2 Monitors attached to MacBook Air M2

The only way to use 2 monitors is to get a DisplayLink adaptor. I use one from Plugable, available on Amazon.

I got mine working with an adapter from BestBuy so I have 2 external screens and my laptop screen with NO mirroring.

After tons of purchases and assistance from the Apple Store (with no solution) I found a solution that I like. I connect one monitor to my laptop and I have an Apple TV plugged into my other monitor, so it actually gives me 2 external monitor and my laptop screen open. And now the monitor doubles as a TV in my office when I'm chilling. Hope it helps someone!

Chrisincolor wrote:

I have a mid-2022 M2 MacBook Air and want to connect (2) Studio Displays to it. If I buy a Thunderbolt Hub will this be possible with this laptop or am I forced to upgrade to an M3 laptop?

The M2 MacBook Air only supports one external display. If you are referring to the 27" 5K Apple Studio Display, it requires Thunderbolt 3, and there are no "workarounds" that will give you that.

Q.E.D., you cannot use two 27" 5K Apple Studio displays with a M2 MacBook Air at the same time.

If you are thinking about upgrading to a newer laptop to connect two Studio Displays to it, I would recommend that you get a 14" or 16" MacBook Pro with a M3 Pro or M3 Max chip. You need a M3 Pro or M3 Max chip to be able to drive two monitors with the lid open. A MacBook Air or Pro with a plain M3 chip can only drive a second monitor if the lid is closed, and then with a lower resolution limit on the second monitor that might translate into less choices for Retina scaling modes for that monitor.

Chrisincolor wrote:

Appreciate that! I was in fact speaking about the 27" 5K Display.

I am going to get the M3 MacBook Air more than likely then. With the lid closed, do you happen to know what the resolution is on the first display VS what it drops to on the 2nd display? I'm most likely just going to use the 2nd monitor for Excel / Apple Music so resolution isn't too crucial although I splurged on the Studio Display so I'm hoping it still looks good.

TIA! PS, I'm a servant to many cats as well haha!!

MacBook Air (13-inch, M3, 2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

MacBook Air (15-inch, M3, 2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

"Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at 1 billion colors and:

• One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz
• Close the MacBook Air lid to use a second external display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz"

That's enough to use two 5K Studio Displays running in normal (Retina "like 2560x1440") mode, but probably not enough to let you cram just a little bit more text and objects onto the second one.

In Retina scaling modes, the Mac draws on a pixel-doubled internal canvas. So

• In Retina "like 2560x1440" mode, it is drawing on a 5K canvas.
• In Retina "like 3008x1692" and "like 3360x1890" modes, it is drawing on a >= 6K canvas. The person in the other thread who had a M3 MacBook Air reported that one or both modes were missing on their second ("lid closed") 4K monitor, which makes sense if the "up to 5K resolution" limit applies to the internal canvas.

Chrisincolor wrote:

I was in fact speaking about the 27" 5K Display.

I am going to get the M3 MacBook Air more than likely then.

Other notes:

• A M3 MacBook Air has two USB4 / Thunderbolt ports. You will need to use both of them to connect two 27" Apple 5K Studio Displays. 5K video takes a large amount of bandwidth, the Studio Display doesn't offer any Thunderbolt daisy-chaining ports – and even Thunderbolt docks with the ability to split a Thunderbolt chain might not support two 5K displays, or might not support them with refresh rates that you would want to use.

• A 27" Apple 5K Studio Display has three downstream USB-C (USB) ports. Two displays would give you six ports for connecting USB devices. If you needed more ports, you could get a Thunderbolt dock and put it between the Mac and one display. Keep in mind that either way, video data would take priority and limit the maximum bandwidth left over for drives and such.

A Macbook Air M2 only supports one external monitor. Thus, two monitors will not work/connect.

Did you ever get a solution to this? Same thing happened to me, worked like a charm the first day, then when it woke back up nothing. I've tried unplugging and plugging, reboots, restarting the Displaylink software, nothing.

This is with the Plugable USBC-6950U. It was working through the hub the first day, but I've tried plugging it directly into the computer as well, no dice. The computer does ask me to allow the accessory to connect, so I know it is recognizing the Plugable, but the Displaylink software says no displaylink enabled display detected.

Beware! I purchased the Plugable DisplayLink adaptor and it was working as expected. What I didn't know until recently was it records and captures the content of your screens. I have no idea where this data is being stored or what the purpose is of recording it. I'm no longer using this product.

Yes, with the USBC 6950U. It works both plugged directly into the M2 Macbook Air, and plugged into my Caldigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 hub. It's an old monitor, so it was a DVI to HDMI cable into the Plugable.

The plugable adapter didn't work for me, but this one from Best Buy did... Hyper - HyperDrive Dual 10 Port USB-C Hub, 4K HDMI, Ethernet, 1 USB-C, 2 USB-A, microSD/SD, travel dock for M1/M2/M3 MacBook - Gray

Also, even though I hav one, and needn't use it - wouldn't a Air Display work for an additional monitor? Like the one from j5create? (I forgot the name of it, it's just a wireless HDMI and USB for a monitor or TV and allows you to stream to it)

I have also been frustrated by this. I solved it by connecting to a TV with AirPlay. That gives me a third screen. However, the resolution on the TV is not good enough for computer work - I am considering buying a higher-resolution Airplay TV but am not sure what would work.

Has anyone else tried this? You connect to Airplay and then select an additional Monitor in the Displays panel on System Settings. Is there a recommendation for a good monitor/TV?

The other issue is that you can't stream Netflix or Amazon shows while the TV is connected.

artfromct wrote:

I have also been frustrated by this. I solved it by connecting to a TV with AirPlay. That gives me a third screen. However, the resolution on the TV is not good enough for computer work - I am considering buying a higher-resolution Airplay TV but am not sure what would work.

AirPlay is not as good as a hardware video connection. So even if you connect a Ultra HD (4K) TV using a Mac that is new enough to support AirPlay 2, the connection is not going to be as good as hardware video output to a real 4K monitor.

Has anyone else tried this? You connect to Airplay and then select an additional Monitor in the Displays panel on System Settings. Is there a recommendation for a good monitor/TV?

The other issue is that you can't stream Netflix or Amazon shows while the TV is connected.

As far as I know, AirPlay and Sidecar don't count against the total number of external displays supported by your Mac. They're not using first-class hardware video outputs.. You can have one AirPlay or Sidecar (iPad) display in addition to whatever external display(s) your Mac supports.

Excellent, I found a hub which I’ll link here that works with two 4k monitors and you can use the MacBook M2 screen as well; either mirrored or extended. I’ll take pictures of my setup and the hub $24.99 — it’s a steal in my opinion and works flawlessly.

Two 4k monitors 165 refresh rate, 1ms. Which I’m going to sell because I don’t game much anymore and rather get a better 4k monitor with a good color ratio — maybe an OLED? I’m currently on my phone so I’ll reply to this with a link to the job and everything. Everyone said it wouldn’t work, or it would be slow — yeah, no - flawless setup. 🙂