After update from 10.15.3 to 10.15.4 external displays doesn't work via docking station

I found a workaround, and I'm now able to use docking station charging my Mac and extend monitors to three

How is what I did:

1. Disconnect all cables to docking station and power it off for one minute.
2. Uninstall Displaylink driver on my Mac, and restart Mac per onscreen instruction.
3. Power Off Mac, not restart.
4. Wait for 30-sec, and start the Mac.
5. Download and install Displaylink driver 5.21 from https://www.displaylink.com/downloads/file?id=1478, and restart Mac per onscreen instruction.
6. Power on Mac. Login Mac.
7. Connect monitor and power cables to docking station.
8. Connect Thunderbolt cable from docking station to Mac.

Hi skEzio,

I have the same problem. I just got it resolved. My setup MBP 15” 2017, Asus PG348Q DisplayPort, TEAC Reference Speakers USB connected to PreMain Amp, Macally USB Keyboard, NAS Thunderbolt 3, all connected to Caldigit TS3.

All the devices didn’t work except my Thunderbolt to NAS.

Here is what I did:

1) https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295, carefully followed this with everything unplugged, No power to the MBP, power off the docking station, monitor, speakers.

Resetting the system management controller (SMC) can resolve certain issues related to power, battery, and other features.

The SMC is responsible for managing behaviors related to the following features. If you're experiencing issues with any of these, you might need to reset the SMC. 

• Power, including the power button and power to the USB ports
• Battery and charging
• Fans and other thermal-management features
• Indicators or sensors such as status indicator lights (sleep status, battery charging status, and others), the sudden motion sensor, the ambient light sensor, and keyboard backlighting
• Behavior when opening and closing the lid of a notebook computer

2) Once you plug in your docking station. The System Preferences --> Security & Privacy may need your approval for these devices/drivers.

Click accept / allow the devices.

3) Done.

I did the following and has no issue since upgrading to 10.15.5:

1. Unplug the connection to docking station
2. Uninstall DisplayLink driver or DisplayLink Manager, depending on which version of driver you installed earlier
3. Reboot Mac
4. Download & install the latest displaylink driver for Mac, version 5.2.4 released on 5/26/2020, at https://www.displaylink.com/downloads/macos
5. You will be asked to grant something like recording screen access to the driver during the installation, grant it.
6. You will be asked to reboot, do it.
7. Plug your docking station back.

It's been 4 days and I no longer see the issue.

Installing the latest DisplayLink Beta Driver version 0.5 released on 3/16/2020, and set DisplayLink Manager "Launch on startup" solve the issue for me.

What worked for me was reseting the SMC following this guide: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019)

Dell U2415

Reseting the SMC also fixed the battery charging using an USB-C adapter.

Should also work for external Dell docking stations like D6000.

There is a post in the displayLink forum where they give a solution for the DELL D6000 Docking station (https://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=66996&page=4) which is to update the firmware of the Dock.

Before update the Dock I made a SMC reset as many users advice which fixed the problem of the laptop don't charging from the dock, now my MBP is working with my two monitors without any problem. I hope this can be useful for someone else.

So that small update did not fix anything for me, but I decided to take in my USB-C small ANKER adapter which has a few USB ports and ethernet port, and I connected my D6000 dock to the USB instead of USB-C, and it all works! I hope they release an update soon because I'd rather not use a dock to connect to another dock... but it works for the meantime.

Yes, I get what you mean, it’s like running a 4K Ultra Resolution Setting game on a GTX 560 Ti. You get 5 fps, at best.

Already got mine fixed.

a) Did a SMC Reset. Follow the steps carefully. Important is all ports must be unplugged and done on the Macbook Keyboard. I did it twice to be safe.

b) Power off all your external devices, monitors, and hubs while keep it disconnected from MacBook

c) After SMC reset. Power on / connect the devices to the hub / docking station before you connect the MacBook to the dock/hub.

d) Power-on your MacBook and Login without connecting to the Dock yet (don’t need to connect the USB-C Apple Power Adapter to the MacBook). Go to System Preferences --> Security & Privacy

e) Plug in your MacBook to Dock. With luck you might see an update at Security & Privacy that requires your approval for these devices to be connected.

