macOS Tahoe is apparently breaking the Touch Bar Apple seems to have forgotten

Every time a Windows update rolls around, it doesn’t take long for Reddit posts and articles to start popping up about the update breaking yet another feature. What we don’t see as often, however, is macOS users running into similar issues.

At least not as frequently. Well, Apple just dropped its software updates for the year earlier this week, and the latest Mac update seems to be breaking a feature it’s all but forgotten.

macOS Tahoe reportedly breaks the Touch Bar on some Macs

A creator, @vauliys, recently uploaded a TikTok where she complained about hating macOS Tahoe as a designer. Though her complaint was technically aimed at Microsoft, she mentioned an interesting tidbit toward the end of her video: her Mac's Touch Bar wouldn't turn on after the update. She mentioned that the latest update had disabled the Touch Bar.

Upon checking the comments, it turns out that this isn't an isolated issue. Several other people chimed in and mentioned that updating to the latest software had similarly disabled their Touch Bars, suggesting it wasn't just an issue the TikToker experienced. Some people in the comments mentioned that their Touch Bar didn't turn on after the update, but restarting their MacBook seemed to have fixed it.

However, the person who posted the TikTok replied to a comment and mentioned that she restarted her MacBook a few times and had no luck. In another comment, she mentioned she has a MacBook Pro 13" 2022. At the same time, a couple of people commented that their Touch Bar works just fine, so the issue doesn’t appear to affect every Mac with a Touch Bar.

Upon scrolling through the r/MacOS subreddit, I also came across a Redditor who mentioned that the Touch Bar disappeared after updating to macOS Tahoe. They said they have a 13-inch MacBook Pro as well, and the Touch Bar "disappeared from everything" and wouldn't even show up in the Keyboard options. Apparently, all references to the Touch Bar had been completely wiped. However, they followed up and said that typing this in the Terminal fixed the issue:

Eleven days ago, someone on the r/MacOSBeta subreddit mentioned that a macOS Tahoe Beta update ended up "completely brick[ing]" their MacBook's Touch Bar. They explained that the Touch Bar didn't turn on after multiple restarts. They did figure out that it wasn't an issue with the display of the Touch Bar, since the controls would appear briefly on the login screen, but nothing would display afterwards. Two Redditors chimed in the comments and said the same thing happened to them.

So, there's definitely something wonky going on with the macOS Tahoe update. If you still have a MacBook with a Touch Bar, you might want to think twice before updating. If you've already updated and your Touch Bar is gone, restarting your Mac or typing the command above into the Terminal might just do the trick.