Some Apple apps may not present themselves properly on extra-large virtual screens (beyond 8K) on pre-Sequoia installations

[nrichers]

Not sure if bug or operator error, but I ran into a weird snag with the Messages app and some other Apple apps (like Clock): they refuse to open on the dummy being mirrored to the physical display and just stay hidden. If you stop mirroring, they will pop up, sometimes with a few seconds delay. There's no way to manually move the app windows to where you can see it, though they will appear correctly if you discard and recreate the dummy for a short while, before disappearing again. If you force click the app icon in the dock when it's hidden, you get a "No Available Windows" message.

M2 Pro 14" Macbook
Samsung QN800B 8K w/ 6K HiDPI dummy
Ventura 13.4.1
BetterDisplay 1.4.15

Things I've tried: delete & recreate dummy (works for a short while), streaming vs mirroring, reconnecting, setting dummy as main display, changing association, disable HiDPI, opening apps while holding Shift, clear NVRAM.

There don't seem to be other open or closed issues for this behaviour, though #435 looks somewhat related, except that the Rectangle trick mentioned there doesn't work for me.

I also just want to say that BetterDisplay is GREAT. I'm on the Pro version and use it every day to make an 8K TV usable as my main display on my MacBooky. Other than this weird behaviour with some Apple apps, it's been working amazingly well.

[waydabber]

Indeed, unfortunately there are some Apple first-party apps that do not seem to like Dummies with larger framebuffer than what is normally possible in macOS. A 6K HiDPI dummy needs a 12K wide framebuffer while normally the max for the Mac is 8K. Since this is probably an untested scenario (bug) in these apps, there is nothing much you can do about it I am afraid. :(

[waydabber]

(note: thanks for the kind words! :))

[waydabber]

I'll close this issue as all Known issues, but it will be accessible through the pinned "Known issues list":

#992

[johnkrzywanek]

Is there some workaround for this issue? Especially for Messages app?

For example to force it to start on another monitor and avoid virtual display altogether?

I've tried to recreate the virtual display but to no avail, as soon as the app is moved to this screen (and its moving automatically while changing main display settings), it hangs and is immovable.

[nrichers]

Is there some workaround for this issue? Especially for Messages app?

Version 2 of BetterDisplay seems to be a big improvement in this regard, though I am not exactly sure why (i.e. BetterDisplay alone or if Apple also updated macOS). All the Apple apps that didn't open correctly before now open fine for me, including Messages. I currently run a 5K HiDPI resolution scaled to 8K.

On the downside, my MacBook still freezes and crashes semi-regularly when I run BetterDisplay. I haven't looked into what exactly causes the kernel panics, but it's usually a hang followed by the heartbeat detection timing out, followed by a restart.

[waydabber]

Unfortunately this seems to be a macOS bug espeically in apps that use Apple's Catalyst framework. Not much to do about it. Generally MacOS is not tested by apple for 8K+ screens as officially it has no support for it.

[waydabber]

This issue is now resolved as Apple finaly ventures beyond 8K desktops on Apple Silicon (to enable AVP's new ultra-wide screen) in macOS 15.2

[nrichers]

@waydabber sure enough, that works! Thank you so much for the comment on this old issue, without it I would never have known — much appreciated.