16" M1 Pro Macbook Pro Not Recognizing Two Displays - Anker 575 Dock

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16" M1 Pro Macbook Pro Not Recognizing Two Displays - Anker 575 Dock

I have an Anker 575 dock with two HDMIs and one Display Port on the back of it. I have one external monitor connected to the dock with an HDMI->HDMI cable, and another external monitor connected to the dock via a HDMI->Display Port cable.

The Anker dock is connected to one of the thunderbolt ports of the Macbook. Despite whatever configuration I try, I cannot get the Macbook to do dual displays. One extended display is always mirrored on both external displays, and the Macbook refuses to recognize that there are two monitors plugged into the dock.

What else can I try? I'm trying to avoid plugging an HDMI directly into the Macbook for a more clean setup.

Dock Configuration:

M1 Pro Display Settings:

Any suggestions would be helpful. Thank you.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.1

Posted on Jan 23, 2024 11:03 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 23, 2024 11:26 AM in response to RYANpurple!

to support up to TWO displays on one cable out of a Mac, the Port, the cable, and the first device (Dock or Display) must ALL be genuine ThunderBolt.

USB-C does not have enough bandwidth to support multiple modern hi-color hi-resolution displays on one cable, so the Mac does not support it. ThunderBolt has twice as many data conductors.

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Answer 2

Jan 23, 2024 12:36 PM in response to RYANpurple!

As your ads indicate the "Anker 575 USB-C Dock" is listed everywhere as a USB-C Dock. Getting the Thunderbolt trademark is much more difficult, and if it does not have the Thunderbolt trademark, it is NOT a Thunderbolt Dock.

The Corsair TBT100 TB3 is sold as a Thunderbolt-3 dock.

This lines up perfectly with what I wrote above.

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Answer 3

Jan 23, 2024 11:30 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

The Apple standard for its built-in hardware-accelerated displays, makes them suitable for full-motion video for production/display of cinema-quality video with NO dropped frames, and NO dropouts or partial-blank scan lines due to memory under-runs or other issues. This requires a hardware rasterizer/display-generator for each fully-accelerated display.

If you are doing ONLY program listings, spreadsheets, stock quotes and other slow to change data, there are some other solutions, but they require you to make some strong compromises.

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Answer 4

RYANpurple! Author

Level 1

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Jan 23, 2024 11:56 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you for those details. The odd thing is that it does work with a different dock at my main office location (it's the Corsair TBT100 TB3 Dock, and I plug only one USB-C cable into my laptop. That being said, if I can't find a solution, I'd be totally fine with solutions for slow moving work, since that's what I do primarily.

The Anker 575 should be genuine thunderbolt, correct? I don't see anything in its specs that suggest it shouldn't support two separate external displays.

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Answer 5

Jonlo_

Level 1

8 points

Feb 6, 2024 5:05 AM in response to RYANpurple!

Hey @Ryan, curious to find out, when you plugged your laptop into the Corsair TBT100, were there 2x hdmi monitors connected to the dock?

Reason I ask is I have the Corsair dock, but I can only get the single monitor working. 2nd monitor definitely works, but only when it’s connected directly to the laptop without the dock

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Answer 6

RYANpurple! Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 23, 2024 12:45 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I see! I was missing that specific detail.

Thanks so much for your help.

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16" M1 Pro Macbook Pro Not Recognizing Two Displays - Anker 575 Dock

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