MacOS not remembering monitor position when I switch KVM input

KVM Model:

1.4 Display Port KVM Switch - Dual Monitor - Two Computer

USB Interface (5-gigabit or 10-gigbit):

10-gigbit


Problem:

MacOS will reset the monitor position, orientation, refresh rate, and primary display nearly every time I switch computers on the KVM. I’m not blaming the KVM at all, it works great with my Windows 11 desktop as the other computer. I’m just wondering if there is a software fix or setting I can apply in MacOS.

Other Notes:

I’m using a M3 Pro Macbook Pro. The only cable attached is a single thunderbolt 4 usb c cable to a thunderbolt 4 dock. From the dock, I’m using two thunderbolt ports as the display outs and connecting usb c to display port cables and then attaching to the kvm.

The monitors are both 165hz. My primary is a 3840x1600 ultrawide and the secondary is 2560x1440 that is vertical (1440x2560). When using the Macbook, I use the laptop display as a 3rd display. When using the Windows desktop, I’m only using the two monitors attached to the kvm.

This part is a nit pick and might be a thunderbolt issue rather than a kvm, so feel free to ignore. MacOS is seemingly assigning monitor “priority” to the external monitors at random. The ultrawide can be 165hz and the vertical 85hz. Or the ultrawide can be 144hz and the vertical 165hz. The two profiles switch at random. Again this isn’t a huge deal since my laptop is for productivity and not for gaming, but I would like to be able to control it if I can.

laptop open or closed? generally macs don’t move the windows around anymore

Yeah this seems to be an older mac issue like 2022 era. Have you tried disabling sleep? That was the solution back then:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253493871?answerId=256538962022&sortBy=best#256538962022

Laptop is usually open, but I will sometimes unplug it from the thunderbolt dock and close it to work somewhere else

Thanks I’ll try that

That seems to have done it, I’ve gone 2 days without the monitors reseting. Thanks again for your help!

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Welcome :slight_smile: glad we could help ya. Also interesting to know this is an issue that’s not fully prevented in newer gens like they claim

Update: So the monitors continue to reset position every so often, even if I just reboot the Mac. The issue seems to be that Macos is randomly reseting the Persistent screenIds of each monitor, but I’ve come up with a quick manual fix.

I found a program called displayplacer that sets monitor settings via CLI. I then plugged my custom displayplacer command into Macos Automator to create a .app I can quickly run from spotlight or on login. Next step will be to find a way to run it each time Macos detects a monitor change (i.e. when I switch the KVM input).