How to DISABLE screen locking -- PERMANENTLY ??

[Fishrrman]

Hello all -
The background story first.
Then .. questions at end.

I never found that booting/updating an OS from an external drive could adversely effect the operation of a prior OS on the internal drive.

Until yesterday.

I have a 2018 Mini, and it still runs Mojave because I have 32 bit software I wish to keep using.

But... I also experiment with recent OS releases by booting from an external SSD.

Yesterday, I booted from the external, running Ventura.
I updated Ventura from 13.5 to the 13.6 public beta.
Everything on the Ventura volume worked as expected (although I just experiment with it, don't really do much).

Then I rebooted to Mojave on the internal SSD.

Things are still well enough in Mojave, with one exception:
As soon as I activate the screen saver (using a hot corner), the Mini goes into some kind of "screen lock" mode.

PRIOR behavior was:
- push mouse into hot corner
- screen saver activates
- to de-activate, touch a mouse button, key, etc.
- screen awakens back to normal
(Mac never sleeps, screen doesn't lock)

Behavior NOW is:
- push mouse into hot corner
- screen saver activates
BUT
- screen goes black
- attempt to awaken display produces login screen.

In other words, activating the "display sleep" now puts EVERYTHING to sleep, and activates the screen lock.

Questions:
Can the screen lock feature be controlled via terminal?

If so, what are the settings to do so?

Is it possible to COMPLETELY DISABLE screen locking?
("way down deep", below user account level)

Thanks for reading.
And again ... after years and years of being able to boot from an external drive, this is the FIRST TIME EVER I saw an OS update on an external drive adversely affect the behavior of the Mac with an internal drive.

Looks like some kind of firmware modification that won't operate properly when used with previous OS's.

 

[Fishrrman]

More info:

I found that if I do the following:
- Open System Preferences/Desktop and Screen Saver
- Click on a Screensaver
- Then, click "Preview"
- The screensaver will activate,
BUT
- It will also LOCK the screen!

Never saw that before.

 

[iStorm]

That seems odd. I'm not aware of any way to disable the Lock Screen altogether. You would have to check the various settings that control it.

How do I remove or change screen lock settings in macOS?

Since upgrading to Mojave my Mac screen locks within seconds. I tried to change the 'privacy' settings (yes I clicked on the padlock) but it still won't let me change anything. How else may I try

apple.stackexchange.com

Otherwise, maybe try resetting the SMC and NVRAM. The non-volatile settings that are stored here would be shared between the two OSes. Maybe something got borked with the Ventura upgrade and it isn't playing nice with Mojave anymore.

Also, macOS upgrades/installers will upgrade the machine's firmware, even if you are installing on an external disk. Perhaps something changed with the firmware that isn't playing nice with Mojave, as you mentioned. (Not sure if the 13.6 beta had any firmware updates or not.)

FWIW, I'm running Ventura 13.5.1 and my Mac is configured to go to the Lock Screen after the screensaver starts, but it does not go to the Lock Screen when previewing a screensaver.

 

[Fishrrman]

Everything was fine up through 13.5.
But after the 13.6 upgrade -- problems (when I went back to Mojave).

So I'm thinking, yes, something "in firmware" got changed in a way that it won't play with Mojave (at least for this one thing).
Or...
Something else "down at system level" got "set" and perhaps could be changed back.

For example, the screen lock still occurs if I switch to another (test) account.
So, that seems to exclude anything "at the user level".
It's "below" that.

Anytime the screen saver (display sleep) is activated, it also activates the "screen lock" immediately afterwards.

Also, I tried booting from a cloned backup (that had not been connected since I did the upgrade), and it STILL has the problem (even booting from another drive and another copy of the OS).
So again, it's "below that", too.

 

[jackerin]

This is the only other instance of the behaviour I have found, so I will add my story here. Keeping Mojave on an external, I tried installing Monterey on the internal and it resulted in the same behaviour described. Whenever the screen goes into power saving I come back to a locked screen, no matter what settings I make there. Next I will try to wipe the internal and see if it makes any difference.

 

[Fishrrman]

RE jackerin's post above:

I don't think a "wipe and re-install" will change anything.
What seems to have been modified is firmware, not anything "on the drive".

If you are successful, please come back and let us know.