"Second" monitor set to AirPlay mirror rather extended display.

I went ahead and tested it even further and now I have some interesting findings.

If leave only the LG connected to the dock, it works perfectly fine when the Mac is in clamshell mode (which is how I use it when docked). However, if take it off from the clamshell mode, the LG instantly shows up the AirPlay icon in the menu bar.

In the exact same scenario above, if I remove the LG and leave the cheap usb-c display connected to the dock. It does not see the cheap display as an AirPlay screen.

So I took my Mac to my wife's office (AKA the room next door) and connect it to her Dell display using HDMI, it does not show the issue.

So, the problem seems to be related to macOS "thinking" a TV connected to it through HDMI is an AirPlay screen, but ONLY when there's at least 1 other display connected.

Unfortunately, my wife's Macbook is also up to date and showed the exact same issue. I'll try to find a way to downgrade my Macbook to 15.2 and to gather more evidence that this is a fu****ng bug on 15.3.

Brianz41 wrote:

Hey! This is a bug, or incredibly poorly thought-out forced feature, that came with 15.? (not sure when it began but is still occurring with 15.5 for me)

I definitely noticed it on 15.3, but I haven't found the time to downgrade to 15.2 and make sure.

I updated the mac I use to play video files on my tv, and now because it's forced through airplay, it's buffering constantly.....despite being connected by HDM

For me it only happens when there are more than 1 displays in total. If your Mac is a Macbook, you can try clamshell mode, it definitely helps in my case. However, since I have 2 external displays, the TV becomes an "AirPlay-ish" display as soon as I connect the second display. The same issue doesn't happen if both external displays are actually computer displays rather than being a TV used as one.

To me none of the above workarounds means that it's fine, it just tells me how bad Sequoia was built.

The update was unacceptable in itself, but to not have it fixed all these months later is just unbelievable.

Indeed. And TBH I don't expect Apple to even acknowledge the issue any time soon. I don't think there's a reasonable amount of users who use a TV as a display on a regular basis. Most who does are probably just plugging in to watch some movies, such use case is more tolerant to high latency so most people would never realize it at all.

And I honestly don't believe that anyone working for Apple is using a TV as a display in the same way we are, so nobody with means to fix it will ever notice it.

Apple's feedback website is there just to give users the sensation that their feedback is valuable, but in reality nobody at Apple is even having a glance on them.

[Edited by Moderator]

I had it like that already. It's a setup I use for years, as I mentioned in the original post. The LG is already set to primary display.

FWIW, there is not much of a difference between the main display and others

It should not have much difference. But since this bug makes macOS handle the LG as an AirPlay display, it even lags as if I am mirroring it actually using AirPlay.

That's the problem, theres no AirPlay connection going on, this is a bug. My LG is set to use its HDMI input, macOS for some reason thinks it's using AirPlay. I even disconnected the TV from my network so it won't even be available as an AirPlay option...

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

Sorry if this obvious, but did you try restarting your mac?

That's ok, not to obvious for many people. But yes, I did restart, shutdown and I even did a factory reset (that was long overdue) in the meantime.

Also, you may try temporarily turn off wifi, so that there is no Airplay available, and unplug the displays and plug them back. Maybe that will make your mac see the displays properly.

Turning the wifi off would not fix it by itself as the Mac has an ethernet connection through the dock. But yes, I tried removing the ethernet cable AND turning off wifi in the hope that something would work differently, no luck.

Unplugging is something I do every other day as I work far from my desk when I have the chance.

Another thing - does the dock to which you are connecting the displays require DisplayLink software? If that is the case, update the software.

This is not a display link dock, it does have native display connections.

I think many people did not pay attention to my original message. So here are some key points:

1. The LG display works properly IF I disconnect the other display. The issue shows up ONLY when I have the second display connected.
2. This setup (LG + cheap usb-c display + Caldigit TS4) has been working fine for 2 years.
3. My Mac is a Macbook Pro equipped with an M1-Pro chip, which means I do not need such thing as a DisplayLink dock/software what so ever.

For whatever reason, macOS decides that the LG is an AirPlay display, even though it's connected to it using an HDMI cable. But that only happens when I have a second display connected to it.

I went ahead and run a few more tests. I'll to a separate comment to try and keep it organized.

You can try removing the USB-C display from your dock leaving only the HDMI Samsung display, if you are in clamshell mode you'll notice the purple icon disappears instantly and so the AirPlay lag.

I would not be concerned about it at all if there was no lag involved, since this display is not using any kind of network connection to display the content.

In my case, whenever I plug in a TV as a secondary display, it can be an external display or the Macbook built in display, macOS instantly starts behaving as the TV is an AirPlay display.

Unfortunately there are no known fixes yet. At this point I don't think we'll ever have one, to be perfectly honest. Apple does not give a sh*t about their "feedback" platform, neither about this community, and they'll never experience the issue on their controlled environment. They'll probably never acknowledge the issue, if we ever get a fix for it, it would be an accident.