Connecting to two monitors with my 2024 M3 Macbook Air

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Connecting to two monitors with my 2024 M3 Macbook Air

I bought this adapter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CD7KC4XF/ref=sspa_mw_detail_1?ie=UTF8&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWwp13NParams&th=1 and have been trying to connect two external monitors to my Macbook Air with two HDMI cables. This has not been working and the macbook only seems to pick up one monitor at a time and by default mirrors onto the other even with the lid closed. Also, it does not give me the chance to detect more monitors or even chose to adjust or chose whether to extend or mirror, it does it all by default. I followed the instructions on the Apple website and was still unscuessful. I wanted to find out whthere there is a setting that i can adjust or if this is a limitation of my USB C hub, or a limitaiton of my connecting cables?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.6

Posted on Sep 2, 2024 6:04 AM

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Answer 1

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Servant of Cats

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Sep 2, 2024 7:24 AM in response to rishab275

Use dual monitors with your MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with M3 chip - Apple Support

I suspect the problem is trying to connect both monitors through a single non-Thunderbolt dock.

Macs do not support connecting two monitors to the same host port unless

The Mac in question supports multiple external monitors
The device attached to the Mac is a Thunderbolt device, such as a Thunderbolt dock or hub

There are a number of Thunderbolt docks and hubs that allow connecting two non-Thunderbolt monitors. Details vary.

Macs do not support DisplayPort MST daisy-chaining, so a "plain" USB-C dock that depends on DisplayPort MST daisy-chaining to support multiple monitors will not support multiple monitors on a Mac.

If you are using a dock that uses some sort of "workaround" technology (like DisplayLink or a similar technology from Magic Control Technology) to provide extra second-class video outputs, those outputs will not work unless you install special software on your Mac. No software, no signal. As a rule, if your Mac is able to drive all of your monitors using hardware video output, you would want to use that, and skip the workarounds.

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