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

Network 23 wrote:

Trane Francks wrote:

Question for you: When you switch desktops, do both monitors change or is it only just the monitor that has application focus. I heard that Mavericks would decouple the extended desktops and treat each monitor separately. Personally, I hope that's not the case.

The answer is "it depends." It depends on whether your Mission Control option "Displays have separate Spaces" is turned on or off.

Personally I think the full-screen situation has improved greatly in Mavericks.

Thanks for the info. It confirms what I've read since the release. Apple apparently listened during the beta testing and kept it possible to continue using an extended desktop paradigm. Mavericks finally makes me want to buy a new MacBook. Good job, Apple!

Network 23 wrote:

Trane Francks wrote:

Question for you: When you switch desktops, do both monitors change or is it only just the monitor that has application focus. I heard that Mavericks would decouple the extended desktops and treat each monitor separately. Personally, I hope that's not the case.

The answer is "it depends." It depends on whether your Mission Control option "Displays have separate Spaces" is turned on or off.

Personally I think the full-screen situation has improved greatly in Mavericks.

Nice catch. Didn't notice this. Personally, extended desktops (the Mountain Lion behavior) make absolutely zero sense to me. Having each monitor operate as a seperate space is so much more conducive to my workflow. Now I just wish I could have mail go fullscreen but keep the ability to drag a reply window to a seperate space/monitor.

not sure if this is what you're talking about - but if you uncheck the "show on all displays" box in the full screen tab of quicktime 7 pro's prefs, you can watch full screen on either - or both monitors.

bscepter wrote:

not sure if this is what you're talking about - but if you uncheck the "show on all displays" box in the full screen tab of quicktime 7 pro's prefs, you can watch full screen on either - or both monitors.

That's how I do it. I made QT7P my default video player for all its supported encodings and it works very nicely to enable watching fullscreen on the external display without having to move my menu bar over there, as is necessary with DVD Player for fullscreen movies.

One interesting thing is that the latest iPhoto goes fullscreen mode on the monitor from which it was windowed. Apparently, the force-to-primary display is not mandatory in Lion and is up to the app to decide. It would have been nice had DVD player been given the same treatment.

Not sure if anyone has posted this before.

1. Get VLC player and Install

2. Open. VLC--> Preferences --> "Video" Tab

3. Uncheck box "Fullscreen"

4. Uncheck box "Black screens in Fullscreen mode"

5. In "Fullscreen Video Device" field, select "Screen 1" or "Screen 2" whichever monitor you prefer to watch video on fullscreen.

Hope that helps.

The above doesn't work for me, the fullscreen and monitor options seem to have no effect at all - the fullscreen option still makes my other monitor useless.

This is such a glaring issue I can't belive Apple haven't fixed it. Oh wait... yes, I can...

It works as it should in Mavericks. Making an app full screen on one monitor does not black out your second monitor. I don't know why this thread is still active. Apple fixed the problem. (That's not to say everyone loves it, but it works for most people).

MillionsKnives wrote:

The above doesn't work for me, the fullscreen and monitor options seem to have no effect at all - the fullscreen option still makes my other monitor useless.

This is such a glaring issue I can't belive Apple haven't fixed it. Oh wait... yes, I can...

Which version of OS X?

Assuming Mavericks is the OSX version here, go to System Preferences>Mission Control>check the box that says "Displays have separate Spaces"

Now going fullscreen on one display should not effect the other.

Bonus tip for folks who want to display the iTunes visualizer on one monitor while having their library on another: With Extended Desktop mode enabled, open and drag iTunes onto whichever display you want the visualizer to do it's thing. Start the visualizer (command+T) and place your pointer on iTunes' title bar as if you were about to drag it to a different display (FYI you ARE about to). Then, enter fullscreen mode BY USING THE HOTKEYS (control+command+F) then QUICKLY (before the now fullscreen visualizer takes over) drag your library wherever the heck you want it. Of course, make sure the "Displays have separate Spaces" box mentioned above is checked.

Assuming Mavericks is the OSX version here, go to System Preferences>Mission Control>check the box that says "Displays have separate Spaces"

Now going fullscreen on one display should not effect the other.

Bonus tip for folks who want to display the iTunes visualizer on one monitor while having their library on another: With Extended Desktop mode enabled, open and drag iTunes onto whichever display you want the visualizer to do it's thing. Start the visualizer (command+T) and place your pointer on iTunes' title bar as if you were about to drag it to a different display (FYI you ARE about to). Then, enter fullscreen mode BY USING THE HOTKEYS (control+command+F) then QUICKLY (before the now fullscreen visualizer takes over) drag your library wherever the heck you want it. Of course, make sure the "Displays have separate Spaces" box mentioned above is checked.

Think I found a pretty easy work around for the time being..

If your trying to play an .mp4 or movie file.. simply open it with you internet browser. Im using chrome and can play full-hd .mp4's full screen on a second monitor while working on my main monitor. No problem.

Watching layer cake while I type this..

Sweet! Just got a second monitor yesterday, and this trick worked! Love this! I could hook up a projector too, if I want. But geez, Apple shoulda made this easier... It took me a few tries to get it right, but once I followed clouds rest's instructions better, it worked great! I wonder if we can make an automator action to duplicate the process? Hmm... Thank you cloudsrest!

Found the answer here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/osx/comments/2kkwb9/yosemite_multi_monitor_fullscreen_m ode_all_other/

[–]Troll__McLure 10 points 1 year ago

macOS 10.12.6 (16G23a) on a Late 2012 Mac mini w/16 Gb RAM

I found that giving the monitors a specific resolution instead of the "Default for display" (in my case setting both ASUS VE278 monitors to 1080p resolved the issue, as "Displays have separate spaces was default (in this build of High Sierra at least).

Anybody here to have a tipp changing the ugly background texture using fullscreen in dual mode?