I have a very recent (this year) MacBook Pro with touchbar and 4 USB-C ports (not sure the exact model, as the screen doesn't work). Somehow while going through airport security yesterday, something got between my screen and touchpad and cracked the screen right below the camera. The screen is mostly dead, showing just a few pixels along the break.
Before I take it for repair, I'd like to access some things on it. I normally use it with external monitors via USB-C to HDMI adapters, but when I try it now, nothing is happening. The machine chimes when connected to power. Powering on will run fans, and the esc
key appears on the touchbar, but that's it. The external monitor stays in powersave mode. I've tried connecting an external USB keyboard (Via USB-c adapter) to see if Cmd+F1 would enable mirror mode and enable the external monitor, with no luck. I've tried closing the lid while the keyboard and monitor are attached, again with no luck.
Is there any way to get the machine to use the external display prior to logging in?
Update: I was never able to get the machine to work with an external monitor. My employer sent it to Apple for repair; when it came back, everything was fine and all my files were intact. It would have been helpful to grab a few files off the machine before I sent it off, but in the end nothing was lost.