Dual monitors and fullscreen fiasco, is there a work around?

I really think that if Apple had any intention of fixing this they would have done so long ago. They aren't going to fix it. We can keep reporting it... but my guess is they have a filter set to simply send them to the junk mail folder. 🙂

Best to simply learn to live without it. - JamesJM

It's been a long time Apple is letting me down, such stupid bugs and bad implementations, it's really annoying.

To resolve this issue I tried many apps and one that worked for me was Plex. It gives me a nice UI to look for my videos and music and I can still use the other monitor.

The only thing I couldn't find a workaround is mission control, I can't use it or both screens will enter mission control.

That's why this thread has been going for over 18 months. We've all said that Apple are utterly WRONG in thinking that this feature is anything but a pain in the derriere; an utter waste of screen estate.

But Apple don't care/listen.

Who are these people that post the Mac 101 links? I would like to speak to these gurus and bow down to them. I mean if 46 pages worth of people have overlooked this simple solution, we have seriously overcomplicated our lives. Unless this is an actual issue????

I can't believe that you spent so much money without bothering to check whether your wants and needs would be fulfilled by the purchase. Caveat Emptor indeed.

What do you mean "so much money"? It was like 30 dollars for the lion upgrade, right? And while there are probably hundreds of ways to do "fullscreen", I can understand why people asume it the Windows way since there are not really that many alterntives - it's a quite famous OS and has been doing it since version 3.10 at least. You can look it up on the internet. Please don't go into details wether it's called maximize or fullscreen or what not. Try to crawl out of your Apple cave now and then.

One of today's most upvoted AMAs on Reddit is one with the Microsoft Surface team that perfectly exemplifies everything Apple is doing wrong with regard to this issue. Check out the most upvoted question/issue for the Microsoft Surface team:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18063g/i_am_panos_panay_with_the_surface_w indows_8_pro/

Sound familiar? Though it has to do with scaling and not fullscreening, it seems the Microsoft team also made similar oversights/compromises with the Surface's dual monitor support. Notice however, that the first thing Microsoft did today is acknowledge that this is a a critical feature and inform us that "The Windows team is aggressively working on this feature to fix this for all high resolution Windows devices." Where is a similar message from Apple? Keep in mind Microsoft not only answered the question, but had the balls to go out there and field it and others like it on one of the most notorious forums on the Internet -- yet Apple has not even responded on their own forum; a forum that is not only owned and carefully moderated by their employees, but also brimming with legions of religious fanboys frothing at the mouth and ready to confuse, ridicule, and troll away legitimate concerns.

As a rMBP owner and longtime Apple user, it doesn't concern me that Apple made an oversight for one of the most crucial features a modern power user requires: a seamless dual monitor experience. Designing software, especially operating systems, is hardwork and critical requirements frequently slip through the cracks. It happens to Apple, Microsoft, Google, and even Red Hat almost equally. What concerns me is Apple's utter lack of acknowledgement or feedback on this issue, despite the obvious and enormous demand for this demonstrated by the activity on this thread and other similar forums.

Phero2 wrote:

I can't believe that you spent so much money without bothering to check whether your wants and needs would be fulfilled by the purchase. Caveat Emptor indeed.

What do you mean "so much money"? It was like 30 dollars for the lion upgrade, right? And while there are probably hundreds of ways to do "fullscreen", I can understand why people asume it the Windows way since there are not really that many alterntives - it's a quite famous OS and has been doing it since version 3.10 at least. You can look it up on the internet. Please don't go into details wether it's called maximize or fullscreen or what not. Try to crawl out of your Apple cave now and then.

I was not replying to you

I believe that this is the answer to your question; you can play your movie through iTunes and it will make that fullscreen on one of your monitors, while leaving the others free to work or whatever you please.

I hope this helps you 🙂

Sam

Well, donebylee mentioned in his post 'I know I don't have to use fullscreen, but it was nice to be able to view a Quicktime movie fullscreen on one monitor while continuing to work on the other.'

So, this script will allow him to watch a fullscreen movie on one display and continue to work on the other. I said that in my last post.

It is also on the website that I linked to if you want to take a look at that.

