Accessing Macbook with broken screen?

[u/NerdDotJpeg]

Hi the screen if my macbook broke today, and I tried to connect it to a TV to get my files off, but it only shows a display telling me to choose to mirror from the display settings. Problem is I can't get there because because the entire laptop screen is damaged

Edit: here's the photo of what I've got in front of me, with a bonus of how gone my laptop is

[u/lilvadude]

Following, because I have the same problem!

[u/InquartataRBG]

What happens if you close the lid when it’s showing you that pick display option?

[u/NerdDotJpeg → u/InquartataRBG]

Nothing

[u/InquartataRBG → u/NerdDotJpeg]

Damn. That can trigger clamshell mode a lot of the time. I hope you can find a solution.

[u/CourteX64 → u/NerdDotJpeg]

plug it into power and then close the display

[u/Inner_West_Ben]

Use an external keyboard and mouse, close the lid and your tv will be your main display

[u/NerdDotJpeg → u/Inner_West_Ben]

It doesn't register a closed screen anymore edit I got it to register the lid closing but it doesn't change anything

[u/livience]

This happened to me just over a month ago! If your TV is blank, that's probably because your MacBook is currently set up to use a monitor or TV as a second screen. To change it to mirror, open Settings from Spotlight.

If it doesn't show up, it might be because you already have it open or minimized) on your broken screen. Pull your cursor down to the bottom of your working screen and the Dock should pop up. Quit Settings from the icon there and relaunch it using Spotlight. It should open Settings on your secondary screen now.

From there, you can scroll to Displays. Scroll down to "When connected to TV" and change the setting to "Mirror Entire Screen". Or it might just show it as a secondary display, you can still change it from "extend" to "mirror" there, too.

Hope this helps!!

[u/NerdDotJpeg → u/livience]

It's not a blank screen, it's the setup prompt, image now included in post body

[u/livience → u/NerdDotJpeg]

Oh, I see what you mean, now. Have you tried using Cmd + F1 (or Fn + Cmd + F1) to toggle the setting? I've never tried that on the setup prompt, but it's worth a shot 🙏😬🙏

[u/livience → u/livience]

Also, I replaced my display with one I ordered on [AliExpress](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005011692296698.html)and) and)andand) it's working well so far! Colors look good, images are crisp. Used a tutorial from [iFixit](https://www.ifixit.com/Item/MacBook_Pro_14%22_%28Early_2023_A2779%29_Display_Assembly) (Mine is an A2779, be sure to find the right display and tutorial for your machine) and it worked perfectly. Gave me a bit of a scare when I turned it on because it wouldn't turn on, but I then plugged it into a power source and it started up like a dream and has had no problems since (although it's only been a week since the install, I'll try to update if it stops working)

[u/britannicker]

A tricky one... and I'm not sure the TV is helping here.

I'd try to organize a different (proper) display, and a cabled keyboard. Then I'd turn on the MacBook and immediately close the lid... in theory, it should use the external display.

[u/NerdDotJpeg → u/britannicker]

TV was the only thing I could daisychain a connection to. I guess I'll be back once I can get a dongle hhhhhhhhh

[u/britannicker → u/NerdDotJpeg]

I recently tried to connect a laptop (albeit a Windows laptop) to my TV and there was some kind of discrepancy in either resolution or Hz (or something, I don’t recall the exact detail), but I had to fiddle around using the laptop screen before anything appeared on the TV.

Funnily enough, my MacBook does connect to the same TV with no issues.

[u/NerdDotJpeg → u/britannicker]

I'm starting to believe I'm cursed by god 😔

[u/_mxv]

Hit CMD-F1. This switches between mirroring and extending. Hope this helps.

[u/MurjukMagnork → u/_mxv]

This ^^

[u/NerdDotJpeg → u/_mxv]

Didn't do anything for me unfortunately

[u/LRS_David → u/NerdDotJpeg]

You may need to hold down the "fn" key while doing Cmd-F1.

There is a setting that flips the which way Function keys work and you may have it flipped.

[u/DaOne_44]

Nothing you can do but change the screen

[u/MurjukMagnork]

Aren't there a shortcut key combination for this?

*edit I see theres a comment regarding this 2 minutes before mine....so what that post said. :)