Apple Cinema Display 30’’ with M1 Apple Silicon Mac

BRIGHTNESS CONTROLS SOLVED.

For anyone who is not able to adjust brightness.

For some reason on the M1 the options tab in the display preferences is not there. BUT YOU CAN WORKAROUND IF YOU STILL HAVE YOUR OLD MAC.

Connect the ACD 30 to your older mac and set up as second display. Go into secondary display setting and there you will see the options tab that was missing on your M1 mac. Set the options as you wish (e.g. allow brightness control from buttonsand set the power button to either nothing, sleep or switch off). The ACD30 will remmebr your settings and then when you plug back into your M1 all the buttons should work as expected. :)

I connected mine with the club3d, and now that I have solved the brightness button issue all is working great. only grumble I have is tha the wires are kind of messy as the cable from the screen is designed to go into a long dual link dvi adaptor which gets multi-tale out of the way. I might look for a thunderbolt 3 extension cord to solve this.

Anyone know of a good thunderbolt 3 to firewre cable so that i can use my legacy recording interface as well?

Yes. Exactly the one I am using and it works ! Remember to use option key to set up 2560x1600 res. Not sure about the 3840x2160 @ 30hz though.

Robert

I can connect my ACD 23 and 30 to my M1 Mac Mini but I don’t have two 30” to test with

Kara_69 Said:

"Apple Cinema Display 30’’ with M1 Apple Silicon Mac: [...]I remember that a solution had been found for the Mac Mini 2018 Intel based line through the USB-c link[...]."

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View My User Tip: Configuring a USB-C Only Mac with a 30-Inch Apple Cinema Display

• The Plug I Use: Uptab USB-C to Mini DisplayPort Adapter 4K@60Hz - Silver

@Kara_69

Just got an email back from UPTab, they said and I quote "Yes, our adapter is compatible with apple new M1 chip."

I linked this Adapter in my email to them:

https://www.uptab.com/usb-c-to-mini-displayport-adapter-4k-60hz-silver/ 

In addition, it looks like the person who has kindly offered to test the Mini DisplayPort version of the Apple Cinema LED Displays will have a collection of adapters to test. Keep our fingers crossed that we finally get some good news.

I will reply back with any findings here. Holiday and all coming up so be patient.

Hi

Try this to get 2560x1600 res.

1. Hold down the "option" key on the apple display resolution interface.
2. Click the zoom position of the resolution interface to display the hidden resolution
3. select the resolution 2560x1600
4. 
   

These were the instructions i got with the Club adapter. Hope it works. Mine did !

I have rebooted a number of times - screen stays at 2560x1600

Buttons on side all work

Keyboard buttons for brightness not working.

I have had an occasional problem with waking up screen. Easily solved by unplugging and replugging USB plug. Only happened twice.

But as I said I'm delighted with both the M1 and the 15 year old screen.

If you were really using a Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter you wouldn't get any display, not just reduced resolution. The Apple Dual-Link DVI adapter works with Mini DisplayPort, not Thunderbolt, and will not work with a Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter, even though the plug will fit. The Thunderbolt dock you used on your 2018 MacBook Pro must have provided Mini DisplayPort. Have you tried that dock with the M1 Mac mini?

Thanks, 850cc. 🙂

The last adapter you posted (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07QKM856C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) is similar to the one that works here in the U.S. For anyone reading, there are no sleep issues with the StarTech adapter.

I did speak with a tech at Apple, who was surprised I found something to work and said this about the scaling:

"So in this case, the macOS doesn't have any specific options native to help alleviate your issue. I actually believe that either this issue is specific to the compatibility of the adapter you're using (signal lost in translation) and/or that specific adapter itself.

I might advise testing with another type of external display, a Thunderbolt Display would even help clarify this for us."

Question: Do your system boxes scale? (e.g., alert boxes, open and save boxes, system preferences box, program start windows, system fonts). Mine are on the small side. Readable, but not scaled like they were on my 2015 Retina MacBook Pro running Mojave (using the Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter to connect.) I'll take some screenshots today to show the difference, as I'm going to be contacting the StarTech to see if they have any thoughts. I predict lots of eye strain and headaches may come with it.

