How to prevent MacBook Pro from powering up by pressing any key? When MacBook Pro 2018 is completely shut down, it will power up by simply opening the lid, pressing any key, or tapping the trackpad, which is very annoying. I managed to make it not power up when the lid is lifted, but I couldn't figure out how to prevent the key presses or trackpad tap from doing so.
Short answer: you can't
MacBook Pro 2018 with Catalina 10.15.7
My experience is similar to Billie Hawkin's excellent answer above: setting AutoBoot to %00 prevents boot on lid open
However, sudo shutdown -h now did not, in my experience, prevent the behavior. When any key is pressed, the laptop still booted up.
What do service shops do? crack open the case and pull the battery!?
And Apple Support was no help :P