Dual Monitor Studio Display XDR fails on MacBook Pro M3/M4 Pro

I seem to have a similar problem on a Mac Studio M4 Max, only with three XDR monitors instead of two.

I created a post about my issue here: Mac Studio M4 Max not recognizing third Studio Display XDR

The computer absolutely could support three 5K monitors at 60Hz, but for some reason MacOS is refusing to allow this configuration when using the XDR monitor because it is capable of 120Hz.

The monitors are beautiful and I would love to keep them rather than returning two and downgrading to the regular Studio Display, but it seems with the current state of things that would be my only choice to have three "matched" monitors.

I'm going to send some feedback to Apple linking this thread and the one I created. I suggest you do the same @programmerTech.

Feedback - Mac Studio - Apple

Ok, so update here on the m4 pro testing. I don't have access on my work machine to do any terminal or EDID replacement but something VERY INTERESTING just happened.

26.4 was pushed to my laptop. I rebooted the laptop and let it install the update. When it was finished my M4 Pro rebooted and BOTH STUDIO DISPLAY XDRS LIT UP and WORKED PERFECTLY.

** Screenshots were taken from my phone since this is my work computer and I didn't want to post them from that laptop **

I should have taken a picture of the specs of this laptop but it is an M4 Pro 24gb of RAM with 26.4 loaded as of today

Both of them said "Adaptive 47-60hz" which is completely expected. I used them for an hour without any issue whatsoever. This is with the monitors daisy chained into a Caldigit Element 5 TB 5 dock as well not even directly connected to the M4 Pro.

So both monitors are daisy chained into one port on the Caldigit Element Hub along with other accessories like external microphone / webcam / DAC / etc. Then one TB 5 cable plugged into the macbook.

It was obviously completely unexpected.

Ok so I unplugged the dock, replugged, and I am right back to square one. It went back to recognizing the monitor as 47-120hz Adaptive and only one lights up.

BUT..... I have now PROVEN without a doubt that 2 Studio Display XDRs can and will work on the M4 Pro daisy chained if Apple will just fix the negotiation that happens when the computer is turned on. I tried shutting down the laptop and back on, a regular reboot, and tried to re-detect displays and have not been able to re-produce it.

Again, I now 10000% believe this is going to work if the firmware on the monitor and / or macOS does better to negotiate that 2 of them are plugged in and the max adaptive is set correctly.

Does anyone know of a terminal command that I could potentially run that simulates whatever weirdness happened when the mac was updated? Was that like a hard reset? A shutdown and power back on with the monitors plugged in did not trigger them both to come back on.

What I am wondering is if when I plug both of the monitors in if I can run some command to like reboot the display manager that hands out the display lanes to re-detect these displays in a way that just happened where they were set from 47-60hz adaptive.

Honestly, I think this is incredible news coupled with the fact that the displays were discounted $400 for those of us who bought the VESA version so I have $800 coming back or I will be re-turning / re-buying to get that discount.

CMala wrote:

Studio Display XDR in Dual Monitor configuration fails. It only work on one monitor. Tested with two different Macbook Pro with M3 and M4 Pro chips from two different users.

• I tried daisy chaining the displays.

I would expect daisy-chaining to fail with the displays plugged into the M3 Pro MacBook Pro. While the new 27" Studio Display and Studio Display XDR support Thunderbolt 5, your M3 Pro MacBook Pro does not. It supports Thunderbolt 4. Which means that the connection is going to fall back to a Thunderbolt 4 level of capability.

Going by Apple's Technical Specifications for the M3 Pro and M4 Pro MacBook Pros, both laptops should let you drive "two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60 Hz over Thunderbolt", provided that those displays are your only two displays. So hopefully you would be able to drive two 5K Studio Display XDRs if you plugged them into different Thunderbolt ports, and limited their refresh rate to 60 Hz or less.

If things do not work with the displays plugged into separate Thunderbolt ports, I would suggest calling up Apple Support and asking them what is going on.

Granted, Apple wrote the Technical Specifications for the M3 and M4 MacBook Pros before either of the current Studio Displays came out, but the Compatibility section in the Studio Display XDR's Technical Specifications lists

• 16-inch MacBook Pro (2021 and later)
• 14-inch MacBook Pro (2021 and later)

which means that it should be compatible with both of your MacBook Pros. And I don't see any footnotes saying that this display counts the same as two of the older 5K displays – if that is the case, that's something that Apple needs to make much more clear.

So, just laying in bed thinking about this m4 pro dual XDR problem.

I have an m4 max MBP and an m4 pro (for work). Obviously, I want both displays to work for both laptops and I’m fine with 60hz on the work machine. The m4 max works in every config that I’ve tried on debugging the m4 pro.

I have a caldigit element thunderbolt 5 hub so I’ve tried dual cables to the MBP, I’ve tried using the hub, I’ve tried daisy chaining, just as OP has tried. The m4 max works in any and all of these but still no luck on the m4 pro.

I even tried connecting them one by one and forcing 60hz in settings and then plugging them back in together and obviously no dice. What hit me laying here just now was maybe we backup the EDID using betterdisplay or find someone that has it already backed up for the XDR then force the regular Studio Display EDID in for the XDR display one by one and then maybe they work at the same time?

On my work machine I don’t have access to betterdisplay which would make this pretty simple. I found the .bin for an ASD regular EDID and just wondering if someone with the m4 pro would try it. If I know it works I’ll push for my IT dept to let me install it even temporarily to push in the edid or maybe there is even a terminal command to do it without an install that doesn’t require sudo.

