Mac 'Arrange Displays' setting only highlights current monitor, preventing arrangement.

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Mac 'Arrange Displays' setting only highlights current monitor, preventing arrangement.

My "arrange display" setting on my mac has determined my sanity is to be eliminated. Amidst other hostile actions, clicking on each and every monitor on the "arrange displays", highlighting that monitor icon to orange, only highlights the CURRENT monitor I am working on as orange. Thus it appears to me that the computer thinks that every monitor is the same. Previously this functionality was working satisfactorily, but as of this morning my efforts to arrange the monitor displays to my ergonomic preference has eluded me with unmitigated ferocity hitherto unknown to our world save for the agonized ravings of the deepest pits of the abyss. I've had a hard day. Please do explain to me, as you would to a 5 year old child, unremarkable in the technical arts to begin with, who has been repeatedly struck in the head by a mile long freight train, how I can arrange my displays so that I can intuitively move my mouse between them.

Posted on Oct 7, 2026 9:28 PM

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Answer 1

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Owl-53

Level 10

119,999 points

Oct 8, 2026 2:28 AM in response to RPeters11

Since you are using macOS 15 Sequoia, go to  >> System Settings >> Displays and confirm that each monitor appears separately. Then select Arrange.

In Arrange, each display should have its own rectangle.

To establish the physical layout, click and hold a rectangle and drag it so it corresponds to that monitor's actual position.

For example, if one monitor is physically to the left of another, place its rectangle to the left. This controls how your pointer moves between displays.

The important point in your case is that clicking a display rectangle should allow you to work with that particular display.

If selecting different rectangles appears to identify only the monitor you are currently using, do not try to solve the problem by repeatedly clicking the rectangles.

First, hold Option (⌥) in System Settings >> Displays and select Detect Displays.

Then return to Arrange and try dragging the display rectangles again.

If the behaviour is unchanged, save your work and restart the Mac with the displays connected.

After macOS starts, return to System Settings >> Displays >> Arrange and test the display rectangles again.

If you still cannot select and reposition the individual displays, the problem is no longer simply a matter of knowing how to arrange them.

At that point, the next step is to identify how macOS is detecting the connected displays and how they are connected to the Mac.

Apple's documentation: Displays settings on Mac and Connect displays to your Mac.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

98,268 points

Oct 8, 2026 7:25 AM in response to RPeters11

What year and make is the Mac...?

How are the 4 other displays connected to that Mac...?

On the Arrange Displays panel shown in your screenshot, you should be able to click-on hold and drag each of the 4 attached displays around to matched the physical layout.

For a short video:

see > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yX_8GDFiYw

For a long more complete video:

see > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWuORZGn9Jc

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