Multiple Monitor Display Setup thru Docking Station

Tech Support
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1

I have an M1 Pro MacBook Pro connected to two external monitors through an OWC Thunderbolt Dock. I have certain apps set up on certain Spaces on certain monitors. However, I am always hesitating to unplug the laptop and take it with me because the monitor setup scrambles a bit once I plug it back in to the dock.

Does anyone have a solution to preserve this setup or am I stuck rearranging things every time I reconnect? Is the an OS issue that Apple has to address? Thanks in advance!

2

Both Stay and, as I recently learned, Moom can be configured to restore windows based on monitors connecting/disconnecting. So take a look and see if either will work for you.

3

Stay looks interesting. I will look into it. Thanks!

4

I’ve also used DisplayMaid and SwitchResX with some success as well…

5

I use a Keyboard Maestro macro that runs on monitor connect, login, system wake, etc and positions a set of windows (Mail, Calendar, Things) to their proper locations on my second monitor.

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6

I find this is a problem for me only if I have multiple spaces on my non-primary displays.

7

Cool. I have KM. Would you be willing/able to share the macro?

8

Darn you! You cost me US $16 for SwitchResX. Although it was for a different use case then the OP’s.

Still it solved my issue and I am happy. :slight_smile:

9

@LawyerSteve:

If you like, I would be happy to export and share these macros.

Here is what I have done:

Firstly, this macro is the one that moves the three apps I referenced (Calendar, Things, Mail) to their appropriate positions. I have a two monitor setup, and trial and error was used to figure out the correct screen to use in KM, as there isn’t an easy way to figure this out programmatically.

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Basically, what this does is:

  • Figure out how many screens there are, and decide which screen to put the windows on. In this case, I make it screen 1 because that is the left hand most screen on my desk, but it was trial and error to figure this out.
  • For each of the three apps, there are several steps:
    • First, activate the app, and then pause until the app is running
    • Execute an AppleScript to make sure that there is a window open for the app. The AppleScript differs for each app, so if you want to apply this to other apps, you may have to experiment in AppleScript to get a reliable script for that app.
  • Execute my subroutine macro called “Sub: Set Front Window To Location”. This is really the guts of the process and is part of a series of subroutine macros that I use to position windows. This system assumes the screen is divided into rows and columns given by verticalGrid and horizontalGrid. The rows and columns are numbered started at 1. A window can be placed with its top left corner at any grid position. I can specify how many rows and columns to span with that window. This system allows me to be very flexible in putting windows into various places on the screen. The subroutine takes parameters for the Location of the top and left corners, the number of rows and columns, the number of rows and columns to span, and the screen to place the window on. The subroutine basically does the needed calculations to position the window.

The subroutine itself is given here:

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What this basically does is:

  • Check to make sure we gave a screen to put the window on. If we did not, I have a subroutine that figures out what screen the window is current on, and assumes we are just repositioning the window on that screen. I use that for various macros that use this subroutine to position a window on its current screen, so that those macros don’t have to explicit figure out what screen the window is on.
  • Call my “Sub: Calculate Window Coordinates” to figure out where the window goes on that screen.
  • Move the window there.

Finally, the macro to figure out window coordinates:

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The majority of this macro is actually just checking the various inputs to make sure they all make sense, like you haven’t specified 0 or -5 rows or that the starting position plus the span doesn’t exceed the number of elements, so that the window will fit on the screen (you might not have wanted that; you might want to position a window on a screen so part of it hangs off, but I don’t, so I make sure that won’t happen).

The mean of this is at the end with formula like:
MAX(FLOOR(Local_screen.Left + (Local_screen.Width / Local_horizontalGrid * (Local_horizontalLocation-1)) + Local_margin), Local_screen.Left)
Which compute the various coordinates of the window.

There are other macros like the one that finds out the screen the front window is on (this is defined by the location of the top left corner, by looping through every screen and checking to see if the top left is on that window. A window is assumed to be “on” the screen where its top left corner is located.

There is also a subroutine that positions a window but takes the parameters as a JSON object instead of as individual arguments, as that is useful in some places.

I have a bunch of macros to put windows in various places like top half, left third, etc. Many of those are tied to buttons on my StreamDeck.

If this is of interest to you or anyone else I can post the macros for downloading. Caveat emptor. They work for me, but I cannot guarantee there are no bugs. Worst case, however, is that a window winds up in the wrong spot - I don’t see a way to hurt anything more than that.

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10

Thanks! I downloaded and installed Stay before leaving for vacation. I saved my setup, then disconnected my laptop. However, when I reconnected the machine to the dock when I got home, and Stay restored the windows, Monitor 1 was fine, but the Spaces on Monitor 2 were all crammed into one. Is there a setting I missed? Do you, or anyone on this board, use Stay that can help? Thanks!

11

Here is a separate issue. Although Stay saved my windows before disconnecting from the docking station, the Spaces for both monitors were jumbled together, and not grouped by monitor either. I was hesitant to rearrange the Spaces to group them together for fear of that screwing up anything when I reconnected to the docking station. What do you all do with the Spaces and apps on the laptop while it’s disconnected from the docking station? Thanks!

12

This is a problem I had/have too. My only solution so far has been to make my external display the primary display when docked and manually move any Spaces that are on my MBP over to the external display before undocking (and move them back after docking). It’s not an ideal solution but it keeps things where I put them when docking/undocking. This is something that I do usually only a couple of times per day so it’s not terrible.

13

I’m traveling thus the delayed reply. And I’m not at my Mac so I can’t try things.

I think my use case is a bit different than yours. I have four monitors and ten spaces. Note the spaces are shared across the monitors. I share one of the monitors with my work windows laptop, switching back to the Mac at the end of the work day.

My windows move as set up in Stay and do so across the spaces. I’ve not had them bunch together as you describe.