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monitor arrangement constant reset

MacOS regularly resets my monitor arrangement, especially when rebooting or resuming from sleep. Monitors are arranged in a particular order in the room such that there is only one arrangement in MacOS that provides a logical flow between them in a larger virtual display space. No matter how the monitors are plugged into the two Thunderbolt-3 docks, MacOS always places the smaller monitor on the left-hand of the display space, and the larger one on the right-hand even though the physical arrangement in the room is the opposite.


I expected MacOS to at least guess at physical arrangement based on which side of MacBook Pro provided connectivity for each monitor, or some other consistent port order that I could control, but that is not the case. Monitor recognition seems entirely arbitrary according to hidden uncontrollable criteria. If there is a way to compensate for this 'automatic' monitor arrangement flaw, I would like to know what that is.

Posted on Jan 31, 2021 7:25 PM

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5 replies

Feb 3, 2021 8:27 AM in response to mark41

Hi mark41,


Thanks for posting! As we understand it, your Mac display arrangement seems to change when you restart your Mac or wake it from sleep. We'd like to see how we can help with this!


Which Mac model are you using? This might make a difference in steps you can try: Identify your MacBook Pro model


You mentioned you're connecting to docks; depending on your Mac model, you might see if you can connect directly to the Mac and replicate the issue to rule out possible issues with the docks.


You can also test this in a newly-created administrator account to see if you can replicate it; that will tell you if you have a system-wide or user-specific issue: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac


Let us know how it goes. Cheers.

Feb 3, 2021 10:18 AM in response to ryane77

MacBookPro16,1 with 8-Core Intel Core i9 and four Thunderbolt 3 ports. There are no HDMI ports for directly connecting the large Samsung 4K monitors directly to the laptop.


MacOS re-arranges monitors arbitrarily each time the OS starts no matter what brand of Thunderbolt-3 docks we have used to connect our monitors. It seems to be a MacOS defect.

monitor arrangement constant reset

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