FCPX select a specific secondary monitor on a 3-monitor setup pot luck - no Apple Support

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FCPX select a specific secondary monitor on a 3-monitor setup pot luck - no Apple Support

Main professional display in the middle, with two USB 3 displays on each side. All working well, all fed from a separate USB port on a MAC Pro M2 Max... but I am not allowed to choose which screen to use as the secondary screen. One day it will be the left-hand screen, the next day the right-hand screen... Apple doesn't allow you to choose which screen will be your second-day screen. Apple's support regarding this is nonexistent. Does anyone know of a workaround that allows me to choose which secondary screen I can use?

Mac Studio, macOS 15.7

Posted on Dec 15, 2025 9:30 AM

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Answer 1

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Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

73,188 points

Dec 15, 2025 10:04 AM in response to austenlennon

We get this question from time to time.

Yes, there is a way to make it work. It is not as elegant as it would be if FCP would just let you choose the secondary display, but that is how things are.

Let's say, as an example, that you want to put the main window in the center display, and use the display on the left as the secondary display.

Note: this assumes "Displays have separate Spaces" is turned ON; from your screenshot it looks like maybe you have that setting off, which will have an impact on the usability of this workaround ****

1) In System Settings->Displays, click "Arrange..." and drag the little representation of the menu bar to the left display

2) Start FCP on the center display (*)

3) Window->Show in Secondary Display->(what you want there)

Done.

(*) There are several ways to do that. I typically click the menu bar in that display, and launch FCP via command-space; and you can, of course, just drag the main FCP window if it lands on the wrong display.

Another possibility is to select the third display as "AV Output", if it is offered as a possibility. This would remove it from consideration as a secondary display. It only works, AFAIK, for 1080 or 4K monitors (possibly connected via HDMI, not sure if it works over USB-C).

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