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Help with Duel Displays (please!)

S

sirigby72

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 9, 2023
2
0
Hi guys,

I recently bought a "Anker 553 USB-C Hub (8-in-1)" dock so that I could connect my Macbook Air (the one with the USBC connector) to two monitors, but it is only detecting one monitor at a time even though they are both turned on.

Am I missing something? Is there a way around this?

Both monitors plug into the Anker via a HDMI to HDMI and then the Anker plugs into the mac via a usbc!

Link to dock: https://www.anker.com/uk/products/a8383?variant=39721178136740&ref=collectionBuy

Thank you so much
Simon
 
sirigby72 said:
Both monitors plug into the Anker via a HDMI to HDMI and then the Anker plugs into the mac via a usbc!
Click to expand...
Eh? The dock you linked with only has a single HDMI port. Where are you plugging the second display?

Anyway, the MacBook Air can only support one external display.

The only work-around is to use an adapter featuring "DisplayLink" which is a hardware/software solution that sends a compressed video signal over USB.

Also, some PC hubs/docks/splitters that do offer multiple display support rely on 'DisplayPort daisy chaining' which has never been supported by Macs.
 
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sirigby72 said:
Sorry - totally linked the wrong one - it's the same type but with the two HDMI Ports here: https://www.anker.com/uk/products/a8380?variant=37340052258980&ref=collectionBuy

As you can tell I'm totally useless at all of this.

I'm assuming though from what you've said that the dock I have bought is not suitable for what I want to do? Is there any workaround by any chance?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Buried in the FAQ on the website you linked:
“When connected to dual monitors, devices running macOS only support screen mirroring”

I.e. at best, with this dock on the Mac, you’ll only get one display mirroring the other - but I’m not sure that the basic M1/M2 can even do that.

Slapped wrist for Anker for not being up front about that - I only found the FAQ line because I already knew it would be there somewhere…

The only way you’ll get more than one external display on a regular M1 or M2 Mac is, I think, to get a device featuring DisplayLink - but I’ve never tried that, so you should ask around, and there are other drawbacks.

Even with a M2 Pro chip, which does support multiple external displays, be very skeptical of hubs/docks with two display sockets and look for explicit confirmation that they work with your Mac.
 
What MBA do you have? If it's an M1 or M2 model you can only have 1 external monitor connected unless you use tricks like DisplayLink which comes with some drawbacks and you need a special DisplayLink compatible hub with the software installed. If you have an Intel MBA then you can have 2 external screens but not through that hub.

The hub you purchased is a MST hub. For whatever reason MacOS doesn't support MST on any version/device so you can't use both monitors at the same time. If you have an Intel Mac and you have Windows through Boot Camp on it it will work with MST and your hub. Linux works too. I think maybe the BSDs as well. I think it's just an Apple thing.

If you have an Intel MBA then you can get a Thunderbolt 3 hub with dual displays and it should work. Or you can just use two USB hubs in both ports. But again it won't work in an M1/M2 MBA because of how Apple gimped those chips. Only M* Pro and up laptops can natively do 2+ external displays.
 
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FWIW, I have a pluggable.com hub that used Displaylink & it works to allow my 2017 12" MacBook to extend to 2 external monitors (the device only supports 1 out of the box). It works pretty well, but as mentioned above, does have some drawbacks.
 
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