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Use iMac 2017 as monitor for MacBook Pro 2021 M1 Max

I have a Thunderbolt 3 cable, a 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max, and am trying to use my 2017 iMac as a monitor using the thunderbolt 3 cable, but nothing happens. Nothing happens with cmmd+f2, what can I do to make it work?

Posted on Jan 4, 2022 10:05 AM

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Posted on Jan 4, 2022 10:08 AM

You can't. Both computers are too new to be compatible with Target Display Mode. Please see the limited hardware and software requirements in this Apple article:


Use your iMac as a display with target display mode - Apple Support



5 replies

Jan 4, 2022 10:38 AM in response to Wolthers

Doesn't make sense to me :(


It makes more sense when you consider what happened with social media and alleged internet "journalists" ove the last two years.


Before COVID we saw maybe 2 questions a month here about Target Display Mode. Now we see a dozen a day. Apple took that external display ability from iMacs in Late 2014 and no one seemed upset. Apple delivered the coup de grace to TDM in early 2020 before COVID hit.


Then COVID came with the need for work-from-home. Starving journalists lacking research skills or an editor with a thimble-full of fact-checking sense belched forth article after article on how any iMac could work as a monitor with any video device.


There is probably more spurious information on the internet today about Target Display Mode than there is about the Loch Ness monster and a flat Earth. TDM has been incorrectly attributed as doing everything from supporting any video device to parting the Red Sea. The flood of post-processed horse feed about TDM was so heavy that even some Apple support employees quoted the internet articles instead of their own company's official support article.


There is no workabout. An external monitor uses less energy, does not require US$60-90 worth of cabling, and allows extended desktop. TDM-supported iMacs do not. Never did.


You can do network screen sharing but most people find it too sluggish:


Share the screen of another Mac - Apple Support


Use iMac 2017 as monitor for MacBook Pro 2021 M1 Max

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