Big Sur 11.1 External Display Issues!

Your statements are 100% false.

An OS system has drivers/firmware and makes calls to the displays. The problem here is that Big Sur has changed either the drivers/firmware/calls to the display resulting in multi display issues.

This has NOTHING to do with physical connectors or cables.

As you can see from this tread, there must be a huge nr of people suffering from some variation of this issue since 'upgrading' from Catalina to Big Sur. As someone else suggested, and I have now done, post your issue of the apple feedback form here

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html God knows if it will do any good, but seems any fix is in the hands of Apple. Might be time to take to Twitter to raise the profile.... @tim_cook & @apple ?

For me my problem is that my MB PRO 2017 will still work with a Cinema screen & a Viewsonic, but if I try running Zoom meeting, it starts to slow to a crawl and activity monitor shows the CPU taking a hammering from Kernel_task, Windowserver and Google chrome helper....

To use Zoom now I have to unplug the 2 external monitors...which makes showing multiple tabs in chrome/safai during a meeting/webinar is now a real pain....

When not using Zoom the screens do work for day to day stuff, I have main screen with Chrome multiple tabs, another screen using Safari for social media/news/youtube & the laptop with a few odds & sods other email a/c's and now ACTIVITY MONITOR...!

Sometimes through the day (no zoom running) it all struggles for a few mins here and there, especially if watching something on YouTube......so my manifestation of whatever is happening is not as extreme as others posting here, but still a real pain, considering it has all been very good for years....!

Update:

I installed Big Sur 11.2.3. No difference, as expected from other comments.

Last week I made an appointment at the local Apple Store Genius Bar for tomorrow Wednesday 3/10). Today (Tuesday) I got a call to confirm the appointment and ask what I wanted to accomplish.

 I said I expected to bring in my laptop and one of my monitors, with the purpose being:

• Connect my monitor to one of the store's Mac Book Pros to see if it works.
• If it does, determine if mine can be fixed or possibly replaced if the tech can't figure out what is wrong.
• If it doesn’t, start shopping for new monitors.

But apparently, due to COVID-19 protocols, all I can do is check it in for an evaluation, which will take at least two days.

I can’t be without it for two days, as even handicapped having some capability is necessary.

I went the exact same route, left the mini with them for 2 days due to covid...when I was called to pick it back I was told they do not have 5k monitors to test it so they only did a 4k test over hdmi and it worked.

they tried to blame it on the monitor, but I told them the same monitor works fine with my 16 inches MBP over a Usb-C-DisplayPort cable, so it’s definately not the monitor.

at the end of the conversation, the “tech guy” as I cannot call him a genius as Apple would like me to...said that the M1 is still fresh technology and kind of experimental so it is normal to have some issues...

I was speechless as this was the second tine I got this dumb excuse from a company representative, after the Tesla technician told me it is normal for the Summon function not to work most of the time because it is a Beta version therefore is in tests...

I don’t know how these companies are allowed to sell (charge money for) these products which are not fully developped/tested...

Anyway, if you decide to waste your time and go for the so-called-genius appointment, be prepaired to hear lame excuses, recommendation to buy the XDR display (which costs the same as 5 mac minis + 1 grand for the stand...)or to return your mini is elligible (I only had mine for about one week when I had it checked).

its not your cables, it’s not your machine, it’s that Big Sur update after 11.0.1. Leave it to Apple to ruin things that weren’t broke. I feel they break something with every update. I can say I have never experienced something like this on the other side of the fence. My trashy work issued sell laptop has never had any issues connecting to the same set up meanwhile my 3k laptop is something else. To me having to go back to Catalina after everything was working somewhat fine on the first Big Sur release is like going from Windows 10 back to 8.1.

I am using that monitor with with the following

Mini M1. usb-c to mini DP connect to BenQ

Nvidia Shield TV hdmi to hdmi to BenQ

and

MBP 2015 mini DP (TB2 port combo) to full size DisplayPort on BenQ

OS on both Macs - Big Sur 11.2.3

If the Mini M1 can use a USB-C to mini DP cable to connect I would hope your system would work too.

All are running at 4k@60 with my only complaint being is that with all three connections, I have to manually do the monitor KVM for video and then for audio. It may be that I am not setting it up correctly.

