Apple does this on purpose of course as they expect their customers to upgrade to a MBP if dual monitor support is needed. The base M1/M2 chips lack the graphics engine to drive a second display, so it's inherently designed that way and not merely a feature they withheld and could add back later. It is one of the very few hard limitations the Air series has and with how close the MBP 14" pricing can get even a base model MBP would drive two Studio Displays just fine, or two XDR Displays.
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Macbook Air M2 and 2 Apple Studio Displays
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@jknorwood it's amazing that you were able to get it set up! I myself am trying to do the same thing. I have an M1 Macbook Air (stuck with it due to work, or else I'd have bought my own) --
Can you please guide us on how to use the DisplayLink software to get the second ASD working? Right now, I do have DisplayLink installed on my Macbook, however when I plug in the second ASD - it does not recognize it as a DisplayLink Device. See below screenshot:
![1693451001065.png]( "1693451001065.png")
Can you please help me out here? I've been struggling with this for the past few days, and my second ASD is literally sitting there staring at me with puppy dog eyes.
Can you please guide us on how to use the DisplayLink software to get the second ASD working? Right now, I do have DisplayLink installed on my Macbook, however when I plug in the second ASD - it does not recognize it as a DisplayLink Device. See below screenshot:
Can you please help me out here? I've been struggling with this for the past few days, and my second ASD is literally sitting there staring at me with puppy dog eyes.
I tried to follow these instructions and specifications with a Stardock, as well as a DisplayLink adapter, but I did not have any luck.I installed Display Link and plugged them in the TB4 ports - it was was pretty straightforward.
This is basically what I did, but for a M2.
Everything You Need to Run Multiple Monitors from Your M1 MacBook
You can use the M1 MacBook Pro or Air with more than one external monitor with this workaround.www.howtogeek.com
I also tried to install DisplayLink software and connected my Macbook Air M1 to both ASDs using 1 Thunderbolt cable each - and this did not work either.
Do you mind sharing your Macbook side connections and how you connected them to each ASD? I think we're missing something obvious and important here, but you seemed to have cracked the code
What they proposed won't work. What can work is that you plug in the first ASD directly into the Macbook, and then a DisplayLink adapter into the hub on that first ASD, then connect the second ASD through that. The USB ports on the second ASD won't be usable of course. And the crucial thing is that the DisplayLink adapter needs to support the 5k resolution as well as the supported modes to drive the display at all.Do you mind sharing your Macbook side connections and how you connected them to each ASD? I think we're missing something obvious and important here, but you seemed to have cracked the code
nd I honestly don't know if such an adapter exists, AFAIK 5k@60Hz has a bandwith requirement of 22Gbps, and the USB ports do 10Gbps. DisplayLink utilizes compression and lowers the quality a bit to get all that across and for 4k the adapters exist. But I would assume that compressing 22Gbps into literally half that bandwidth would not end up looking good and would negate the benefit of acquiring a second ASD in the first place.
So whichever way you slice it, driving the ASD over DisplayLink doesn't seem feasible. Regardless, what the user mentioned with plugging both ASD directly into an Air, that just can't work. If you already have a second ASD replacing the Air with a 14" Pro, even an older M1 version, would make sense. Or adding a M2 Mini, I think even the cheapest version supports two ASD.
Not sure if people are still interested in this topic, but I finally made it working: MacBook Air with M2 chip and two Studio Displays (all three can be individual screen, you can also close the laptop lid and only use two Studio Displays). It is still a bit pailful and not very stable, but I will share what I did.
