Is an HDMI dummy plug necessary to run 2012 Mac Mini headless?

[A4orce84]

Hello,

I am inheriting an older 2012 Mac Mini to use as a basic home server. Ideally, it will run headless without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Will I need one of the HDMI dummy plugs in order to get multiple resolution options (after I set everything up initially)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks,
Asif

 

[chrfr]

Hello,

I am inheriting an older 2012 Mac Mini to use as a basic home server. Ideally, it will run headless without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Will I need one of the HDMI dummy plugs in order to get multiple resolution options (after I set everything up initially)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks,
Asif

Without a dummy plug, remote display performance is really terrible. It’s not an absolute necessity but you will quickly be frustrated with how slow the display is.

 

[A4orce84]

Thanks for the quick reply! Any links to cheap ones that I can purchase for my 2012 Mac Mini?

 

[Boyd01]

If my 2012 Mini is not connected to a monitor at startup, it defaults to some very strange (low) resolution. The dummy plug fixes that. I just went to Amazon and did a search for "HDMI dummy plug". There are many of them and they're very inexpensive, like less than $10 when I purchased in 2020.