10.13.4 Displaylink no longer working

Anybody know of a device that will enable a third screen on a mac mini? No display link device will now work on apples "update" 10.13.4. So much for updates from Apple. Its actually should be called a downgrade, since it has less usage for me (at least)

Honestly, I don't think suing is the answer. The problem in our country is that we think suing is the answer for everything. I think an email twitter campaign to @Tim_Cook and @Apple is more appropriate, public, and hopefully effective. Suing is an American illness IMHO.

I don’t like to sue either. Hopefully apple reads the comments in these forums (unlikely) and will reverse whatever they did when they realize the damage they did to their customers (also unlikely as I think they just didn’t care)

They should warn customers so the users have a chance to protect themselves. If suing is the only way to convince apple to do this, then I am for it. In the meantime users should just not upgrade at all

If this is a bug, for example, an unintended side effect of the major rewrites to video done to enable eGPUs, then Apple might fix it. This is way bigger than just DisplayLink, 10.13.4 broke many third-party secondary monitor solutions:

https://tidbits.com/2018/04/08/macos-10-13-4-breaks-third-party-dual-display-sys tems/

"...the products affected include the hardware-based DisplayLink, along with the app-based Air Display, Duet, and iDisplay. However, the problem doesn’t affect secondary displays that connect directly to the Mac via Mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt."

If it is intended, because Apple just doesn't want to support it anymore, then it may take some advocacy to get Apple to change their minds.

Hopefully it's just a bug that needs to be fixed in 10.13.5.

Now I get it. There will never be a fix to display port issues from apple. Their hidden agenda is to obsolete all macs that don’t support their thunderbolt3 standard and to wind up selling some external graphics card. If they told us what their hidden agenda is, I would never have upgraded so u could continue using what I paid for already. Now I have to go thru the hassle of reverting to 10.13.3 - all courtesy of deceit by apple. They should have told us in advance not to upgrade. I am very disappointed in apple

Term2 wrote:

Their hidden agenda is to obsolete all macs that don’t support their thunderbolt3 standard and to wind up selling some external graphics card. If they told us what their hidden agenda is

While there may be correlation, I would not go so far as to assume causation. The markets are completely different. eGPUs are only useful to high-end users whose needs are not met with the rather powerful integrated and discrete graphics available in Macs now.

DisplayLink and other USB video solutions are the complete other end of the market, the low end, where DisplayLink, and the other iPad second monitor solutions affected, are used because it's cheap. Even the most basic study would show that if you drive customers off of DisplayLink, 99% of them are not going to turn around and buy a $300 eGPU unit and a $400 graphics card to put in it. DisplayLink users don't need a $700 solution intended for 4K video editors and VR/AR developers, they will never buy it. They are much more likely to just leave the Mac platform.

I agree with you that 99% of users displaced by apple’s new high sierra update won’t go and spend a lot of money. If they are like me, they will voice upset about not being warned, lose trust in doing any upgrades from apple, and be ripe to switch platforms if possible. The options are limited, which apple realizes I am sure. Programmers tend to make programs they think are cool and useful for themselves. Apple should offer an “upgrade” for us normal users who want the usefulness of display link technology

You can roll back your macOS if you made sure to make a complete backup before updating, which is always the recommendation. But even if you restore from that, you must first copy any files you created or edited since the update, since they were made after the backup, and you'll have to restore those manually after you've restored the backup.

If you don't have a backup of the state of your system before the update, there is no quick and easy way to go back. You could wipe the Mac and reinstall from an installer that is definitely not the latest installer, and then put all your files and settings back, but again, that is not quick or easy.

I refused to accept defeat in the battle against apple’s disregard of my need for a third monitor

I looked at my upgrade history in the App Store, got the date of upgrade to.10.13.4. Then I did a restart holding cmd-D and restored from the previous day’s time machine backup before the system upgrade. Took like 4 hours but voila ! I am back at 10.13.3 (slightly slower operation but all three screens are operational.

I am still upset with apple for not warning us beforehand, but I guess we got what we paid for ( free upgrade)

Apple warning you?

1) Beta has been out of months.

2) DisplayLink knew it breaks their drivers.

3) You bought DisplayLink hardware, they have responsibility, not Apple. Apple never claimed you can connect displays like that.

Rolling back isn’t quick, but the faster u do it the better. When you get done you can update all the files changed since the original update date by using time machine. You can bet I won’t be updating my system again anytime soon. Apple should announce what the new OS updates DONT DO in advance. But big business is a bit arrogant

Good points, BUT I still blame Apple on this one. Display Link is a very useful technology which Apple didnt invent. Suspicious that Apple didnt like that and is now getting rid of it without even offering an alternative. It just makes Apple a lot LESS of a company offering useful things to ME, a lowly customer. I spent hours undoing what they did, and I WONT MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN. No more upgrades for me unless its been tested for quite awhile and its advantages AND disadvantages are fully documented. Too Bad for Apple. They lost a lot of faith I had in them.

Points 1 and 2 are correct. Point 3 is wrong. We bought DisplayLink hardware when Apple supported the hardware and it worked just fine. That's the way all hardware is sold. Apple then removed support without public statement during the beta period. It may have been known to DisplayLink but NOT to existing hardware owners. Owners had NO way to know to scream. Then 10.13.4 was released. The Apple ReadMe made NO mention of the removal of DisplayLink support. NONE. So the users of this hardware had NO reason to not upgrade, as they have been upgrading for years.

BOOM! Then they found their new reality. They had been hosed by Apple. Not by DisplayLink, their hardware was unchanged. By Apple who had made such modifications to their OS code that thousands upon thousands of hardware owners were now SOL.

There is definitely damage to Apple's reputation. Its obvious they did this change to enhance their own profits in some hidden way. They are free to do tht, I think. BUT, actions have consequences and apple's customers (like me, for example) wont trust that any future updates are in their self interest to adopt. I rolled back to the previous OS version (10.13.3) after several hours of work, and got my third display back operational. I undid what apple rammed down my throat, and certainly have a different view of them as a trusted supplier. Too bad. This has ramifications for a future customer- supplier relationship for sure.

Almost everyone seems to feel certain that this was deliberate and not a bug.

Have there been previous incidents?

If so, did they issue some kind of statement or explaination?

I would think that would go a long way to save their reputation, if it was in fact an error.