macos – Get MacBook Professional M1 to constantly order 2 an identical screens

I undergo from a really related downside. My MacBook Professional (16-inch, 2021), with Apple M1 Max CPU and macOS Monterey 12.6, is equally unreliable about assigning the left and proper exterior screens. They’re each BenQ EX2780Q fashions. In my case, the Mac will get it proper about 80% of the occasions it awakes from sleep. When it will get it improper, I’ve a few workarounds that are normally efficient. However it is rather annoying.

My two screens are side-by-side, above the MacBook Professional’s built-in show. The left-hand monitor connects by way of Thunderbolt 3 cable to a Thunderbolt port on the left of the MacBook Professional. The fitting-hand monitor connects by way of an HDMI cable to an HDMI port on the suitable of the MacBook Professional. Usually, the Show Preferences UI labels the left-hand monitor “BenQ EX2780Q (1)”, and the right-hand monitor “BenQ EX2780Q (2)”.

What I observe is that, when the Mac wakes from sleep, or wakes the screens from sleep after I’ve not used them shortly, there’s a interval of 5-15 seconds when the shows present messages or photos, then go black, then show photos once more. Ultimately each screens present desktop photos. I can transfer my pointer from built-in show to show (1) to show (2). About 80% of the time, the Mac picks the left-hand monitor to be show (1), and the suitable to be show (2). The remainder of the time, it reverses this task.

I can inform which consequence I’ve, even earlier than I enter my password to take away the show lock, by shifting my pointer upwards from the built-in MacBook show to show (1). When issues are right, the pointer arrives on the left-hand monitor. When issues are improper, it arrives on the right-hand monitor.

In Show Preferences, macOS all the time depicts show (1) on the left and show (2) on the suitable, even when it’s got them swapped in actual life. I can verify this by displaying completely different desktop photos on every monitor. The Show Preferences UI exhibits the desktop photos.

My major workaround is, when the shows awake and earlier than I enter my password to the show lock, to maneuver the pointer up and sideways. This lets me inform if the shows are assigned in reverse. If they’re, I press the “Cancel” button (or press the Escape key), and the shows return to sleep. I wait a second and take a look at once more. It looks like the Mac rolls the cube on mis-assigning the shows every time it wakes. However, it has a bias to maintain the task it at present has, even whether it is improper. Generally, the second attempt is right. Generally I must attempt 10 occasions.

If that fails, my second workaround is to unplug the cable to my right-hand monitor, the one I need to be show (2). Then I get up the Mac. It has no selection however to make my left-hand monitor be show (1). Then I plug within the cable to my right-hand monitor. It turns into show (2), as I would like it to be. The draw back of this trick is that, as soon as I unlock my display screen, I normally uncover that my utility home windows are on the improper show.

I attempted utilizing displayplacer. It’s “a command line utility to configure multi-display resolutions and preparations.” I bought it by way of MacPorts. Displayplacer allows you to assign show rotation, decision, and relative place, utilizing ID numbers that are imagined to be distinctive and unchanging. As an example, you might command (I shortened id numbers and added line breaks for readability):

displayplacer "id:1817…1F30+F466…DECD res:1440x900 scaling:on origin:(0,0) diploma:0" 
  "id:4C40…22BB res:768x1360 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(1440,0) diploma:90" 
  "id:A46D2F5E-487B-CC69-C588-ECFD519016E5 mode:3 origin:(-1440,0) diploma:270"

What dissatisfied me about displayplacer is that these ID numbers aren’t hooked up to the bodily screens. As a substitute, they seem hooked up to macOS’s concept of “show (1)” and “show (2)”. When macOS reverses the assignments, it reverses the connection of ID quantity to bodily monitor as effectively. I suppose I may give you two scripted invocations of displayplacer: one to reverse relative positions of the shows in response to macOS reversing the assignments, and one to appropriately place the shows in response to macOS later getting the assignments proper. I’ll depart another person to jot down the reply which exhibits how to do that.