Mac Mini (M2) Display & App Positioning issues

[dbrewood]

I've got my new Mac Mini (M2 Pro) set up now and I've moved it to the desk. This means it has switched from my 24" Dell (build monitor - HDMI) to my usual monitor - Samsung 34" UW (3440 x 1440) connected via DP.
The issue is that when I un-minimise a lot of apps they have lost their on-screen position and instead of being centre screen they sit bottom left. I have to move them back position wise.

Example I move Thunderbird to center screen, minimise it and when I open it - it goes bottom left, same with Reeder, Brave, etc. It seems in some way I need to reset the display settings somehow.

Driving me daft. So far I've:

• Switched to a lower resolution and back again on the 34" UW
• Changed from DP to HDMI (and back again)
• Rebooted the Mac numerous times

Nothing seems to make a difference.

 

[kasakka]

Try https://cordlessdog.com/stay/ to save the window positions for your apps per monitor.

 

[dbrewood]

Yeah but surely third party software should not be needed? I never used to have this issue with my Intel i7 Mini...

 

[dbrewood]

Does anyone else have similar problems with an M1 or M2 Mini at all? So far I've:

- Created a new test user - confirmed the issue affects that user too.
- deleted the .plist files found in /HD/Users/YourName/Library/Preferences - fixed some windows maybe
- Deleting .plist files in ~/Library/Saved Application State/ - helped with some apps, but not all use this directory.
- Looked to use 'sudo find / -name .DS_Store -delete; killall Finder' to clear out the store files - doesn't work, syntax wrong!

 

[designerdave72]

I've got my new Mac Mini (M2 Pro) set up now and I've moved it to the desk. This means it has switched from my 24" Dell (build monitor - HDMI) to my usual monitor - Samsung 34" UW (3440 x 1440) connected via DP.
The issue is that when I un-minimise a lot of apps they have lost their on-screen position and instead of being centre screen they sit bottom left. I have to move them back position wise.

Example I move Thunderbird to center screen, minimise it and when I open it - it goes bottom left, same with Reeder, Brave, etc. It seems in some way I need to reset the display settings somehow.

Driving me daft. So far I've:

• Switched to a lower resolution and back again on the 34" UW
• Changed from DP to HDMI (and back again)
• Rebooted the Mac numerous times

Nothing seems to make a difference.

The same has been intermittently happening with my Mac Studio Max and paired ASD. I use SwitchResX to fine tune but it does still continue. It’s wrong that this should be happening to thee expensive devices at all and disappointed that Apple haven’t even bothered to address the issue.

 

[dbrewood]

Ah ha so it's not just me, are you having the same symptoms? That is when you un-minimise an app from the dock the window can re-size (commonly smaller) and sits on the bottom left of the screen?

What does SwitchResX do to combat the issue? How does it fix it?

 

[designerdave72]

Ah ha so it's not just me, are you having the same symptoms? That is when you un-minimise an app from the dock the window can re-size (commonly smaller) and sits on the bottom left of the screen?

What does SwitchResX do to combat the issue? How does it fix it?

Some of M y windows sit bottom left of the screen after wake up from sleep. Photoshop has a few window placement issues in the app too. SwitchresX helps at times by keeping the resolution and window placement where they were but not a complete fix as it sometimes fluctuates. It’s definitely a frustrating Mac OS glitch.

 

[dbrewood]

Yep that sounds like what I'm seeing, not always though after the machine has come back from sleep, hmm I'm now going to turn off 'turn the screen off' and put the screen saver on, we'll see if it makes a difference. I do think the issue has occurred for me when simply un-minimising.

I'm wondering have you done a flatten and rebuild of the Studio at all to see if that fixes the issue?

I'll look at SwitchResX to see if that can help.

 

[dbrewood]

To update you ...... I had a long support call with Apple this morning. It ended up with me going into recovery and doing a fresh install of Ventura 13.2 over the top of the existent installation.

This is to see if there were any glitches that needed resolving in the installation. This is not a known issue and should not be happening. So I'll see how it goes from here. Fingers are crossed.

BTW I spoke to the SwitchResX support team and they advised their app can't really work to fix the issue. One App, that you, might want to look at is Stay........

I'll keep you posted on how things go from here.

 

[dbrewood]

Have I fixed the issues with the window placement on the desktop.

This is based on the Apple engineer commenting that when the monitor went to sleep it looked (from his side) as if the monitor had been unplugged and plugged back in.

So I've switched the monitor connection from Thunderbolt to DisplayPort (lead / dongle) to a very high (studio quality) HDMI to HDMI lead.

I've put the monitor to sleep 3 times and when it's woken up no problems with unminimising apps. Fingers crossed. I’m continuing to monitor.

 

[designerdave72]

Have I fixed the issues with the window placement on the desktop.

This is based on the Apple engineer commenting that when the monitor went to sleep it looked (from his side) as if the monitor had been unplugged and plugged back in.

So I've switched the monitor connection from Thunderbolt to DisplayPort (lead / dongle) to a very high (studio quality) HDMI to HDMI lead.

I've put the monitor to sleep 3 times and when it's woken up no problems with unminimising apps. Fingers crossed. I’m continuing to monitor.

Interesting. I wonder if that would work with the ASD?

Thanks for the tip about ‘Stay’. I removed SwitchresX and replaced it with Stay and so far, it seems work pretty much the same as SwitchresX but less complicated!

 

[dbrewood]

I've no ideas on the ASD, as that uses Thunderbolt / USB-C only? It may be a cable fault, though I guess it could be cable quality. Originally when looking to diagnose the problem I did try a cheaper HDMI lead I had around and that didn't solve the issue. However, I've now replaced it with a very high quality HDMI lead which was used to link the 4K Apple TV to the TV set, and that seems to have resolved the issue completely for me.

So maybe you can try a higher quality Thunderbolt cable to link the Mac Studio and the ASD, it might be worth a try.

No problems over recommending 'Stay' if it helps to resolve your issue in the interim it's worth using.

Keep the thread updated if you do manage to make any connection changes that help!