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MacBook Pro - How to use external monitor right from boot/login screen

My macbook's display is not working, and it just shows some lines for most part of it. But I can see(barely) it is booting and waiting at login. I want to connect it to external display and take a backup. The problem is that the external display becomes secondary display and I do not see the login prompt on it to work.

Is there a way to make the external display the primary display or to mirror display using some keyboard shortcuts, as I cannot see whats on the screen at all?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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If you have access to a USB or Bluetooth keyboard & mouse. Restart your system and then close the lid so the lid sensor acknowledges the lid is closed your external display should automatically become the primary display.

If this fails you may have something deeper here than just a messed up LCD.

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Brilliant! Worked for me.

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You need the magsafe in and power on too. It doesn't work from battery.

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Worked for me

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worked for me too :)

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Here’s a guide on how to do so. Pretty cool guide in my opinion!

http://osxdaily.com/2010/12/21/broken-ma...

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@ajcooke01 - Be careful! This guide was for the older A1211/A1212 MacBook Pro. The newer MacBook Pro retina series are a bit different. I wouldn't disconnect the display lid as you would loose Bluetooth & WiFi

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@danj I didn't say to disconnect the lid, it was just in the very unlikely case the OP would actually do something like that.

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@thierrywilders I had this issue with the 2019 13” macbook pro 4TB port touch bar model. Like them, my external monitor would only come up in extended desktop/recovery mode even with the lid closed. The only solution that worked for me was to disconnect the LVDS display connector which forced the system to use the external display. Obviously you need an external keyboard/mouse for this to be practical. Mine were USB, I don’t know if bluetooth would have given the same result.

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I made a slabtop of my 2018 MacBook Pro 15” but nothing showed up on my external screen and the internal was, well, in a happier place. Booting into recovery mode and disabling FileVault did the trick. After restart I came to the usual login screen

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Hey Arvid, can you give me any tips on this process as I also have a MacBook Pro 15” 2018.

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Can’t remember exactly but I think I choose the third option in the recovery assistant and after a few steps there was an option of disabling FileVault.

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I'm trying to connect Mac book pro 2019 from usb c to HDMI cable to Samsung TV before login. But it's not detecting in TV even after connecting charger and closing lid. Any idea why?

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Try a different port, adapter and/or cable as one is not working properly.

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So i have a macbook with usb-c/touchbar with a broken display and other boot problems.

The screen doesn't do anything and the touchbar sometimes shows something, the capslock light is working but no external screen, even with the lid closed/charger connected/external keyboard amd mouse. Any idea where to start?

Ps. I got internet recovery to work on the external screen but it was in extended desktop mode so i could really see anything....

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On a 2020 MacBook Pro with Touchbar I disconnected the display cable and was able to force it to use the external monitor as the primary one this way. I used this guide and all I did was disconnect the battery and do steps 17 and 18 to disconnect the cable.

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So i did this too as how it was it was indeed still connected.

I could boot and i needed to recover the mac which was all going well. I re-installed osx on an external screen. Rebooted multiple times during the reinstall as normal.

I could make an account and use the mac as normal.

But now today after having turned it off it won’t show again on the external display. It just stays black: no signal….

I don’t know why it doesn’t boot on the external screen because i’m sure its working. But only sometimes….

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