It is not straightforward, and took me many trial and errors (thanks to free return policy!) I believe someone in this post earlier also made it working, but did mention detailed steps. So I would like to explain what I did:
1. Install the display link software, I believe I used this: https://www.synaptics.com/products/displaylink-graphics/downloads/macos (make sure to follow the installation instructions to allow some permissions to the software)
2. Buy one displaylink adaptor (make sure the adaptor supports displaylink). I used this: https://www.amazon.com/WAVLINK-DisplayPort-Displaylink-Splitter-Compatible/dp/B0CTSFL3JC
The ironic thing is that if you just want to connect two displays, getting this one only probably is good enough. But if you want to connect two Studio Displays, you need to get item 3 below:
3. Buy one (you don't need two) bidirectional (I think bidirectional is important here) usb c to display port cable. I used this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J6DT070?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_L1JTZSP58UXPI9MH7KM3
Now you have software and hardware ready, let's do the connection part (also very tricky)
4. Connect ASD1 to your MBA just through the thunder port
5. Connect displaylink adaptor to the usb c hub port of ASD1
6. Connect the display port end of the cable to the displaylink adaptor, and the usb c end to ASD2 thunderbolt port
7. By default, ASD2 will still be black, but if you give up here, you will miss the miracle part. So now go to system preference -> display, and confirm it detects two ASDs
8. Select ADS2 and turn on "Show all resolutions"
9. Select “1920 x 1080 (low resolution)" (Don't know why it is called "low resolution", but other options won't work) Wait for maybe up to 10 seconds! And your ASD2 should light up!
10. In DisplayLink Manager, you can turn on experimental 3008x and 2560x mode, which will gives you higher resolution choices in system preference (I think highest it can support is 3008 x 1692 (low resolution), but every time switching resolution, you may need to wait up to 10 seconds ..).
Above should help you get two ASDs with MBA M2. There are many things still not perfect, like I don't think it can go up to 5K, and the experimental 3008x and 2560x sometimes will stop working for me, so the stable resolution I can get is only 1920 x 1080 ... And also you may notice that we only need one display port for the displaylink adaptor. But I couldn't find such configuration. There might be other solutions, but this is least cost one the I found so far!
It is not straightforward, and took me many trial and errors (thanks to free return policy!) I believe someone in this post earlier also made it working, but did mention detailed steps. So I would like to explain what I did:
1. Install the display link software, I believe I used this: https://www.synaptics.com/products/displaylink-graphics/downloads/macos (make sure to follow the installation instructions to allow some permissions to the software)
2. Buy one displaylink adaptor (make sure the adaptor supports displaylink). I used this: https://www.amazon.com/WAVLINK-DisplayPort-Displaylink-Splitter-Compatible/dp/B0CTSFL3JC
The ironic thing is that if you just want to connect two displays, getting this one only probably is good enough. But if you want to connect two Studio Displays, you need to get item 3 below:
3. Buy one (you don't need two) bidirectional (I think bidirectional is important here) usb c to display port cable. I used this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J6DT070?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_L1JTZSP58UXPI9MH7KM3
Now you have software and hardware ready, let's do the connection part (also very tricky)
4. Connect ASD1 to your MBA just through the thunder port
5. Connect displaylink adaptor to the usb c hub port of ASD1
6. Connect the display port end of the cable to the displaylink adaptor, and the usb c end to ASD2 thunderbolt port
7. By default, ASD2 will still be black, but if you give up here, you will miss the miracle part. So now go to system preference -> display, and confirm it detects two ASDs
8. Select ADS2 and turn on "Show all resolutions"
9. Select “1920 x 1080 (low resolution)" (Don't know why it is called "low resolution", but other options won't work) Wait for maybe up to 10 seconds! And your ASD2 should light up!
10. In DisplayLink Manager, you can turn on experimental 3008x and 2560x mode, which will gives you higher resolution choices in system preference (I think highest it can support is 3008 x 1692 (low resolution), but every time switching resolution, you may need to wait up to 10 seconds ..).
Above should help you get two ASDs with MBA M2. There are many things still not perfect, like I don't think it can go up to 5K, and the experimental 3008x and 2560x sometimes will stop working for me, so the stable resolution I can get is only 1920 x 1080 ... And also you may notice that we only need one display port for the displaylink adaptor. But I couldn't find such configuration. There might be other solutions, but this is least cost one the I found so far!