How to Disable Auto Boot

Written By: Jeff Suovanen

Comments: 28

Difficulty

Easy

Steps

Time Required

5 minutes

Introduction

The Auto Boot feature powers on your laptop as soon as you open the lid, so it should be disabled before undertaking certain repairs. Auto Boot can be found on 2016 (and newer) MacBook Pros and 2017 (and newer) 12" Retina MacBooks.

This guide will walk you through the process of disabling Auto Boot, and then re-enabling it when your repair is complete.

Note: Disabling Auto Boot may not work on Apple’s newer ARM-based M series MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, released in late 2020. At this time, we don’t know any procedure for disabling Auto Boot on devices equipped with Big Sur v11.1 or later.

Step 1

Power on your Mac and launch Terminal.
To launch Terminal, you can either use Spotlight Search or navigate to Applications / Utilities in Finder and double click the Terminal icon.

Hi. This does not work on 2018 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. I did exactly this to disable auto boot. But when I check by using nvram -p it says: auto-boot true. Am I doing something incorrectly? I did everything step by step. Copied and pasted the sudo command, pressed enter and then entered my password. I have Big Sur 11.1 installed. Is there any other way since I need to replace the screen. Thank you. Adrian

Adrian Vizik - 16/01/21

I am having trouble enabling and disabling auto boot on a 2018 A1932 Air. If you are going to replace the screen, just open the machine and let it boot. Then hold the on / off touch ID button in until it shuts down. Then remove the back cover and slide the battery plug out of it's socket on the logic board. It's then safe to replace the screen.

Peter Newman -

Step 2

Copy and paste the following command (or type it exactly) into Terminal:
sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00
Press [return].
Your [return] key may also be labeled ⏎ or [enter].
If you are prompted for an administrative password, type the password and press [return].
Your password will not be displayed in Terminal.

I have a new MacBook pro 13 MI chip and tried doing this on my computer because I was very annoyed. I followed these steps and it did not work. I still have not found a solution. Are there any suggestions?

maggie chiang - 10/12/20

Good question! These instructions are for Intel-based machines—I don’t know of any solution for the newer ARM-based (M1) MacBooks. If we learn how to do it, we’ll update the instructions.

Jeff Suovanen - 14/12/20

Ciao, provando la seguente procedura su MacBook Air 2020 (Intel) non accade nulla una volta inserita la password.

Ho provato a spegnere per vedere se le modifiche avevano effetto ma niente, il Mac si avvia premendo tasti e aprendo il display.

Solo in alcune occasioni invece mi viene mostrata la percentuale della batteria a schermo nero.

Quando fa cosi significa che è stato disattivato l’avvio automatico?

grazie, spero mi possiate aiutare.

Francesco Migeni - 12/01/21

La contraseña no aparecerá cuando escriba, por razones de seguridad.

Skyline X - 27/02/21

Ive applied this to a MBP 15” A1707 and it worked. Now when i open the laptop display a battery level appears for a few seconds. I’d rather see that than have the mac auto start ans so i will not be re-enabling auto-boot function

robert - 28/02/21

I tried this on a USA MacBook Pro 2018 (A1989 EMC 3214), but it did not work.

AutoBoot remains on. What now?

Marcel Vercoutre - 14/03/21

Newer ARM-based M1/M2 MacBooks seem to have a auto-boot true variable listed by default in nvram (instead of AutoBoot). So this should probably be sudo nvram auto-boot=false for M1 and later Macs (I haven't thoroughly tested this yet).

Slipp Douglas Thompson -

Step 3

You can now safely power down your Mac and remove the bottom case, without it accidentally powering on.
Remember, you must still disconnect the battery before servicing internal components.

One slight problem I found with the Mid 2018 MacBook Pro 13-inch: It still powers on if you accidentally touch the touchpad or inadvertently press a key. Is there a way to disable this behaviour temporarily whilst carrying out repairs?

