Black screen after connecting to OSX

I am trying to connect to my OSX Sierra mac mini from my windows 7 laptop. Both machines are yin’s ther latest publicly available versions of teamviewer and it worked very well until a couple weeks ago.

now when I connect, I just see a black screen. If I disconnect and then reconnect, I see my wallpaper but no login screen on the mac so I cant get anywhere.

After experiencing this, when I get home and get in front of my mac, I am also unable to log in. I see the wallpaper but no way to log in. I have to reboot the mac in order to use it at that point.

What happened? How can I fix this?

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matthew360

Bah! Bummer! Sorry. Thought I had "something". This is such a drag.

Dean_MOI

Nope. Can't be, I think it's just a bug in the OSX version because this is happening on our new Macbook Pro 15", no external monitors attached....

matthew360

Seems off topic but I think it's still relevant overall:

I've reduced my Mac Mini to a single monitor, down from two. This one is directly attached via HDMI. Now, TeamViewer connects no problem - no black screen. So, for whatever it's worth, it's a dual monitor issue, and may be related to one of the monitors using DisplayPort.

Dean_MOI

AWESOME! Been struggling with this issue for a few days now and had to get somebody on the other side to go hit the spacebar!
This workaround from @Vmax28 is perfect!
For those that still struggle, try it:

"However I found a workaround. Once you are connected and see the black screen, send a "lock screen" command. I do this from IOS devices and the black screen changes to the regular logon screen."

And for the record, this is a new Macbook Pro, so no HDMI anything on it...

Vmax28

I gave up on the issue and wait for version 14 to come. Hopefully they fixed it for the new release.

matthew360

I've arrived at this.

When accessing my Mac from another computer I am greeted with two black screens. I've noticed at this point TeamViewer will not allow me to disable the "Lock on Session End" so I end the session which does in fact lock the Mac (which personally I hate a lot for reasons). I log right back in to the Mac and I have two displays - one shows the faded "lock" screen with no info at all and the other is still black - which of course is the one with the Login icons on it. If I use the arrow keys and the keyboard BLINDLY, I can log back into my Mac, yielding black screens, and then I can at least disable "Lock on Session End" in my toolbars and end the session. If I resume the session again, usually, but not always, my Mac will then be accessible to me. Note: my Mac never ever sleeps so this is not a sleep related issue.

Additionally, whenever I return to my Mac, TeamViewer is invariably in, itself, a logged out state, so I have no idea when this happens or how I was accessing my Mac at all.

Not to mention SOMETHING, I honestly do not know what, continually disables my "popular browser based remote solution" and I'm not even blaming TeamViewer necessarily, that competing product is a load of garbage but occasionally saved me.

orsogrigio

Same issue here.

It's hilarious to see that the moderators (TeamViewer employees?) actually read and edit the messages, but no word is being said about the problem.

matthew360

Oh I see. That’s disappointing. You’re already configured in the general way I was telling you to end up with. I myself have one direct hdmi to hdmi monitor paired with a monitor on a minidisplayport to hdmi adapter. Neither vga nor dvi pass their “power status” back to the computer so I was hoping this would prevent TeamViewer from getting confused as to whether the monitors are there or not. Other than changing off of my direct DisplayPort monitor, all I’ve done is reinstall TeamViewer. This is how I got the ability to remote into my Mac again. I would recommend powering off one monitor, testing your TeamViewer connection, and if that doesn’t help, turn it back on and turn off the other, to try to determine if one is the culprit or the other.

The only thing I did was install [removed by moderator], which I used to shake my Mac out of a TeamViewer induced userless log in screen. But I couldn’t bring myself to just give up and switch utilities all together.

bdee1

Sorry I am confused now. I have two monitors. One is connected to a DisplayPort to vga adapter and the other is connected to an hdmi to dvi adapter.

It sounds like I already have the same (or similar) setup as you right?

matthew360

In this specific case, VGA and DVI based monitors would be even better. Just grab some cheap adapters off Amazon to knock down your HDMI or MiniDisplayPorts to VGA or DVI. Obviously, just a work around, I know, but if you're able, it may help you too.

bdee1

Thanks for posting! Unfortunately my monitors are kinda old and do not have hdmi ports. Only vga and dvi.

I have one of mine connected using a DisplayPort to vga adapter.

matthew360

That did it. I can now access my home Mac Mini after switching the MiniDisplayPort monitor to run through a MDP to HDMI adapter. Now I just have to deal with my other TeamViewer Mac issue. Hopefully someone can use this work around, or at least until TeamViewer can work around an apparent DisplayPort issue themselves.

matthew360

The thing that I am going to be testing on a Mac Mini is adapting the DisplayPort monitor to an HDMI connection instead. I feel a potential issue is that when a DisplayPort monitor is sleeping or powered off, it appears to the Mac as though it is fully disconnected and removed, as opposed to HDMI monitors (and all other types) which the Mac sort of treats a little more like "Oh is that gone I hadn't noticed". I feel it might be this fully disconnected state that is throwing TeamViewer off.

LawTecs

All iMacs, always worked fine till last week, then 3 iMacs all have the same issue. ive ended up having to use our Meraki MDM to force a reboot and then it works..

had a similar issue with a PC today, so will wait and see if the problem gets worse or an update is released that fixes it.

matthew360

How about you? Are you DisplayPort connected?

LawTecs

Ive been getting the same issue. its a recent thing thats been happening to several Macs that I support. waiting on a fix.

matthew360

How many monitors are connected to the Mac Mini and is at least one of them off of the MiniDisplay/Thunderbolt port?

pwrmacbob

No one will reply. They never do. Check out how many questions have no replies. Amazing. Especially for Mac questions. I called once, quite a while back, for a different issue and since I'm not a paying customer they pretty much hung up on me. If I find another way to remote into my computers I'll leave this in a heart beat.

bdee1

Is there a different path to get support for these type of issues? Is there a way to submit a support ticket with them?

pwrmacbob

No one EVER replies. Especially with Mac questions.

bdee1

Thanks for the reply!!

so when I saw the black screen I went to Lock > Lock Now and then I actually saw my desktop for a couple seconds, and it went away and back to a black screen.

Now if I switch to the other monitor I see the lock screen background (with no controls) and if i switch black to the primary monitor, its just a black screen.

Vmax28

Same problem here. I own a Premium License, but to my disappointment official support did not come up with any solution. However I found a workaround. Once you are connected and see the black screen, send a "lock screen" command. I do this from IOS devices and the black screen changes to the regular logon screen.

bdee1

Can anyone advise on this?

bdee1

Anyone??