How can I fix a Macbook Pro when the Touch Bar doesn't work?

Question

I have a 13" 2016 Macbook Pro with touchbar and the touchbar is completely disabled.

1. The Touch Bar settings in the keyboard settings are gone
2. The touch bar agent in activity monitor is missing.

The system is running in macOS Mojave 10.14.6

Here's a list of everything I tried:

• I've tried running this in terminal:

  pkill "Touch Bar agent"; 
  killall "ControlStrip";
  

  and

  sudo pkill "Touch Bar agent"; sudo killall "ControlStrip";
  

• Starting in Safe Mode

• SMC reset
• NVRAM reset
• Apple Hardware Test (booting while holding D), resulting in "No problems found"

However, nothing seems to work.

I don't know what else to do besides a factory reset.

Does anyone know what could be the issue?

Answer 1

Please put this into the terminal

sudo pkill "TouchBarServer"

it will ask for a password type it and hit enter it won't show that you are typing the password but it did

Answer 2

I have seen a slight uptick in these reports at work. We tell people to use the Apple menu to log out, then shut down from the log in screen. Watching that the bar does or does not update itself. Then powering on and testing in a second account if needed.

• Touch Bar has blank/void button after Catalina update

Also, booting to recovery mode / internet recovery should let you know if reinstalling the os on top of your apps and data is worthwhile.