Yes, after several tries with a new M1 Mini and Cinema 30" Display, this adapter worked!

You may have to option-click on the "scaled" option in the display preferences to get the 2560x1600 resolution to be an option. Mine came up at full resolution, but didn't show the high res options initially.

The only thing that doesn't seem to work is adjusting brightness with the keys above the 1 and 2 on the keyboard, but the side buttons still work.

I tried three other adapters, with and without the dual link Apple connector, two recommended by Apple senior advisors, none of them worked - or more accurately, they worked, I just had very very low resolution and despite clicking on option -

I actually spoke with four different senior advisors at Apple, two tried to help, one said he had a reply from their engineers recommending one of the adapters that didn't work, and one simply told me these 30" displays are deemed "obsolete" by Apple so I was out of luck - seemingly he didn't understand the difference between 'old' and 'compatible'.

I hope others have the same luck and that Apple tech support reads this asap!

It works flawlessly! However you need to buy the pro version of the dock and not the basic version which is capped at a lower resolution. I found the displaylink docks to be very expensive but buying the branded ones (presumably being recycled by corporations) they are going very cheaply!

Hi Kara,

As to your first point, you correctly described the connection I have. It seems it's essentially the same as the connection you have except with the OWC dock doing the work of the UpTab adaptor you're using.

As to your second question, unfortunately I had the same problem you describe. I hadn't seen the problem yet at the time of my second post yesterday. It seems to be a known issue:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/m1-mac-mini-wont-wake-connected-displays-some-owners-complain.2289623/

Some users have reported they encountered the problem for the first time upon updating to Big Sur, so hopefully it's a software issue that will be addressed in future updates. I'm still new to this problem, and I'll update you if I find any solutions. For now, I've adjusted the default Energy Savings settings on the MiniM1 to select "Prevent computer from sleeping when the display is off" and deselect "Put hard disks to sleep when possible." With this configuration, the monitor goes to sleep after the selected time (one hour in may case, which the default), but it wakes when I tap my trackpad. The only problem is it comes up in the lower resolution, and I have to reset it to 2560x1600. I haven't done this enough yet to know whether it will continue to work reliably. I don't like this as a permanent solution because the MiniM1 is on and awake all the time unless I manually put it to sleep (in which case I assume I'll have to unplug the Thunderbolt cable from the OWC and then replug it to wake the display). I also don't like having to reset the resolution when the monitor wakes, but that's less annoying than unplugging and replugging the Thunderbolt cable. I'll let you know if I have further observations or discover any solution.

James

Uptab connects the mini-display cable from the dual-link adapter to the M1; the second USB-C on the M1 takes both the USB from the dual-link adapter and the M1 power supply via a USB-C multi-adapter; then hold down the option key when clicking on "scaled" in the display settings. It works!

" Would you explain which part from Uptab will connect an Apple Cinema Display 30 " Dual DVI to M1 Mac Mini? As posted by whit above?

Uptab connects the mini-display cable from the dual-link adapter to the M1; the second USB-C on the M1 takes both the USB from the dual-link adapter and the M1 power supply via a USB-C multi-adapter; then hold down the option key when clicking on "scaled" in the display settings. It works!

Hi @dponpon! Just wanted to say that you are a life saver and saved me hours of sleuthing on the internet with this 'hold option' key solution!! :D Where did you find it? I'm assuming Apple never talks about this eh?

Also for those others wondering, I'm running this setup and it's working flawlessly:

1. Macbook Air M1
2. 30' Apple Cinema Display with its original Apple Dual Link DVI adapter
3. Hyperdrive Slim 8-in-1 USB-C adapter: https://www.hypershop.com/products/hyperdrive-slim-usb-c-hub-for-macbook-chromebook-pc-usb-c-devices

I love this combination of ultra fast M1 tech with this beautiful vintage screen. Good luck everyone! :)