You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Mac Mini thinks there is a phantom third display

I have a 2018 Mac Mini running macOS 10.15.7 Catalina. I have two displays attached. One display was attached using a HDMI to HDMI cable. Today I sat down at my mac only to find that that display was dark.

After some fooling around and seeing that other people have had problems with the HDMI port on the 2018 Mac Mini, I switched to a new cable using USB-c (plugged into a Thunderbolt port on the Mini) to HDMI (on the monitor side). Now both monitors are working fine. The strange thing is that the Mini thinks there are three displays as shown below! I'm guessing that the Mini thinks there is still a display hooked up to the HDMI port even though there is no cable attached there. Rebooting does not do anything. Anyone have any idea as to how to get rid of this?

In case it matters, the other display is also using a thunderbolt port.

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 20, 2021 11:03 AM

Top-ranking reply

DavidOfKlinewoods Author

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Feb 22, 2021 7:00 AM

Update: About a day later the phantom monitor went away without my having to do anything. Very strange.

View in context

Mac Mini thinks there is a phantom third display

Similar questions