2020 Macbook Pro will not recognize any HDMI connection running Mac OS Big Sur

Prior to downloading and installing Mac OS Big Sur, I was able to connect my 2020 Macbook pro to any HDMI monitor/tv. Specifically I would mostly use a Dell se2717 monitor. It would connect within a few seconds and there was never any issues. Once downloaded and installed Big Sur to my computer it no longer recognized any HDMI monitor/tv. I have tried different adapters to connect the HDMI cable to my USB-C ports; different USB-C ports with all the adapters; and tried every trouble shoot I could find from Apple, Dell, and various websites. Is there anything I can do to fix this issue?
  • Not sure if this helps. My HDMI through a multi function USB-C device (Network, USB and HDMI) stopped working after 11.4 upgrade.

    I have a second monitor working through a Display cable to a USB C adapter. So I am not using HDMI and I am not using the multi function USB-C adapter for display. The USB and Network still continued to work.

    Years ago, I had a case where an update stopped third party adapters from working but an Apple brand adapter would work. What a pain.

    Good luck.

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My fix was to use Displayport, I bought a cheap USB-C to Displayport adapter and the monitor works fine. -> https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-879587235-cable-adaptador-conversor-usb-tipo-c-a-displayport-hembra-_JM

👎 HDMI there is no way, does not work, I reinstalled to Catalina, also Big Sur and now I have Monterrey, no HDMI adapter or trick of refresh/ unplug works on my Macbook PRO 2019 with 4 USB-C ports. 👎

Thanks that my new monitor has the displayport input

I acquired less than a month ago a new Macbook pro 14 M1 , prior to this I used to work with different Mac Books ( intel based ones ) connecting external monitors ( two monitors ) via docking stations . It worked pretty well. After migrating to this new Macbook I tried to use the same dock station ( Baseus 7 in 1 USB type c ) , that has two HDMI ports. To my surprise , despite having two external DELL monitors connected ( obviously each of them in each of the two HDMI ports ; both same model ) the system only recognizes one !!! I have tried whatever I could to make it work but no success , both monitors simply “mirror” each other as if I had just one external device . My way around was to unplug one of the monitors from the Baseus docking station ( wich by the way was connected to one of the 3  built in USB-c ports) , and connect it directly in the HDMI built in port in the Macbook , it worked ! I also tested using instead another USB-c port with an HDMI adapter and it also worked too ! My conclusion is that regardless how many HDMI ports one’s adapter or docking station has , if such device is connected via USB-c port , it only “reads” as if there is one single monitor plugged into it ! two use more than one external monitor ( extended ) , one has two use another port , being either USB-c or HDMI builtin directly ! ( I use Mac OS Monterey 12.0.1 ) . Hope this helps

  • Sadly, my MB Pro lacks an HDMI built-in port. I was previously not using Big Sur and everything was fine... but when I switched to a new laptop that runs Big Sur OS, it displayed two mirror external devices instead of separating one from the other. . Hope Apple fix this issue.

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I have the same problem, uploaded OS Monterey, no difference. The problem occured after we bought a new Panasonic TX40-JX850, we did not have this issue with our 10 year old Samsung led TV. Nevertheless I resolved the problem with the Airbeam TV mirroring app, no hustle with cables, passes image/sound from Macbook Air to TV screen wireless through my Wifi network. Cost friendly $/€ 9,99, same price as a HDMI cable. Their helpdesk is very responsive as I had an issue with no image on my TV screen, turned out to be my Safari browser, with Firefox no problems. One can find the app at https://www.airbeam.tv, one can test before buying.

Same. I have a ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock Gen 2 with 2x Dell D3218HN displays connected to it's HDMI ports, and a USB2 (well not USB-C) mouse. I just upgraded the Dock firmware to the latest firmware.

When connected to a Dell laptop both displays work fine. When connected directly to my MacBook Pro 16" 2021 the displays work fine (one by HDMI the other by USB-C). But when I connect the Dock to my Mac the mouse works fine, but the displays flicker on for a fraction of a second every 30 seconds or so and remain dark between.

For all the experiments the display resolutions were 1920x1080.

I have 5 different monitors that work just fine on Windows, but with MacBook Pro M1 Monterey, all of them show black screen except one. Hardware diagnostic says that there is nothing wrong with my hardware, so what would be the solution for this?

  • For me troubleshoot occurred when using a no name hdmi splitter and the two external monitors had different maximum resolution (one is 1080p and one 2k) . The signal from usb-c adapter was on/off and none of the external monitor was recognised. I've tried using just one monitor whitout any splitter but signal was on/off and external monitor not recognised . The solution was to reset system manager controller . After that using just one external monitor whitout any splitter was back to normal

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Hello everybody, I've been struggling to connect my macbook pro to my external monitor for hours.. but I finally found a fix that worked for me.

I connected the monitor to the laptop using a USB C adapter and a HDMI cable. What I did was:

  1. After having connected both devices, go to System preferences/Display/Display settings... (bottom left)
  2. Select your external monitor
  3. Change the value of "Use as:" from "extended" to "mirror.."
  4. Change back by clicking "stop mirroing" in the same field
  5. It should bring back the "extended" option and the monitor will now work properly

Hope it helps, cheers

This came up as first hit when searching for my issue with Visiontek usb hub model#:901147 not working for display outputs on MBP 2017 15-inch Ventura 13.1. In case it helps anyone, downloading the latest DisplayLink driver from synaptic.com solved it for me. Initially, looked up the product page on Visiontek's website and its "Drivers" section referred to download this driver.

I had the same problem till I realized, the issue was the MacBook couldn't detect the correct refresh rate for the monitor and was using an unsupported value even though the existence of the monitor was detected. Going to display settings and changing the refresh rate in my case from 144Hz to 120Hz fixed the issue.

My setup had two exact same monitors, one connected via a HDMI to USBC cable and another connected via an HDMI->HDMI->USB-C adapter. It only detected the correct refresh rate for the latter. The first screen showed up in arrange displays but the screen wasn't working.

  • Just wanted to state that this fix helped for me, also while using a USB-C to HDMI adapter. For me, changing the refresh rate alone was not sufficient, I also needed to switch to mirrored screen and then back to extended again to make it work.

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