multiple displays popup

Question

Level 1

4 points

multiple displays popup

Hello all,

Just migrated my trusty Mac Pro from OS X 10.6 to 10.9 and it hasn't been smooth. The first thing that occurred right off the bat was that my displays are now hosed up.

In 10.6, I had no problem. An Apple Cinema Display was my primary display, and I had a plasma HDTV in a viewing room hooked up as an extended monitor for previewing video productions. One can't see both screens simultaneously, but it's easy enough to drag a video window to the HDTV display and use the keyboard shortcut to size it full screen. All my work is always done on the Apple display.

In 10.9, the first thing that occurred is that all the popups appeared on the second screen (HDTV), which left me puzzled until I discovered what was going on. Then the joy of attempting to drag items from the HDTV to my primary display took forever. I tried turning off the extended displays, switching to mirroring, but that apparently forces the Apple display to use the lower resolution of the HDTV, which is completely unacceptable. I thought i had it all set back the way it always used to work, and then ....

several times I have been screening edits in full screen mode, watching only the HDTV, and a Mac popup dialog would appear in the middle of the screen. First, I don't ever want to see a popup dialog while i'm in full screen mode, and second, I don't ever want dialog boxes to ever appear on the second monitor -- only on the primary Apple display, which is the only screen i have enabled the toolbar.

What am I doing wrong !?!?

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), multiple extended displays

Posted on Nov 4, 2013 8:16 PM

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Answer 1

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Nov 7, 2013 1:43 PM in response to roule

Hello roule,

The HDTV may be set as the primary display. In the Displays preference pane, under the Arrangement tab, ensure that the menu bar appears on your Cinema Display, rather than the HDTV.

OS X Mavericks: Connect multiple displays to your Mac

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13814

Cheers,

Allen

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Answer 2

roule Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 22, 2013 10:03 PM in response to CarlAVII

nope. did not solve problem. Still pulling my hair out try to figure out what's going on. toggling all the options in "Mission Control" hasn't resolved the issue. Spaces simply doesn't work. I cannot manage ANY application to stay within any one space.

I also tried to "recopy video" in the monitors preference panel, but then it forces the Cinema display to the lower resolution of the HDTV. That's unacceptable.

I am seriously considering moving back to Snow Leopard. Apple at least got that OS correct.

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Answer 3

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Dec 23, 2013 6:26 AM in response to roule

roule,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Community. Due to the nature of your issue or question you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action.

All my best,

Allen

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Answer 4

Jul 30, 2015 5:34 PM in response to roule

I too have this problem.

I have two monitors, one I use for running VMs full screen and the other I use for mac applications. I have separate spaces enabled so I can flip between multiple full screen VMs on the one display (with one space mac since full-screening a VM opens a new space). In System Preferences, I have the top menu bar associated with the display used for mac apps, making it the primary display.

However, when I'm using Adobe Photoshop or inDesign on the display for mac apps, all dialogs (e.g. saving, color choice, etc.) always come up on the other display - the one for VMs, but in the mac space, so I have to switch screens and swipe around to the mac space.

On top of that, when accessing the machine via Screen Sharing (which I often do), it's even worse: flipping between displays requires a trip to the host's menu bar (there's no shortcut), using a shortcut to bring up the spaces selection screen, selecting the mac space, handling the dialog, bringing up the spaces selection again, and selecting the VM space, and finally using the host menu to switch back to the primary display.

That's really annoying.

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