loses track of current resolution/scaling

[matthargett]

I have a Samsung Neo G9 UUW, connected to a CableMatters 8K DisplayPort USB-C adapter, and 16" 2019 MacBook Pro running MacOS 12.4. Often BetterDisplay works great, allowing me to get the full native 5120x1440 resolution, letting me crisply see all my code and debugger windows clearly.

Sometimes After the Mac sleeps, or I Disconnect and re-connect the USB-C adapter, BD appears to lose track of the scale/multiplier and only display in 3840x1080, regardless of what I try toggling (refresh rate, "low resolution mode", etc).

Some supporting screenshots to help debug/diagnose. I'm happy to do a Zoom/FaceTime call to walk through things.

[matthargett]

A few hours later, the computer goes to sleep. When it wakes back up, I have my 5120x1440 native resolution, but BetterDisplay doesn't think any monitor is connected.

[waydabber]

Hi @matthargett - do you experience similar issues with a direct connection?

[matthargett]

Hi @matthargett - do you experience similar issues with a direct connection?

There are only USB-C ports on this MacBook, no HDMI or DP out. I do have a monitor at work (Dell 3840x2160) that has a "direct" USB-C connection, and can verify it doesn't have this intermittent scaling issue when I connect it.

On my Surface Book 2, using the same USC-C to 8K DP interface, it always works and gives me 5120x1440.

[waydabber]

I am not sure the adapter is at fault, if the OS sees the display, BD should detect it as well. When the "BetterDisplay doesn't think any monitor is connected" state occurs, if you quit and restart BD is the display detected?

It would be educational to see the console logs after sleep (here is how to enable and filter logging: )

Logs also might shed some light on the "BD appears to lose track of the scale/multiplier and only display in 3840x1080" issue as well.

If you click on the display name under Settings/Displays, some additional display info is presented. Can you please send a screenshot of this in the normal state and the "BD appears to lose track of the scale/multiplier and only display in 3840x1080" state to see if the various identifiers match?

Thank you!

[matthargett]

I didn't see the text for enabling logging, maybe you didn't paste?

Screenshots of it only really giving me 3840x1080:

Note that if I push the BD slider to 5120x1440, it's scaling that resolution down to 3840x1080, which renders most text unreadable.

I started writing this response, then closed my laptop lid, then opened it again. I was going to send a picture of the monitor when the scaling is incorrect, but now it worked and I'm seeing the 5120x1440 native resolution. If only I could pin down the exact workaround steps!

[waydabber]

Sorry, I here is how to see the logs: #445

Regarding the additional info for the display, I meant the app Settings (gear icon), Displays tab and then click on the display name (big font with an icon before it). :)

Do you mean even in System Preferences/Displays you have 3840x1080 max? Does it depend on the refresh rate selected (as some resolutions might not be available with higher refresh rates due to bandwidth issues)?

[mankittens]

I imagine @matthargett is getting a log like this:

I have my displays connected through a CalDigit TS3 Plus and I'm experiencing the same issue: BetterDisplay loses memory of the displays (i.e. positioning and resolution) every time I wake or I restart my computer. Also, the 4k TV I have connected sometimes loses access to the full range of scaled resolution options, restricting me to 1920x1080 or less.

I was thinking to myself, this never happens (these days, anyways) with my Lunar settings. Lunar always, even with this setup, remembers which display is which. Maybe the developer of that app (@alin23) could have some suggestions on how to track monitors in the case where their serial numbers are hidden, assuming that's the issue.

[alin23]

@mankittens sorry, no, Lunar is also plagued by this problem 😅 It's possible you had luck with Lunar these days.

It's also possible that this happens more often with BetterDisplay because it changes the system screen configuration more often (adding dummy displays, changing resolution etc.) whereas Lunar doesn't do that much because it doesn't implement the scaling functions of BetterDisplay.

[waydabber]

Thanks @alin23 for chiming in! :)

Hi @mankittens, BetterDisplay will keep track of the displays all right provided their UUID does not keep changing. This mostly works, as macOS itself uses this to keep track of the displays. If the UUID changes from time-to-time, the OS itself cannot really keep track of the display so BD (and I think Lunar) simply follows suit.

There is an alternative way to identify displays in BD (Settings/Advanced/Use alternative method to identify displays), but this is meant for some misbehaving DisplayLink displays mostly as some of them really suffer from this issue. But this only helps in retaining and recalling BetterDummy configuration data, resolutions and display layouts are however not actively managed by BetterDisplay upon wake but this is left entirely to the OS - so if the OS cannot keep track of a display, the saved display layout will not be properly recalled upon wake - this is probably the root cause of the issue you are experiencing (if I understand correctly).

@matthargett's issue was somewhat different - apparently his display was connected (evidenced by the screen on the display) but still the display did not show up in BetterDisplay's menu. I don't clearly understand how that is possible, but there might be a bug I am not fully aware of (whenever there is a configuration change, BD enumerates all connected displays, gets rid of those that are gone and registers newcomers and even tries to keep track of displays that changed their connection ID while having the same UUID, trying to preserve continuity). Maybe there is a gap somewhere in this logic, that's why I asked for the logs (BUT: simply filtering for BetterDummy/BetterDisplay in the logs is not sufficient, this contains a lot of irrelevant noise, I specifically need the filters to be set as explained here: #445 - this will show me all the details I need to figure out how BD detects the displays).

[mankittens]

@alin23 I've been using Lunar for a few years now(?), and I must say that after experiencing many bugs and lost settings, it's finally felt stable for my all my configurations in the past 6 months! I appreciate your dedication to the project. You've made macOS a better place.

@waydabber I've been leaving amphetamine on this week to prevent my computer from sleeping, but I'll try that setting and report back with what I find (and with correct logs). And now that I think about it, it's not that BetterDisplay was forgetting the displays entirely, because their settings under Settings/Displays are retained across reboots, sleeps, and reconnection, but for whatever reason, the arrangement gets jumbled and resolutions set back to defaults.

That aside, I appreciate your attentiveness to this product and can already see it becoming a staple in my development environment. Thank you for filling this underserved niche!

[waydabber]

@mankittens - thanks for the kind words!

If settings are retained, then the Use alternative method to identify displays probably won't help. You can check if the display IDs change by clicking on the display name under Settings/Displays (that will reveal a bunch of identification information).

Reviewing the discussion, I am not sure whether you are you using dummies or not. If you use them, then things moving around might be due to any of these settings (as these do alter the display configuration on sleep/wake which might mess something up):

(Note that the usage of dummies simply to get scalable HiDPI resolutions is in most scenarios superseded by the native smooth scaling feature.)

If you are not using dummies, then I don't think BetterDisplay has much to do with the problem (at least not directly), but you might have a corrupted windowserver display configuration file - resetting that might help:

• Navigate to your computer's /Library/Preferences folder in Finder and remove the file com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist
• Navigate to your user's ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost folder in Finder and remove every file that starts with com.apple.windowserver
• Reboot your mac