Connecting two external monitors to MacBook Pro

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Level 1

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Connecting two external monitors to MacBook Pro

Hi,

I have not been able to find a clear answer on this on the net so thought would ask here.

I am looking at connecting my MacBook Pro with 4 thunderbolt ports to two external monitors to extend the desktop to both.

I will be using HDMI to do this so I understand that 1 thunderbolt port can be used to extend desktop to one screen and you cannot use one thunderbolt port to extend to multiple monitors?

Any help would be great.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Apr 12, 2020 2:15 PM

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Answer 1

MrHoffman

Level 10

145,813 points

Apr 12, 2020 2:28 PM in response to williamgood

Which year of MacBook Pro? The MacBook Pro 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 all have four Thunderbolt port models available...

Here’s how to Use multiple displays with your Mac - Apple Support

Here’s a previous similar discussion about the Maximum number of Monitors - Apple Community

External display support numbers and resolution varies by model and year.

The DisplayPort connection must be the last device in the Thunderbolt daisy-chain, so one DisplayPort device per Thunderbolt, yes.

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Answer 2

MrHoffman

Level 10

145,813 points

Apr 12, 2020 4:11 PM in response to williamgood

See the following review, for two displays on one USB-C Thunderbolt 3 connection, daisy-chained:

https://www.imore.com/lg-ultrafine-4k-display-review

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Answer 3

williamgood Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 12, 2020 3:51 PM in response to MrHoffman

It is the 2019 model.

So one thunderbolt to one extended desktop right?

If you were to use a splitter on one Thunderbolt port then it would not extend but mirror instead?

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Answer 4

Apr 12, 2020 2:31 PM in response to williamgood

It is possible to extend to other monitors but your model of MacBook Pro does not have an HDMI port, you need an adapter which can be found here. Hope this helps.

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Answer 5

Apr 12, 2020 7:12 PM in response to williamgood

Mirroring is selectable in software. It has nothing to do with how you make the connection.

The only use for a splitter is to run two displays in an auditorium, and it's not The ThunderBolt you split, it's the HDMI. ThunderBolt is point-to-point, but in certain special cases can be daisy chained.

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Connecting two external monitors to MacBook Pro

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