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June 4th, 2021 11:00

U2721DE, U2722DE, MacBook Pro, daisy chain?

Hey all! I am trying to connect two external monitors to my MacBook. The monitors are U2721DE and U2722DE, with a MacBook Pro that only has USB-C plugs (at least I think that is what they are). I tried plugging in a bunch of things and nothing works lol. Please help! 

4 Operator

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14K Posts

June 4th, 2021 11:00

@Notgreatwithtech  macOS still doesn’t support daisy chaining, so you’ll need to connect each display directly to the system. The USB-C to USB-C cables that should have come with each display should get the job done. They’ll carry video, power, and USB data all over that single cable. Your MacBook of course won’t use both of them as power sources simultaneously though. If you still don’t have anything working, make sure the displays are set to their USB-C input, then check System Preferences > Display to see if they’re detected at all. As a general tip when requesting assistance on a forum, it helps to provide information that people here who are willing to help can work with. So specifying the exact system model you have, e.g. MacBook Pro 15” Mid-2019 or whatever, is often a good idea. And a problem report of just “it’s not working” gives people absolutely nothing to work with here. Be specific about what behavior you’re seeing or not seeing, exactly what you’ve tested in terms of cabling, etc. Help us help you.

June 4th, 2021 12:00

Thank you! Is there an adaptor I can buy to avoid directly plugging into my MacBook? 

4 Operator

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14K Posts

June 4th, 2021 12:00

@Notgreatwithtech  If you want to run two displays independently (meaning not in Mirror mode) from a macOS system, the only way to do that is with a device that relies on Thunderbolt, which is capable of carrying two independent GPU interfaces over a single cable, and therefore the Mac can allocate a full interface to each display.  (PCs can run 3-4 displays this way.)  If you only care about display functionality, then you could get a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter, but then the connection would only be carrying video, meaning you would not be receiving power from either display, nor would you have a USB data path between your system and the displays if you wanted to plug any USB peripherals into the USB ports built into the displays.  If you want power, USB data, and dual displays all over a single cable from a macOS system, you'd need a full Thunderbolt 3 docking station.  CalDigit makes a few solid options, and they're especially popular among Mac users.  But that of course adds a fair amount of cost to your setup, since in that case you'd essentially be ignoring the docking station built into your displays and treating them as normal displays since you'll have a separate docking station between them.  But this is all due to macOS not supporting DisplayPort MST, which means it can't run a daisy chain.  Users have been complaining about this for years on Apple's forums, here, and elsewhere on the Internet.  Ironically if you run Windows on your MacBook through Boot Camp, daisy chaining works fine, so it's an OS limitation, not a hardware issue.

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