If for some reason the TB5 is what is hosing us for the dual XDR on m4 pro it’s going to take a software + firmware issue from Apple to fix would be my guess. Has anyone tried the updated Studio Display in a dual config to m4 pro? I’d like to hear if that worked. If it did maybe there is some other file besides the EDID that he trick the MBP into thinking it’s just that regular 2026 ASD.

Just spitballing and not sleeping :-).

Does this lightbulb anyone?

I have an open case number and even submitted the last post as evidence. They are moving it up to engineering level. The person on the phone said something along the lines of, "huh - looks like there is an issue tracking for this problem and am going to link you in on that and then forward all this to the engineering team".

I talked to them tonight 4/1/26 and they said they would need a minimum of 48 hours and given the time of the week they are going to call back on Monday.

My case number is: 102853480566

if you want to have your ticket reference mine when you speak with them!

If enough of us call and push on this hopefully it will get put in. I know for a fact it works I saw it TONIGHT. Its just a matter of macos and possibly the firmware on the screen working together to negotiate the best case scenario when the monitors are plugged in.

I'd really like to see if I could find a terminal command to, for lack of a better term, "restart the display service" because something in that update reboot let me use both displays and in the interim if I could just run that command or even shutdown my m4 pro every day, plug in the displays, turn it back on and they both work I would 100% do that until there is a better solution.

Tahoe 26.4 added support for 120Hz with the XDR display, apparently through using two display generators/pipelines on M3/M4/M5 chips. However I agree that this is a regression in that it reduces the number of XDR displays which can be attached. Strangely, M1/M2 chips are limited to 60Hz, so can now support more XDR displays than the newer chips.

It appears the fix would be to have XDR displays use only a single generator/pipeline when the display is set to 60Hz.

fyi - two monitors randomly started working at “Adaptive 47-60hz” M4 Pro. On restart it went away back to 120hz adaptive range. Today morning, accidentally the 2nd monitor started working and since I saw your thread I turned the refresh rate to 60hz instead adaptive because I knew it wouldn't work. Restarted and both monitors turned on at 60hz. I'm not sure how to get the monitors to adaptive 47-60hz if it get out of it. I have been able to restart the computer multiple times now and both monitors are turning on.

I did not try with an HDMI dummy plug, but I did try with an actual 4K monitor. Unfortunately that did nothing to fix my situation. Looking at the supported monitor list, I'm guessing I'd need to plug in at least two (maybe three?) 4K monitors before I might affect the support for 5K @ 120Hz. I'd try further, but I found another work-around for now.

I added a fresh install of Sequoia on another partition. Booting into Sequoia allows all three monitors to work, every single time, all limited to 60Hz. I'm then able to reboot into Tahoe and all three monitors continue working. Two have a max of 60Hz, and one has a max of 120Hz. This is exactly what I expected when I purchased the monitors. I assume this is what Apple intended to work, but there's a bug in getting this configuration to work when plugging the monitors in. I'm working with Apple support now. Hopefully they can reproduce the issue and fix it.

<< Apple needs to fix their documentation and specify that the M3Pro and possibly the M4Pro can NOT run 2 Studio Display XDRs but it can run 2 standard 5K whether it's the standard Studio Display or a non-apple monitor. >>

That assertion needs to be posted (by every User experiencing problems) as a Bug Report on the Apple Product Feedback page, so that the list of complaints gets tall enough to tip over and this gets fixed.

Product Feedback - Apple

So looking at this article gives me hope. I am thinking if we can overwrite the EDID on the M4 with the old ASD EDID for the serial number it may work. I am currently traveling, but I am willing to try it assuming I even have access to edit this area (My m4 pro is a work machine and my m4 max personal machine has no issues with dual XDRs).

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1s3ani5/got_studio_display_xdr_working_on_windows_pc_5k/

Everyone reading this thread is encouraged to take a few minutes and post a Terse summary of their issues on the Apple Product Feedback pages. This is our simple way as Users to to indicate to Apple the urgency of this issue.

Product Feedback - Apple

BetterDisplay fixes this and syncs the auto brightness.

I have a regular M5 and a M4 Pro. Both require the displays to be individually updated . MAX chips work fine for the update as they “see” both displays.

daisy chaining did not work. Both chips saw the monitor for an update when the displays were plugged in individually.

Few things:

• I have tried plugging the monitors in individually and setting them to 60hz. When I saw them working they were set to "Adaptive 47-60hz". (Set to sort this post by newest and see the screenshots a few posts below).

• Secondly, my m4 pro is a managed laptop for my company. I have asked about BetterDisplay, but the process to onboard new software request takes weeks / months. Is what it is... I have the EDID file for the new SDXDR and the older ASD, but I don't know if anyone has tried using BetterDisplay to force the older ASD's EDID in and then reinitializing the display. Not the perfect solution because it would probably limit the nits down to the older ASD unless someone can edit the EDID using a tool and leave everything else. I do have an m4 max here that's my personal machine and the displays are fine in any config of the cables / resolution / etc. Just wanted to re-state that I am confident the monitors are not bad in any way.

• It seems to have everything to do with how the monitor is negotiated and assigned display lanes. That negotiaion needs to see, "hey I see two studio display XDRs so I need to limit you to 60hz". Instead it just picks up the first one and sets it to the possibility of 120hz and even manually forcing it down the display lanes I believe are already assigned.

• The 26.4 firmware that was released with the MacOS 26.4 did not solve the problem, but something that happened while I was updating allowed me to temporarily see both displays working with the screenshots below. I worked for over an hour with both on and perfect. I decided to test unplugging and re-plugging to simulate what I basically do everyday swapping my machines around and it went back to just 1 working.