mek!

Q: monitor menu bar tool missing

Hello!

 

What happened to the handy monior menubar item which existed in Lion.

I have a multi monitor setup but it was even handy with a single screen if

you needed to chage resolitions.

 

Before there was a checkbox in the display system preferences to turn this on.

 

After the mountain lion upgrade this tool is gone. Now I only find a "Show mirroring options

in the menu bar when available" which only seem to handle the airplay mirroring.

 

Is there any way or a even better 3rd party tool which can bring the monitor menu bar item back?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 29, 2012 3:30 PM

Close

Q: monitor menu bar tool missing

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Page 1 Next
  • by Therabyte,Helpful

    Therabyte Therabyte Jul 29, 2012 3:33 PM in response to mek!
    Level 4 (1,070 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 3:33 PM in response to mek!

    It's gone.

     

    I don't know of any 3rd party solution to solve this issue.

  • by Therabyte,

    Therabyte Therabyte Jul 29, 2012 3:37 PM in response to mek!
    Level 4 (1,070 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 3:37 PM in response to mek!

    Go to


    /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Displays.menu


    Double click it.


    See the double monitor icon now?

  • by mek!,

    mek! mek! Jul 29, 2012 3:47 PM in response to Therabyte
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 3:47 PM in response to Therabyte

    Good thought, but this only brings up the Airplay item. :-/

     

    Also just tried out how a lion displays.menu would behave, but it brings up the same menu without an icon, ...

     

     

    So if somebody of apple (or some app developer) reads this:

     

    Feature request: give me back my monitor menu bar item!

  • by Mark A. Lindsay,

    Mark A. Lindsay Mark A. Lindsay Jul 30, 2012 2:51 AM in response to mek!
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 2:51 AM in response to mek!

    I've had the same problem.  My iMac is too old for Airplay, but it still uses an external monitor, and sometimes I switch resolutions and mirroring.  This was a useful shortcut that there was no reason to get rid of. 

     

    BTW, opening the Display app you mention does bring up the monitor icon back to the bar, but the only option in it is "Open Display Preferences".  No mirror control or display control which used to be there.

  • by ruggiero,

    ruggiero ruggiero Jul 30, 2012 3:39 AM in response to mek!
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 30, 2012 3:39 AM in response to mek!

    Same issue here. As a frequent presenter I NEED to be able to easily switch between beamer-as-presenter-display to beamer-as-mirror-of-MacBookPro-display for live demos. Not able to do that anymore.

    Filed a bug under radar nr 11984848

  • by helee29,

    helee29 helee29 Aug 1, 2012 2:47 AM in response to ruggiero
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 2:47 AM in response to ruggiero

    Same issue here too.

    Using a two monitor / two graphic card setup on my Mac Pro and really NEED to easily sync (or async) both screens.

    Really hope, Apple will bring it back with the next update

  • by Nephilim 2038,

    Nephilim 2038 Nephilim 2038 Aug 1, 2012 8:01 AM in response to helee29
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 8:01 AM in response to helee29

    Oh for Petes sake.

     

    I was trying to get the Monitor Icon in the menu bar to display a list of resolutions, and now it has gone away completely after I unchecked and rechecked "display airplay when available" in the system preferences.  ARGH. 

     

    And now I read that the icon/menu wasn't even supposed to be there to begin with. 

    (I have one display.) It apparently was a glitch leftover from upgrading to Mountain Lion from Tiger.

     

    Now I feel stupid.  Being able to at least open the display preferences from the menu bar was better than nothing, and nothing is what I have now.

     

    Apple, bring back the monitor pulldown. 

     

    And someone please tell me the shell command to enter to at least reenable what I had.

  • by mek!,

    mek! mek! Aug 1, 2012 10:37 AM in response to Nephilim 2038
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 10:37 AM in response to Nephilim 2038

    You should be able to bring it back (though I think its useless) by:

     

    open "/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Displays.menu"

  • by ruggiero,

    ruggiero ruggiero Aug 1, 2012 10:41 AM in response to Nephilim 2038
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 1, 2012 10:41 AM in response to Nephilim 2038

    Open the following path in Finder:

    "/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras"

    and double click Displays.menu

    This will bring back the menu but it is utterly useless. Apple has completely crippled it. Please send feedback to Apple requesting the original functionality back! The more people send in their feedback the better!

  • by Nephilim 2038,

    Nephilim 2038 Nephilim 2038 Aug 1, 2012 11:28 AM in response to ruggiero
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 11:28 AM in response to ruggiero

    Yes, it is just about useless.  But when I'm remotely accessing the desktop, I'm happier at least being able to get to the displays panel with one click rather than two.  But it is absurd for the functionality to have been crippled so.

  • by roberto_m,

    roberto_m roberto_m Aug 6, 2012 6:47 AM in response to mek!
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 6, 2012 6:47 AM in response to mek!

    I found an answer in this thread:

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4156736?start=0&tstart=0

     

    In short, the combination Cmd+decrease-brightness switches on and off the mirroring mode.

  • by Bart Nieuwenhuis,

    Bart Nieuwenhuis Bart Nieuwenhuis Aug 10, 2012 12:21 AM in response to Mark A. Lindsay
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 10, 2012 12:21 AM in response to Mark A. Lindsay

    Also my monitor icon disappeared from the menu bar. I used it to activate my HDMI connection to a TV screen. When i connect the HDMI connector, MacBook sees that the connection (blue screen for a second) but there is no picture on the TV screen. There was a command in the monitor icon menu that I clicked on to let the TV screen detect my HDMI connection and show my picture. I have no idea which command I used before Lion Mountain. More important is which command I should use now to get the same effect and use the HDMI connection for the screen. Please note that I have a too old macbook for airplay.

  • by MiG_Tho,

    MiG_Tho MiG_Tho Sep 13, 2012 6:53 AM in response to mek!
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 13, 2012 6:53 AM in response to mek!

    I also missed the feature so badly that I wrote a replacement for the original monitors menu and put it on the Mac App Store:

    http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/display-menu/id549083868?mt=12

     

    Hope that helps some people out!

  • by winterhalder,

    winterhalder winterhalder Sep 29, 2012 12:11 PM in response to MiG_Tho
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 29, 2012 12:11 PM in response to MiG_Tho

    Awesome - just downloaded it!  Thanks!

Page 1 Next