I have the standard Mac Studio and have connected 2 monitors: 1) AppleStudio Display and 2) LG Ultrafine 5K. I want ASD to be the "default" monitor but when I install MacOS, the LG always is the default, causing me to go in to preferences and adjust. I also have to adjust which monitor camera I'm using. Is the default dependent on which port I plug them in to? In the display preference the LG is always listed first.
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Multiple Displays
- Thread starter brsilb
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What do you mean by "install"? Installing is something that usually happens only once. Maybe you mean "boot"? Rebooting is something that should happen only rarely. Instead you should just leave the Studio on, and only put it to sleep when not using it. Does the problem occur if you do sleep and wake?
Why do you say that? I shut my computer down every evening and start it in the morning.
There are two schools of thought, by leaving your computer on the components don't go through a cooling and warming process that can stress the components particularly hard drives where the process of spinning up and down can stress the motors and there was worry about stiction causing the heads to get stuck and solder joints causing them to fail prematurely. This thinking dates back to the days when electronics where powered and driven by vacuum tubes with point to point wiring and hand soldered. So by leaving your computer on, you will increase it's life and reliability. The second school of thought is that turning your computer off when not using it saves electricity and shutting down the computer does not harm any of the components and actually may save wear and tear (on any moving parts such as mechanical hard drives) and that flexing of components is not an issue with modern day electronics.
Me I play it both ways, if I am not going to be using my computer for 2 to 3 days I shut it off, if I am using it everyday I leave it on. It's much easier to do with my Studio since it uses a lot less power than my 2012 MacPro which I did turn off everyday when I was not using it, because it actually had a pretty large impact on my electric bill since it was loaded with 4 4TB hard drives, 4 PCIe cards USB 3.0, eSata, Adapter car for SSD and my Sapphire video card.
Very interesting. Thanks for the very informative response.
My decision to shut down and restart in the am is to "clean" the computer, so to speak. Memory leaks and other issues can build up during the day. I think of those times when some problems surface and are fixed with a restart.
No, I meant install. I do development work and periodically I erase my disk and reinstall the MacOS. So I am asking about which monitors the "default" monitor and does it become the default based on which Thunderbolt port you use.
I see. The default is stored in the macOS preferences. If you're reinstalling without migration assistant then I suppose the preferences are lost.
In that case, you want a physical method that survives reinstalling to indicate the default display. I'm not sure how one would do that...
I suppose you've already tried switching the ports used by the LG UltraFine 5K and ASD?
What about not connecting the LG until after the install?
I wonder if putting the LG at the end of a Thunderbolt chain (put a dock between the LG and the M1) would change which display is the default? I don't know.
I believe the default display is the first one that's plugged in, or the first one the Mac detects. So if your LG display is always the default, I would try swapping the ports to see if macOS is going through the ports in some certain order. If that doesn't help, then it's likely the LG is just faster than the ASD to respond to the Mac when receiving a signal. In that case, you would have to unplug the LG while installing. (Not sure if just turning it off would be sufficient or not.)
You could try copying the file com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist found in /Library/Preferences to the desktop and open terminal.
With terminal open input the following command:
Then drag and drop the com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist copied to your desktop onto the terminal windows and hit enter.
Open it with textedit and see which monitor shows up first in the file.
With terminal open input the following command:
Code:
plutil -convert xml1Then drag and drop the com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist copied to your desktop onto the terminal windows and hit enter.
Open it with textedit and see which monitor shows up first in the file.
I switched the ports, didn't matter. May try removing the display file out of preferences. shutdown, disconnect LG, reboot, and let MacOS recreate the display file on startup, forcing ASD in first place, then reconnect LG. Ifmthat mworksmImwill,alwaysmdomanm install with nLGn disconnected.
Update: Tried it, as soon as I plugged in the LG after reboot, it became #1again.
The additional problem is the LG camera is the initial one used in apps and mIm have to switch them. Ugh!
Update: Tried it, as soon as I plugged in the LG after reboot, it became #1again.
The additional problem is the LG camera is the initial one used in apps and mIm have to switch them. Ugh!
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macOS remembers the order at which the monitors have been plugged in.
Try the guide I left above or go into the /Library/Preferences and delete the com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist file and reboot with only the Apple Studio Display attached and then connect the LG.