I have a mac1air. If I use an apple Multiport adapter to connect an external monitor and power my computer. Can I use the other macair usbc with a usbc to hdmi connector to hook up a second external monitor? Will this work?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Connecting Two External monitors to my M1 Mac Air
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.6
There are plenty of display adapters that allow you to connect multiple displays to an M1 MacBook Air, but those multiple displays will all show the same thing. Read the specs/details, note how the option for two separate displays is only for Windows.
The only way to drive a second external display as an extended desktop is to use a dock with a software workaround, a 'hack' typified by DisplayLink software that generally gives mediocre video performance (ok for spreadsheets, not for anything with real motion) and is subject to periods of not working after a macOS update when the 3rd party drivers have not caught up.
There are plenty of display adapters that allow you to connect multiple displays to an M1 MacBook Air, but those multiple displays will all show the same thing. Read the specs/details, note how the option for two separate displays is only for Windows.
The only way to drive a second external display as an extended desktop is to use a dock with a software workaround, a 'hack' typified by DisplayLink software that generally gives mediocre video performance (ok for spreadsheets, not for anything with real motion) and is subject to periods of not working after a macOS update when the 3rd party drivers have not caught up.
No.
The M1 MacBook Air only supports one external display regardless of how you connect them.
click here ➜ MacBook Air (M1, 2020) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support
The bottom line is that if you want to use >1 external display, buy a Mac that is natively capable of driving >1 external display.
How many displays can be connected to MacBook Pro - Apple Support
The only M-series Mac notebooks that support driving two external displays at the same time as the built-in screen are those with Pro chips, Max chips, or plain M4 chips.
Those with plain M3 chips can drive two external monitors IF you close the lid, allowing reallocation of resources normally used to drive the built-in screen.
Because the M4 MacBook Air only has two multi-purpose USB-C ports, taking advantage of its ability to drive two external displays may be impractical unless you have a dock.
As mentioned, there are work arounds and they may work in certain cases, but results may vary and be less than stellar or only allow mirroring.
For those that do work in extended desktop mode, its likely to introduce lag, which may not be consequential for static content like word processing documents or spreadsheets, but may cause issues with moving content like videos, movies or games.
Also, since it's not supported by Apple, you are on your own with whatever issues you encounter wile using these solutions.
drbro wrote:
Thank you for replying. I am seeing several you tube videos showing that by using a display adapter allows a double monitor setup. Do you not believe this to be a work around to the limitation of an M1?
Maybe.
Someone may have gotten it to work, but it is not supported by Apple.
Thank you for replying. I am seeing several you tube videos showing that by using a display adapter allows a double monitor setup. Do you not believe this to be a work around to the limitation of an M1?
Thanks all for the education. I was trying to find a low cost alternative to more display. Wish I had known the limitation when I bought the Mac. It was my transition fromMS to mac and multiple monitirs was not a problem. Thanks for your help.
Can I connect two external monitors to my MacBook Air M1?
