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MacOS sleep rearranges display windows

Every time my MacBook Air sleeps all of the windows rearrange across the laptop display and the connected Thunderbolt display. This is extremely annoying and did not happen in earlier versions of MacOS. Can anything be done to prevent this?


MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.2

Posted on Apr 6, 2022 5:28 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 30, 2022 3:58 PM

Had the same issue on a new Mac Studio, brought this month, running Monterey.


Apple support will tell you to boot in safe mode, then reinstall macos before your support request can be escalculated, which is a waste of time.


THE FIX - Preferences > Energy Saver > Check 'Prevent your mac from automatically sleeping when the display is off'

It appears that when these m1 macs sleep, then wake - the connection to external monitors (I have 2 dell monitors and a Wacom Cintiq) doesn't register instantly, so our app windows are getting moved to the main display, then scattered across connected displays once they are recognised.


The above fix worked for me but this is clearly a macos bug that needs to be sorted by Apple

11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 30, 2022 3:58 PM in response to ckmacbookair

Had the same issue on a new Mac Studio, brought this month, running Monterey.


Apple support will tell you to boot in safe mode, then reinstall macos before your support request can be escalculated, which is a waste of time.


THE FIX - Preferences > Energy Saver > Check 'Prevent your mac from automatically sleeping when the display is off'

It appears that when these m1 macs sleep, then wake - the connection to external monitors (I have 2 dell monitors and a Wacom Cintiq) doesn't register instantly, so our app windows are getting moved to the main display, then scattered across connected displays once they are recognised.


The above fix worked for me but this is clearly a macos bug that needs to be sorted by Apple

Apr 11, 2022 3:11 PM in response to ckmacbookair

I am also having this issue, new with MacOS 12. Currently using Monterey 12.3.1 on Mac Studio with 2 external (4k) displays connected via display port (Thunderbolt)


I have tried physically rewiring the displays to use different Thunderbolt ports - Mac always seems to work out which monitor is which and flip-flops them after sleep.


Did not have the problem on previous machine, 5,1 Mac Pro (not on MacOS 12)

MacOS sleep rearranges display windows

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