Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment

  • Many agree macOS multi-display support feels fragile and inconsistent, especially around window placement and changing setups.
  • A sizable minority report few or no issues, suggesting behavior is highly hardware- and workflow-dependent.
  • Some feel multi-monitor is inherently complex on any OS; others say macOS is notably worse than their experience on Windows or Linux.

Window & workspace behavior

  • Common complaints: windows reshuffle or pile onto the laptop screen after sleep, docking/undocking, or OS/app updates; spaces/desktops and window positions are not reliably remembered.
  • Some report specific apps (e.g., browsers, IDEs) consistently reopening on the wrong display or space.
  • A few users script layouts with AppleScript, Hammerspoon, or other tools, or rely heavily on virtual desktops instead of multiple physical displays.

Dock, menu bar, and full-screen UX

  • Side dock: only appears on the outermost display; can unpredictably “move” between screens via a hidden cursor gesture, confusing many.
  • Menu bar behavior with multiple displays and the notch, transparency, and “separate Spaces per display” is widely criticized as inconsistent and hard to reason about.
  • Full-screen mode is seen as awkward: it creates separate Spaces, can blank other monitors, and interacts poorly with multi-monitor workflows.

Hardware & connectivity issues

  • Complaints about Apple Silicon limits on external display count; some find it absurd that higher tiers are required for 2–3 monitors.
  • Reports of monitors randomly disconnecting, dropping to 30 Hz, failing to wake, or swapping identities; sometimes linked to cables, docks, MST/DisplayPort daisy-chaining, or non-unique monitor serials.
  • HDMI audio and external high-refresh-rate or non-Retina displays occasionally behave unreliably.

Comparisons with other OSes

  • Some say Windows and Linux (often with tiling WMs like i3/sway) handle multi-monitor better and more predictably.
  • Others argue Windows has its own long history of layout bugs, and that modern macOS on Apple Silicon is “good enough” or better than alternatives for their use.

Workarounds & tools

  • Many suggest third-party tools: window tilers/managers (Rectangle, Moom, Magnet, Amethyst, yabai, Phoenix), layout restorers (DisplayMaid, Stay), display utilities (BetterDisplay, Lunar, displayplacer).
  • These significantly improve ergonomics but highlight that users feel they must patch core OS behavior.

Display configuration preferences

  • Strong split: some prefer one large or ultrawide display (easier ergonomics, fewer OS issues); others value multiple monitors, especially with one in portrait for docs/chat.