MacOS – Closing Macbook lid changes external screen to primary

big surmacbook promacos

I've recently got a new Macbook with Big Sur and I'm observing some different behaviour compared to my old Macbook with Catalina.

I have an external monitor connected as a secondary display and I have a video player streaming on full-screen on it. When I close the lid, on Catalina my video keeps playing on the external secondary display, however on my new laptop when I close the lid the external display turns into primary, and I'm seeing my laptop's windows rather than the video.

Any ideas what might be causing this?

Best Answer

Again, another stab at the dark here: Either: (Easy route) remove the monitor's cable from the computer/ or manually put it to sleep OR open up your terminal and write the command 'pmset -g'

it will display your current power management settings.

from then on you could try disabling lidwake, acwake or messing around with the gpu switch option(though, honestly i think its only related to either enforcing dedicated or external/separate internal gpu settings ).

Also, try disabling the darkwake option.(which is not listed within pmset's man pages but you can google your way thru understanding it) pmset -c darkwake 0

  • Note: all pmset values require sudo access
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