I picked up a new MacBook Air with the Apple M1 chip, and so far I have absolutely loved it. It’s really fast and the battery is fantastic. But I was dealing with one troubling issue. Occasionally, for reasons I have not been able to figure out, a screensaver will suddenly take over the entire computer – despite the fact that I never use a screensaver. And frustratingly, the screen saver renders my laptop unusable until I close the screen completely and open it again.
Looks like I’m not the only one who sees this error MacRumors article. Others shared similar issues with MacBook Airs, Pros and Minis on M1 MacRumors‘s forums, Reddit (in a few threads) and Apple’s support forums. And a user to MacRumors said they saw the bug on their 16-inch MacBook Pro, which has an Intel chip, and maybe it’s a problem with MacOS Big Sur.
Here is a video of the bug, shared by MacRumors forum member dawideksl:
Many people who report the problem in this Reddit thread say that they have multiple accounts on the same computer. And for what it’s worth, I’ve set up two accounts on my MacBook Air. One user on Apple’s support forums turned off Fast User Switching and said they did not see the screensaver, so it might be a solution until Apple addresses the bug.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.