Hi. I've just upgraded to Big Sur from Mojave. I use a 40" external monitor with my MacBook Pro which has a resolution of 3840x2160. It has been fine with no issues. The monitor works well and the screen resolution was set to the highest 'More Space' setting in System Preferences giving masses of screen space at a high resolution. However, today I adjusted the scaled resolution setting to see what it was like. Decided I wanted to go back to my high resolution and when i went back in to System Preferences and set it to maximum 'more space' on the scale it won't display the same high resolution as I had before. Everything is larger on the screen than before despite the setting being set to maximum 'More space'. I've tried resetting my laptop but no luck. Still can't get back to the 3840x2160 setting I have had for years. Therefore all my windows that were set up for the higher resolution are now all too big. Any help much appreciated. Many thanks.
Big Sur - external display resolution issues.
- Thread starter savs77
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It's a MBP 15" 2019 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9. The monitor is a 40" Ilyama PL4071UH.
Think I may have fixed the issue now. II haven't solved the problem myself. However, I downloaded SwitchRexX last night and that has solved the issue for now. I had a look online and noticed a few folks having issues with external monitors and Big Sur. I assume its something that will be resolved in an update.
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Okay, great. Thanks for posting back.
And it seems you're correct about Big Sur and external monitor problems. I just read several more posts in another forum regarding setting up various monitors with Big Sur. Perhaps Apple will address some of that in the 11.1 update.
And it seems you're correct about Big Sur and external monitor problems. I just read several more posts in another forum regarding setting up various monitors with Big Sur. Perhaps Apple will address some of that in the 11.1 update.
Having had a quick look at this again I noticed a slight change in system preferences. When I originally installed Big Sur my monitor worked with the highest resolution, no problem. Then when I changed it to a lower resolution and tried to change it back I lost the option for the highest resolution. If you look at the screenshots below (the one in dark mode is my MacBook pro and light mode is just a standard screen grab) you can see I have lost one of the 5 options / icons on the scale between 'Larger Text' and 'More Space'. I only now have 4 'icons' or resolutions to choose from instead of 5. Seems odd that it worked originally but then wouldn't give me the option once I'd changed it.
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Have you tried turning off the 40" monitor, reboot your MacBook Pro, turn on the monitor and let it be detected again?
I've not no. But may give that a try. To be honest it's working by using SwitchRexX so will no doubt stick with that going forward.
Thanks for your help. Much appreciated. Hope the above is useful to somebody else too.
Just tried it. No luck.
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As long as SwitchResX is working for you, continue to use it. However, I find it strange that the monitor or display preferences will not allow you to go back to the higher resolution.
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BTW: I'm sure not knocking SwitchRexX.app, and we needed to use it for several years, but you might want to try using the cheaper Display Maestro.app and see if it might work for you. Available in the Apple store or from the developer's site.
It provides resolution changes and options directly from the Apple Menu.
I just thought I would mention you may have a cheaper option.
- Patrick
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