"Drift" screen saver only shows on Main Display

I know this has been open a while but i just figured out that this appears to be linked to your Primary screen resolution. I have a Mac Studio and a Studio Display and it is set to 5k for my photo editing and the Drift Screensaver stopped working like the rest of you experienced on the extended display a long time ago. I needed to adjust the resolution of the Studio display today and set it to Default for display 2560x1440 and low and behold i returned to my desk after leaving it alone for some time and both screens had the Screensaver working. Joy of joy i thought, But not quite!

My second screen is a Ultra-wide with a maximum resolution of 3440x1440 and no matter what setting i have my studio display set at if it is anything over the 1440 it will not display the Screensaver on both displays.

Would be interested to know if this is the same for the rest of you or if you have 2x screens the same and they are set the same and it is still not working. To me this appears like a simple fix related to variable resolutions for the screensaver but nothing these days appears to be a simple fix!

I've used Drift for a loooong time, it's by default go-to screensaver. I just upgraded from Ventura to Sonoma 14.1.2 only to find Drift doesn't work on my extended monitor, it only works on the main monitor. So far, all the other screensavers in Sonoma, and there are a LOT of them, work on both monitors but not Drift. So I guess from reading replies here that it seems to be an Apple bug, right? :-0

If I do a swap and make the extended monitor the Main Display and the main monitor the extended one, then Drift shows on both monitors like it used to. Turning off "Show on all Spaces" is broken too because no matter which display I choose, it shows on both. However, when I change back to having my large monitor be the Main one, which of course is my default arrangement, Drift no longer works on the extended one. Turning off "Show on all Spaces" is still broken no matter which monitor I set as the Main one.

If you haven't already update to Sonoma 14.1. Same goes for your other post.

If that doesn't help, feel free to let Apple know.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

I would rather put up with the black screen on my secondary display for a screensaver while the primary display has the optimum resolution for what I need, My comment was more to call out that it appears to be a Resolution conflict that the OS is not able to generate at different levels for different monitors at the same time. It still needs fixing and it does not appear to be hardware related. I certainly would not want to "de tune the res" on mine and we should not have to either.

The software is very clearly able to output the screensaver to multiple monitors at the same time but the resolutions need to match on the vertical pixels output from what I can see and this is certainly a bug that needs to be resolved.

Example:

Primary display 5120x2880

Secondary display 3440x1440

Secondary display will not play the screensaver.

Primary display 2560x1440

Secondary display 3440x1440

Secondary display will play the screensaver.

Another up-vote from me to have this fixed.

No, it's not a show-stopper issue... very low priority for me, but... it was (still is) my preferred screensaver and having it only display on the primary monitor, not the secondary, is an issue. It does not seem to be an issue with the "Show on all spaces" component since other screensavers behave as expected. It's just the Drift one that doesn't work correctly for me. In all fairness, I have not tested all other screensavers, so I don't know for sure that others don't behave this way... but this thread is specifically about Drift, so... :D

Right, it's not a show stopper but as soon as the screensaver comes on and my second monitor is just a blank screen, it makes me think something serious just happened. Now that I know to expect the second monitor to be blank, it does "save" the screen but this is a screwup in the software code and needs to be fixed just like any other screwup type of issue.

I have tested just about all the Sonoma screen savers in the "Other" section of the screensaver pane and Photos works on both monitors but takes a really long time to start, Flurry works, Hello works, Shell works, Arabesque works, Message works, Album Artwork works and that data is on a network NAS, Word of the Day works and Random works (and it is random for each time it gets invoked). Drift is the only outlier. I did give Apple feedback and I am now on 14.2.1 and its still broke.

My second screen is old, it's a Dell 1905FP with its highest res being 1024 x 1280 which is what I have it set to and Drift will not display on it. Sorry, wish I had your setup :-) My main screen is an old Thunderbolt 27" and Drift works fine on it. Drift used to work on both my screen till Apple made their update so I know it's not my hardware that causes the issue. I suppose I can detune the res on my Thunderbolt display to match my Dell but what good would that serve? I certainly wouldn't run it that way and like I mentioned, all used to work fine - ugh

System Settings > Wallpaper > Other. Scroll to the right.

Yup, same here, its only the Drift screensaver and I've done a few updates since my last post but Apple has not fixed this bug yet.

Evertype wrote:

Well... I'm a Mac user since 1986, so I'm no stranger to adaptation. I don't have to like it though.

I have "used" Apple computers since the monochromatic Apple II and Apple IIe (back in High School)... and used Macs in various places over the years prior to me buying my *own* in the early '90s (it was a Mac IIvx) - I know that's not what this thread is about, but I love drifting way back into memories of the early years. :)

I am still having this issue after upgrading to Sonoma 14.5. Bumping the thread to see if anyone is still experiencing this as well. Drift is the only screensaver that doesn't work on an eternal display (very sad as it is my FAVORITE). I had no issues on Ventura, it began when I upgraded to Sonoma.

swidie wrote:

This makes a lot of sense. nice work detective.

@apple are you listening?

No, Apple is not listening here. This is a user forum.

If you want to draw Apple's attention, you need to use the feedback page.

https://www.apple.com/feedback

For what it's worth two Studio Displays driven by a Mac Studio running macOS 14.5 display Drift without difficulty.

What _is_ curious is that I cannot find Drift.saver on the Mac Studio, at least not by that name or in any of the three /Library/Screen Savers folders. Where might it be?

I just upgraded from Ventura to Sonoma 14.1.1 and I am dismayed not to be able to find the Drift screensaver at all. Where could I get it? It is a favourite.