Takes long time to switch to external monitor

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wm_uss2021 Author

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4 points

Takes long time to switch to external monitor

I have a staff member that is using a 2020 MacBook Air (13-inch). When the user connects to an external monitor, Dell S2340L, 1920 x 1080 60 Hz, both monitors freeze for around 1 minute.

We tried several different cable connections and adapters, VGA to USB-C, HDMI to USB-C. The issue did not occur with a 2015 MBA with a HDMI to Thunderport adapter.

It could potentially be a USB-C port issue or a hardware issue, but I noticed the user has over 1.7 GBs of files on the MBA desktop (over 670 items). When the monitors unfreeze, the Desktop files and Dock move over to the external monitor. I am going to test with the user if the large number of Desktop items are causing this delay, but has anyone heard of this problem before - Monitors freezing due to large numbers of desktop files?

Posted on May 10, 2021 3:15 PM

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Answer 1

May 11, 2021 12:10 PM in response to wm_uss2021

Hi there, wm_uss2021! Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.

After reviewing your post, it sounds like your user is experiencing some delay when using external monitors. We definitely understand that can be a concern and we'd love to help. While we feel that this should be a seamless experience, it may be possible that a very heavy data load on the drive could be affecting this behavior. The first troubleshooting step we advise sounds like where you are heading already. See if this behavior persists in a second user account on your Mac. If you don't have one you can use, please follow these steps to make a test account that can be deleted later: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac.

Please let us know if you have follow-up questions about this issue, or if the issue remains unresolved. Have a great day!

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Takes long time to switch to external monitor

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