Using SwitchresX on macOS 11.2.3 I have a full range of resolutions available on my apple Cinema Display art 60Hz, or 59.88 if you want to be picky. Please don't comment if you don't know what your talking about. thank you

Just upgraded from mid-2015 MBP to MBP M1 with Big Sur. The old machine runs the 30-inch Cinema HD just fine at full 2560x1600 resolution. Using a Thunderbolt 3 dock for an easy connection. However, Big Sur doesn't seem to have the display's native 2560x1600 built in. It originally launched at 1/2 that resolution. I was able to coerce it to normal by clicking Alt- Display Settings in Display Preferences. But, oddly, when I go back to Display Settings, the 2560x1600 resolution does not show as an option - even though the display is working at that resolution.

Hoping Apple fixes this and adds the correct resolution options for this completely functional, incredible monitor! We should be able to simply plug and play.

In the meantime, I saw mention of DisableMonitor as a way to add resolution options. Anyone with experience using it?

The option+click on the 'scaled' trick worked for me.

I have a 4k 70" TV and it would only connect at resolutions higher than 1920x1080 low resolution (whatever that means) at 30hz. The mouse lag drove me crazy. At 1920x1080 I was manually able to select 60hz, and the mouse lag is gone.

Hopefully this bug gets fixed, it's a shame to waste all that nice resolution on the big screen!

Just received this message from Apple on Feedback I had provided regarding (lack of full) resolution on my 32 inch monitor and it not waking up after going into sleep mode:

"There are changes in the latest update, build 20E5217a (Big Sur 11.3 Beta 5), that may have resolved this issue."

I do not have this beta version installed. If anyone has this beta version installed can you please advise if the issues we have been going in this discussion group resolved. Thank you.

I have tried to get the HDMI port to work with Big Sur 11.1, 11.2, and now 11.3 beta versions. The HDMI port won't connect to any display. I have no problem with the usb-c to HDMI, but since the Mac mini only supports one display per Thunderbolt controller that means I am maxed out at two displays: 1) my LG Ultrafine 4K via one T3 port and 2) one of the two supported displays I own (a 4K LG and Samsung 4K tv) in the usb-c to HDMI dongle slot. I have tried to use the thunderbolt/usb-c ports on the back of the Ultrafine to reorder my displays without success; the CalDigit T3 to Dual HDMI doesn't work. Apple support responses suggest they have no team solution for this or can't solve it. Haven't tried purchasing say a Sonnet Puck for $600. (but would that work?).

Same here...

Macbook pro 16" 2019 (Intel based)

Display Newskill Icarus 27" QHD (2K resolution at 60/120/144/165 Hz), DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0

Cable USB-C -> DisplayPort that specifically accepts up to 8K@60Hz

Never had a problem with my old monitor 1920x1200 HP display.

The display works perfectly on other non-Apple computers with the same cable.

My issue is that every now and then (some times twice a day, other times 5 times in 60 min), the display switches OFF and a seconds after it auto-switches ON again. Occasionally, it can also happen that the display goes to sleep forever, and I have to disconnect and reconnect the cable for it to work again.

The issue happens no matter what frequency I make use of or what monitor configuration I use (tested all different frequencies, just in case). I have tried all usual different recipes (PRAM/SMC reset, ) but the issue remains.

I am trying the recipee from TiiRoo now, but without success for now (may be I have to reboot the computer for it to work?) so I will keep trying this one and if it works I will update this comment.

I have a Mac Mini 2018 -- through a series of Big Sur updates the HDMI port will not recognize any external display. Resetting SMC, NVRAM etc. changing cables does not restore the HDMI--the same displays will work with the USB-C to HDMI converter--the Mac Mini 2018 has 4 T3 ports but only 1 for each of the T3 controllers or two total can take a monitor. My LG Ultrafine 23.7" takes one T3 port; I switch off a Samsung 4K nu69000 TV and a LG 27UL600 off of a second T3 port holding the USB-C to HDMI dongle. T3 to HDMI dongles have not worked. I never had a problem with the USB-C to HDMI. Big Sur fixed a display issue I had with Catalina--intermittently Catalina would break the Accessibility > Dislay >Add Contrast controller and go from no contrast to maximum contrast.

Interesting--my other displays were not affected by Accessibility contrast fail--just the LG Ultrafine 4K 23.7" --creating new account off of safe mode w/restarts/reset + reinstall of the Catalina OS eventually stabilized. Then came back but fixed by switching the cable connections for my other two displays (LG 27UL600 and the Samsung nu6900). Big Sur fixed permanently and now has a screen notification when the Increased Contrast is in effect.

We hope that with 11.3 (the final version ... since we are at beta number 8 ...), it solves this annoying problem, in my case I have temporarily "solved" by setting the DP on 1.2 of my Benq pd3220u attached via tb-3 to the 16 intel macBook pro, but I think it is a "patch" not a real solution...