the small screen in the corner of the room. For these and similar times, read here how to turn off your Mac’s screen without falling asleep.

Using a Keyboard Shortcut

1. Press Control Shift Eject.
   • Which key: The Eject key usually shows.
   • No Eject key: If you find no Eject key on your Mac’s keyboard, use the On/Off button (⏼) instead; so, to turn off the screen on your Mac without sleeping it, press Control Shift On/Off.
   • Mouse alternative: You can also use hot corners to black out the screen using mouse or trackpad or set up a custom keyboard shortcut; see below.
2. Press and key, click a mouse button or tap on a trackpad to wake the screen again
   Mouse movements: Merely moving the mouse pointer or touching the trackpad will not turn on the screen.

Use Terminal to Turn off the Screen on a Mac

To immediately turn off the screen on any Mac with macOS from Terminal (or any other tool that can run command-line scripts and applications):

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type: pmset displaysleepnow
3. Press Enter.

Use Hot Mouse Corner to Turn Off a Mac’s Screen

To set up a corner on the screen to turn off the display:

1. Select System Settings… (or System Preferences… from the Apple menu.
2. Go to the Desktop & Dock category.
3. Open the Desktop & Screen Saver category and go to the Screen Saver tab.
4. Click Hot Corners….
5. Now pick a corner to turn off the screen and select Put Display to Sleep for that corner.
6. Of mice and keys: You can require one or more keys to be pressed while the mouse cursor is in the corner for the display to be turned off; hold down the desired key or keys (Command, Control, Option, Shift and any combination) while selecting the Put Display to Sleep from the corner action’s menu.
7. Cornered all around: You can make more than one corner turn off the Mac screen, too.
8. Click OK.

Can You Stop a MacBook From Sleeping When You Close the Lid?

You can prevent a MacBook from going to sleep when you close the lid, and you can use a closed MacBook even if you connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse to it. If you like to use your MacBook with an external monitor, but you don’t have space on your desk for both the monitor and your MacBook, closing it and storing it in a vertical stand during use is a great solution. If you want to know more information about this visit official Apple support site.