Monterey seems to not remember which display should show which windows after sleep wakeup

I generally have different apps on different screens.

Thinking about it now, the other change I made was I installed DisplayLink manager to get my new Pluggable hub to work with 3 monitors so I'm running 1 TB4 to the hub and then 3 HDMI out. Before I had all three monitors plugged directly into the laptop. It was about the same time as I installed Magnet so could be a variable as well.

I am also experiencing this on Mac Monterey. This is wildly frustrating as I have lots of windows open and organized on different desktops across 2 displays. And every time it sleeps this happens. I have wasted so much time just reorganizing my desktops daily. Incredible that apple has taken so long to fix this but I guess shouldn't be surprised! Might be finally moving away from apple soon given the quality issues I've experienced.

I can confirm that before I upgraded to Monterey, my screen position settings remained in tact. Now I have to redo them every single day since the upgrade. Seriously annoying! Nice job Apple. Apple, under Steve Jobs, would have never allowed anything like this to slip through the cracks.

Im having this same issue on my new Mac Studio. I have LG 4K monitors connected through thunderbolt-4 ports in the back and a 4K TV connected via the HDMI cable. If the computer screensaver goes on or it sleeps for a short time everything is fine. I only see the issue happen once the monitors also sleep.

This did't happen on my old 2020 intel MacBook Pro running Monterey hooked up to a docking station. Perhaps it's something happening only on silicon devices?

Yeah I'll definitely do both of those. It's really annoying when I have everything exactly where I need it and then it's all just on a single monitor again. If I get anything useful out of them I'll post an update.

Yes that is a work around, but I see no point in purchasing an app for $15 to keep my windows remembered for free by the O/S due to a bug. Clearly it has no priority for Apple. Always the really annoying things take forever to fix.

Same issue here. Brand new Mac Studio, Studio Display, and two additional LG 5K monitors. Every time it wakes from sleep certain apps have randomly moved from their original placement, sometimes to other screens. So frustrating. It's amazing this issue has existed since Monterey came out and it still isn't fixed.

Yes I tried this initially it looked to work, but after testing a few days I can conclude it is a hit and miss mess. Some windows stay some windows stay sometimes some don't at all. Looked promising, glimmer of hope, but Apple will have to fix this drama. I am still warmed to see how the Apple community is trying help each other and trying to come up with a solution.

Every time an upgrade is out I have my fingers crossed hoping this issue is in the past. Now, I see Apple announcing Stage Manager to be released with Ventura, and I wonder if the problem will be fixed or the bug will persist along with a fancy feature.

Hi joejones81,

I just tried your approach to:

(a) “check” the box for “Displays have Separate Spaces.”

(b) the other three checkboxes are all unchecked

I initially tested with screen off for 5 mins, it seems to restore the app locations okay. But after I left my mac overnight in sleep mode again, the locations were off when I turn it back on in the morning.

So it seems the problem still exist.

After check the box and logout, test whether the apps will stay in place after leaving it sleeping overnight, the result is...

No, it still goes into random after wakeup. (MacOS 12.4 latest version).

This bug just never goes away...

Thanks for the suggestion, and your explanation makes sense, however I usually put my computer to sleep via the apple menu at night, not a timeout. Everything sleeps together (or thereabouts).

I don't see separate timings for computer sleep and display sleep under Energy Saver. Is the computer sleep timeout a separate "defaults" setting perhaps?

AH I guess it's not really putting the computer to sleep. I should have been more clear. It's the setting under SYSTEM PREFERENCES > ENERGY SAVER. I set it to turn off the screens after 15 minutes.

Reporting back: I tried both, ie. screen sleep after 15 minutes and unchecking "Close windows when quitting an app". Neither worked. In the morning all windows were on monitor 1. But thanks for trying.

It seems the latest Monterey 12.5 patch has fixed the issue?

I just did a quick sleep and wake up, windows seems still in same place. I will continue do more testing, including a long sleep at tonight when I go to bed.