Most of the time, when you flip your MacBook open, you want it to power on.
I say most of the time because everyone is different, and just because you popped the hood, so to speak, doesn't mean you want to fire up the engine.
If that quirk of MacBooks ever rubbed you the wrong way, I'm happy to report that Apple finally has announced a "fix."
How to open your MacBook without it powering on
Recent support documents show that Apple has quietly released a fix for this feature if you want your MacBook to stop powering on automatically when you open the lid or plug the laptop in.
A fair warning: This isn't a simple button press in settings — you will have to use your MacBook's Terminal app to punch in a few commands.
If you're okay with that — and if you're this specific about your laptop, you probably are — then here's what you need to do according to Apple.
The Terminal commands to get started
- Check that your MacBook is using macOS Sequoia or later
- Fire up the Terminal app, which is found in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder
- Enter one of these commands in Terminal, then press Return:
- For preventing startup when opening the lid or connecting to power: sudo nvram BootPreference=%00
- For preventing startup only when opening the lid: sudo nvram BootPreference=%01
- For preventing startup only when connecting to power: sudo nvram BootPreference=%02
- Type your admin password when prompted (Terminal doesn’t show the password as it's typed), then press Return.
- To undo any of the previous commands and reenable automatic startup when opening the lid or connecting to power, enter sudo nvram -d BootPreference in Terminal.
That's pretty much it.
Not everyone needs or wants their MacBook to power on in these scenarios, but it might be convenient sometimes.
I foresee this being useful if you have a MacBook experiencing some technical or hardware issue, for example. Maybe you want to examine your laptop while it's still powered off.
Alternatively, maybe you want to work on your MacBook (and void that precious warranty). That might mean flipping the laptop open to do some tinkering with the keys, trackpad, or something else, but with the whole thing powered off—boom, solved.
Whatever your reason for wanting your laptop to remain powered off when open or plugged in, it's nice knowing you can do that if you wish.
Apple didn't exactly make it easy, but a viable, if-tedious solution is better than nothing, right?
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