How to do a Hard Reset on the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

frombrandon
1 min readMar 28, 2017

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Just press the Touch ID sensor until it clicks, then hold until the computer restarts.

This weekend I ran into an issue that nearly sabbotaged a presentation. A rogue jump drive was causing my new 2016 Macbook Pro to freeze just minutes before I was supposed to start. I needed to do a hard reset but couldn’t figure out how to force the computer to restart seeing as how there is no physical power button to press and hold.

After a few frantic searches, I finally figured out that the Touch ID sensor is also a hidden physical power button. If you need to force restart your new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, just press down on the Touch ID sensor until you feel a click. Hold that until the computer restarts.

If you need to force restart your new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, just press down on the Touch ID sensor until you feel a click. Hold that until the computer restarts.

In those moments of desperation, I wasn’t able to find a page that clearly explained this (there very well could have been), so I thought I’d throw this out there in case anyone else finds themselves sweating bullets due to a frozen MacBook Pro.

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