Good luck.

@brex45 goto about this MAC, system report, Displays, does the report show you that the mode the monitor is in is now TV? Seems that the last releases have returned to getting monitors that are connected as being TVs and the timing etc are incorrect as well as the monitor no longer being in RGB. If it is the case then while you could learn all about EDID data and creating a new display override file it may be easier to try the trial version of SwitchResX and see if this fixes the issue for you. It will create the override file rather than the OS deciding what to do if it gets it wrong. Best of luck....been there with Catalina already....

THIS!

Disabling "power nap" in both battery and power adapter mode has helped immensely! If my screen saver comes on or I put it to "sleep", all I have to do is move my mouse or type a key and things work. I no longer need to lift the lid to wake my computer and get the external monitor to connect.

Just wanted to update everyone here and hope it helps. I was finally able to get my monitor to work and NOTHING else managed to work, this seems so random and ridiculous that you would never think to try.

After I connected my 4k MST DisplayPort monitor it was still just black and I had read people had success with just leaving it connected then coming back after a while and it worked, but I never intentionally tried. I was trying different things to get it to show up, but nothing, so I went to the other room and then came back like 20 min later, the display still connected and my MBP was sleeping, so I turned it on and logged in from screen lock and BAM 60hz all working perfect, picture shows and everything.

So I was able to reproduce this and its working 100% of the time so far. If you restart or shutdown it stops working again so you have to let it sit. Also want to note that for me the monitor showed up in OS X as the correct display connected but no picture.

1. Plug-in monitor cable.
2. Make sure OS X registers that a monitor has been connected by checking in Displays Pref, if the "arrangement" tab is there it's connected. Alternatively you can check "About this Mac" then click the Display tab to see if more than one monitor is connected.
3. Make sure "Turn display off after" is not set to NEVER in energy prefs, mine is set to the default 10 min on power adapter.
4. Let the computer sleep the display and go to screen lock.
5. Turn on the MBP and login.
6. Monitor should have picture now.

After you get picture, I was able to close the lid and go into clamshell mode, the a bit later opened up the lid and get dual displays. So the only thing that breaks it is restart or shutdown.

This was tested with 10.15.5 beta 3, but I don't see why it won't work in 10.15.2, 3, 4 honestly cause the same behavior of the monitor being connected but no picture was the same on all those versions for me.

Hope this helps someone, cause I know I've been so frustrated and going crazy trying to fix this issue over the last few weeks and after having spent $4600 on this 16" MacBook Pro I was furious. By the way I'm still waiting for the "Engineers" to get back to me through the Senior Apple Care advisor with a solution or an answer after 10 days...

Best of luck!

Sounds like the initial connection is getting the EDID incorrect from the monitor. Have you checked the reporting under displays that when the monitor is black and when it is on that the reports are the same? Have you compared an AGCDiagnose on the drivers when blank and when working? Is there a difference between the 2 dumps?

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleGraphicsControl.kext/Contents/MacOS/AGDCDiagnose -a > AGDCDiagnose_a.txt 2>&1

Depending on what you see it could just be that the EDID information that the MAC is getting is wrong or worse case, like myself, the drivers determine the incorrect bandwidth for a channel. However, if your lucky and the EDID data is wrong you could create an override for the display manually, or use the github edidrb program, or install switchresx and create it.

There is a great amount of discussion on resolving MAC display issues over here. Large discussions on trying to get resolutions correct etc through overriding the OS. Yes that is 94 page long thread.

Restarted the SMC and now it’s working for me.

On my MBP 2019 13'' resetting the SMC solved the issue with external display.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964