Macbook Air 13" will not display on iMAC 27"

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Level 1

8 points

Macbook Air 13" will not display on iMAC 27"

Cannot get my MacBook Air to display on my iMac. I'm connecting with a brand new thunderbolt cable from Apple. I have a late 2014 iMac 5K 27" and a early 2015 MacBook Air. Trying to use a thunderbolt 2 cable to connect them so i can use the iMac as a larger display for the laptop. I've run through every troubleshooting test I can find on the web. no luck. I never see the arrangement tab in the display preferences. I did check the thunderbolt ports on both machines and they do say "Device connected"

I've also tried:

restarting both machines

disconnecting and reconnecting the cable

Option F2 Detect Displays

and other recommendations i can't even remember them all.

Any ideas anyone? please help me stay sane.

Posted on May 22, 2020 6:11 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BDAqua

Level 10

245,471 points

May 22, 2020 8:06 PM in response to Zimbo_1

Doesn't work with Retina Display iMacs I hear.
27-inch iMac models introduced in 2009 and 2010: Use a Mini DisplayPort cable to connect your iMac to a Mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 port on the other Mac.
All iMac models introduced in 2011, 2012, 2013, and mid 2014: Use a Thunderbolt cable to connect your iMac to a Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 port on the other Mac. If the other Mac uses Thunderbolt 3, you can use the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter with your cable.

Target display mode requires macOS High Sierra or earlier on the iMac used as the external display. It does not work with macOS Mojave or later.

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Answer 2

Zimbo_1 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 23, 2020 8:38 AM in response to Allan Jones

I appreciate the link but wanted to let you know that II followed your link, but my iMac and MacBook air meet all the requirements to work with the extended display mode. I've troubleshot everything in that link as well as every other link I can find. I'm using HighSierra 10.13.6 which is still supposed to be compatible and both machines are thunderbolt 2. I can find nothing that explains why this isn't working. The one thing I have noticed is that the display arrangement tab is gone. I did check the system and both ports recognize that they are connected.

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