I have to say that this is my feeling too. I am still within the two-week period where I can decide to return my Macbook Pro (top of the line model) and this issue is the first that is making me seriously debate it. I was due for a new laptop (I am a PC person) but I could not justify spending the money on any of the clunky trash that is now called a laptop for the PC market. So, I purchased the 768gb 2.8ghz Macbook Pro for work (engineering).

But, this full-screen issue for two monitors is insane. Apple needs to respond to this. It makes zero sense to block out the other monitor when I am not even clicking anything on it. It makes zero sense to have both monitors scroll when I use the 'four finger' gesture with the focus on a single screen. None of this behaviour is intuitive in any way. Also, my Macbook Pro keeps reverting to 'mirror' mode even though I never go to the display settings and check it.

Apple, I would be happy if you just said, "A fix for multiple monitor and full-screen mode is in the works."

Hallo - i found that discussion somehow interesting and funny. However, when I correct understand the different points and reduce the polemic part: what you want is, that both screens works independently. like, if you have the mouse in one screen and wipe, then only that screen should change the selected desk. The other remains the same.

I am not sure, is there an example where it works that way ? As far as I can remember, I do not know that functionality in Windows or Linux (but I am willing to get educated).

To be honest, I had not really a point where I missed that and I am regularly in customer meetings and use the Projector for the customer view and the laptop screen for my view.

I can imagine, it would be a nice feature to separate the screens and then to have customer views sorted over different desks and the primarly screen is showing my view, also sorted as I want.

However, I am using the Maximize and Full Screen and did not have a real issue. But other people might see it different. With the foresaid limitations, the second screen is an extension of the primarly, I was always able to manage my stuff in way in front of the customer that it was fully satisfying.

@bjohnson: not sure what you meant with "reverting to mirror..." but what I can see is, that my Mac is remembering the second screen and my arrangements (like the different wallpaper) and only for new second devices it is in a mirror mode. I experienced that also during a customer meeting. I entered the room, attached their projector and found an arrangement which I made months ago (i even forgot that I was already in that room)

Ciao

I can only speak for myself. I just want it to work logically. Maximising one screen to have the other blanked is utterly ridiculous.

It makes sense for both screens to be linked as they are; 'swiping' with the mouse affects both screens simultaniously. Just stop this stupidity of blanking screens.

hm, I wouldnt call it stupidity because that mode is described by Apple as it works: full focus on one application. What I experienced in the beginning was, that Full Screen only worked on the primarly screen. I had attached a larger second screen and wanted to have it on the secondary display. But that is working

If I want both screens active but full screen, then i use the MAximize. But I learnt not all people in that discussion acknowledge it as sufficient.

R.

I call it rank stupidity when it is not doing what *all* other operating systems do -- including OSX prior to Lion with its tablet-inpired nonsense.

It's infuriating when you maximise one application that *all* other applications become unavailable. This kills the whole point of a windowed interface where you do more than one thing at once -- e.g. on the other monitor or even in front of the foreground application. That may be fine on an iPad, but it is is completely sub-optimal on a full-sized desktop with multiple monitors.

Yep. Fullscreen behavior and Mission control are still completely screwed up because they won't operate independently of one another. So I want to have a full screen safari window on one display and browse some finder windows on the other at the same time? I'm out of luck. Apple should implement two simple user options in addition to the current limited setup where Mission Control mirrors on both displays.

1) Allow users to set mission control on desktops to work independently for each display. So three finger swipe would only change one desktop view depending on where the cursor was located, and full screen apps would work independently from each other according to which display's Mission Control they were located in.

2) Allow Mission Control to treat the multiple displays as an array. You would set the position of the multiple displays to the right or left of each other in the System Prefs. > Display > Arrangement option. Say I have Desktop 1, Desktop 2, and Desktop 3 open in mission control. I have my main monitor display Desktop 1, and the monitor to my right display Desktop 2. I swipe left with 3 fingers on either display, and both Desktops move in sync, so now my main monitor displays Desktop 2, and the monitor to my right displays Desktop 3. This would allow for a more flexible arrangement of virtual desktops, and multiple fullscreen apps could still be open at the same time.

Thanks Apple, for doing nothing about this for so long.