Apple LED Cinema Display (circa 2010-12) compatibility with M2 M4 Mac mini

If this is a LED Cinema Display (24-inch) or LED Cinema Display (27-inch), the integrated hydra cable will have three heads: Mini DisplayPort, USB, and MagSafe.

• Use a USB-C (male) to Mini DisplayPort (female) adapter to connect the display to one of the USB-C ports on the rear of the M2, M2 Pro, M4, or M4 Pro Mac mini. Or, if you have a dock plugged into one of those ports, and that dock has a dedicated DisplayPort, use a DisplayPort (male) to Mini DisplayPort (female) adapter to overcome the physical connector size difference. (DP and mDP carry the same signals but on different-sized connectors.)
• You may also want to connect the USB head of the monitor cable in some way if you want to control the display's brightness, or try to use its built-in Webcam or its built-in USB 2.0 hub ports.

If this is an 27" Apple Thunderbolt Display, the integrated cable will have two heads: Thunderbolt 1 (which uses the same physical connector as Mini DisplayPort) and MagSafe. For this display you need an Apple Thunderbolt 3-to-2 adapter (an adapter that is not suitable for use with the LED Cinema Display, since it does not know how to present an unwrapped DisplayPort signal on its TB2 side).

One further note: Modern versions of macOS are reportedly picky about display transmission errors. As in, they don't want to see any, and will cut resolution or even signal if they detect them.

It is possible that a LED Cinema Display or Apple Thunderbolt Display that "worked" with an old Mac will not work with a new one for this reason.

• If this happens to a LED Cinema Display, I don't know if there is much you could do about it other than to pay some repair shop to replace the integrated cable (if that is even feasible).
• The Thunderbolt Display supports daisy-chaining. People on these forums have said that a workaround for a bad, or flaky, hydra cable is to get a Thunderbolt 1 or 2 cable, and run it between the Apple TB 3-to-2 adapter and the TB Display's daisy-chaining port, thus bypassing the bad cable. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 cables – which have the same physical connectors as Mini DisplayPort cables – may be a bit hard to find these days, but this seems to have worked for a number of people.

Hopefully your display has a good cable and you won't run into this issue, but I thought I'd warn you in advance – just in case.