Two monitors connected - but one at once?

Software
1

Is there a way to have two monitors connected to an M4 Mac mini, but switch one off and only use one at a time?

I have two monitors on my desk. One is my main ultra wide monitor. This has my Mac and work laptop attached via two different HDMI leads. I have a Raspberry Pi portable monitor on my desk as well, and this currently is connected to a Windows PC, which runs during the day to play music.

I would like to add both screens to my Mac, so that during the day, it only displays on the RPi monitor and then the evening, it only displays on the Ultra Wide. Playing around with having them both connected, there doesn’t seem to be a way to disable a screen within the display settings page and I don’t want to be changing cables over each time. Turning a monitor off doesn’t “disconnect” it from the Mac and the Mac still tries to display to it, meaning windows get lost/hidden. I tried a HDMI splitter, but that didn’t seem to work (might give it another go however).

Is this possible?

2

This is very odd to me. When I turn one of my dual monitors off, the computer treats it as though it’s no longer connected.

3

It is definitely possible.

I have four monitors connected to my Mac Studio. One is shared with a Windows laptop for work, a Raspberry Pi, and two Intel Mac minis (one with macOS, one with Linux). The shared monitor is connected via HDMI, and the five machines connect to the monitor through an HDMI switch.

The HDMI switch came with a remote control, and I can easily switch between computers as needed. Although most of the time I use Jump Desktop to work with the Pi and Minis.

4

Just tried it with both monitors - each monitor still shows within the Display settings and the Mac thinks it’s still attached, as the windows don’t move between monitors - I can also move the mouse cursor off screen (and on to the shut off monitor).

Not sure if it’s because one is connected via HDMI > USB C adapter.

However, this morning whilst search, I came across Lunar, which seems to work using their Blackout mode and I’ve stumbled upon a Reddit thread which suggests that BetterDisplay can do this as well which I’ve already bought, and a Homebrew option, so I’ve got some playing around to do this evening!

5

Just to add here as a solution, I found BetterDisplay supports disabling and enabling the monitors, and something I didn’t realise, it has a plethora of actions for Shortcuts, so now I’ve got a button setup on my Streamdeck that runs a shortcut that will change the screens as needed and run Ice (as the little monitor doesn’t have enough space for my menu bar!)

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