On top of that, I couldn’t find a comprehensive 2018 teardown guide, so wasn’t even sure which one was the battery connector. I disconnected what I thought was the battery, but viewing some other videos, it appears I didn’t have the battery disconnected whilst replacing the screen! Out of sheer luck, nothing got fried and the replacement screen works fine.

Cool_Breeze - 20/11/19

Step 4

When your repair is complete and your Mac is successfully reassembled, you can re-enable the Auto Boot feature.
Power on your Mac and launch Terminal.
Copy and paste the following command (or type it exactly) into Terminal:
sudo nvram AutoBoot=%03
Press [return].
If you are prompted for an administrative password, type the password and press [return].
Your password will not be displayed in Terminal.
Alternatively, you may reset your Mac's NVRAM to re-enable Auto Boot.

Für manche Reparaturen ist es nötig, die Autoboot-Funktion zu deaktivieren.

Beim MacBook Air M1 z.B. funktioniert das aber nicht.

Ich habe es so umgangen. Eine Wäscheklammer neben dem TouchPad befestigt.

Nach dem Ausschalten klappt das Air dann nicht ganz zu.

Autoboot passiert aber nur, wenn das MacBook (fast) ganz geschlossen war.

So bleibt es ausgeschaltet und die Reparatur ist möglich ohne unbeabsichtigten Neustart.

Thomas Weßler -

Doesn't work, it still auto boots

Alan Barlow -

Conclusion

Congrats! You're done.

Author

Jeff Suovanen

Member since: 06/08/13

427153 Reputation

16 comments

hello may i ask, how do u make it Jeff$? mine’s scarlet$ and i want to change it but idk how

srhshahdzan - 08/04/20

I can’t type anything into the terminal…what am I doing wrong?

Linda Sussman - 11/04/20

HELP

it doesn’t work on MacBook Air><

my sister’s pro did work, thanks!! but mine can’t do so. what should I do???

Ching-Hsien Chou - 15/08/20

This code change DOES NOT work.

MFMauceri - 25/10/20

This was a great help to replace my MacBook Pro battery. Great step by step explanations. I received kit and followed the directions.

Simon Tezzo - 18/12/20

Hi there. Didn’t work with my Macbook Pro 2020 M1. Any other way to disable autostart when lid open? Thanks a lot!

Ratko Majkic - 22/02/21

this guide doesnt work with M1 computers

Skyline X - 27/02/21

Hi I have done this and it worked in disabaling the auto boot feature but it now displays the battery symbol with the percentage charge! Is there a way to disable the battery symbol from appearing?

Kirk Davis - 27/03/21

This only prevents from turning on when lid is opened, but pressing any key it turns on again… very annoying

Leandro Bianchini - 01/04/21

how do you correctly prep/turn off a MBP a2251 for a screen replacement to ensure safety of laptop (and self) when you cant log in cause the lcd is entirely black/broken? TIA

sea -

A word of caution: Don't try this on a Mac M1.

sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00 had no effect.

Afterwards, I tried sudo nvram auto-boot=true. The result was that my MacBook Pro 2021 failed to boot altogether. A revive procedure from another Mac (and three attempts until I got that right) was needed to get it running again.

Jo H - 28/04/22

$@$* how do I do this if my screen is broken

imanaziz424 -

Hi there,

I need to enable the function in my MacBook Pro14" (M1 Max) that it automatically turns on/boots when I plug it in power or in my case a USB C external monitor.

Thank you in advance for anyone coming up with a solution.

Armin Nikpour -

Can you do it?

Pablo Arroyo -

Bonjour

Ne fonctionne pas sur macbook pro M2PRO

steverlynck -

I just want to wipe down my keyboard without locking my account out (I don't know if it's a thing, I just know the last time I did it, my MBP refused my correct password. Had to do an online thing to reset my password back to the original one!). Shame this apparently doesn't work for apple silicon. I'll give it a shot though when I can.

Tineyi Chapisa -