MacBook Touch Bar Not Working? Learn How To Resolve The Issues (2023)

Published 2021-01-09

Just like anything else on your MacBook, the Touch Bar can freeze randomly and become unresponsive. Several users have even reported that after updating their system to macOS 11.0.1 (Big Sur), the issue seems quite prevalent. If you are facing the same issue and looking for effective repairing solutions, stay tight because this post will break down multiple ways to Fix Touch Bar Not Working On MacBook.

Reasons Why Your MacBook Touch Bar Is Not Responding

Well, there can be multiple reasons why the Touch Bar can become unresponsive. The most common ones are listed below:

1. High Resource Usage

Similar to any other applications, Touch Bar App can become unresponsive when MacBook starts using the majority of the system resources and disk space.

2. App or System Bugs

Though the macOS Big Sur update wiped out glaring issues, it does have certain bugs that slipped into the company’s latest upgrade. Touch Bar not working is one of them.

3. Hardware Issues

If your macOS is suffering from other issues like blank or garbled output, then there’s a high probability that your Touch Bar gets stuck.

Whatever be the reason, in this guide, we’ll be discussing the best workarounds to resolve the MacBook Touch Bar Not Working problem.

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Fix Touch Bar Not Responding On MacBook (2023)

These methods will work with almost all macOS versions. But if you are on Big Sur, we do not guarantee that these would fix the issue, but until Apple releases an official fix, you can try them.

Workaround 1- Reboot Your MacBook

The majority of the times, a simple reboot can help in resolving tons of issues, including the Touch Bar not working problem on MacBook:

Go to the Apple menu, located at the top-left corner of the screen.
Click the Restart button.
A dialog box that confirms the Restart process may appear on your screen.
Alternatively, you can hit the Control & Power buttons altogether and click on the Restart button to confirm the process.

Workaround 2- Force Quit Problematic Apps

Before you perform any other advanced methods to fix Touch Bar Not Working on MacBook, try force quitting the problematic applications that might be responsible for Touch Bar getting stuck.

Go to the Apple menu, located at the top-left corner of the screen.
Click on the Force Quit option.
From the Force Quit window, locate the app you think might be causing the problem.
Hit the Force Quit button again to complete the process!

Workaround 3- Refresh The Touch Bar

Still, have the Touch Bar stuck problem? Well, if it is not the application problem, then you might need to refresh the Touch Bar itself to fix the problem. To do so, follow the steps below:

Open the Terminal app. (It can be located in the Utilities section in Applications)
Alternatively, you can look for the Terminal app using Spotlight search.
Execute the command line: pkill “Touch Bar Agent”
Click the Return key to successfully refresh the Touch Bar. Hopefully, it resolves the annoying ‘MacBook Touch Bar Not Working’ problem.

Workaround 4- Clear Touch Bar’s Cache Files

Another common reason why Touch Bar may get stuck is due to useless cache files the app has accumulated over time. To fix this, you can follow the steps below:

Manual Way:

Open Finder > Go to Location.
Follow the path: ~/Library/Preferences/
You need to locate the file: apple.touchbar.agent.plist and move it to the trash.
At this step, you need to navigate to the Caches folder: ~/Library/Caches/
Again, you need to move all the contents of the folder to the Trash.
Be careful, just delete the contents of the Caches folder, deleting anything else might result in other applications not working properly.
Simply Reboot your computer to implement the changes!

Automatic Way:

Use a reliable Mac Cleaner & Optimizer – Disk Clean Pro, which can help you locate and delete caches, cookies, history, junk files, and other residues in no time.
As soon as you launch Disk Clean Pro, click on the Start System Scan button.
It will take a few moments for the cleaning utility to list all the potential traces that might hamper the overall performance.
Hit the option Clean Now, to get rid of all such residual files as soon as possible and fix the problem ‘MacBook Touch Bar Not Working’.

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Workaround 5- Re-Spring The Touch Bar Using Terminal

Simply follow the step-by-step procedure to quickly re-spring the Touch Bar without any hassles:

Launch Finder application.
Navigate to the Terminal app.

Note: Make sure that you use This Mac as a filtering option and not Recents.

From the Terminal app, type the command line: $ sudo pkill TouchBarServer;
Hopefully, this Mac trick helps you re-spring the Touch Bar and fix the potential issues!

Bottom Line

Here’s everything about ‘Fixing Touch Bar Not Working On MacBook’. If you think, this guide helped repair the issue, do let us know your opinion in the comments section below. Also, if you’ve found any other fixes that we haven’t covered in this blog post then you can shoot them below. You can also write to us at support@systweak.com

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