Menu bar shrinks after disconnecting the external display

[mbianchihr]

Hello, I have had issues for few days now my menu bar totally disregards the notch (renders items behind it ) and is totally of a wrong scale/size. Makes the internal screen really hard to use, however works fine on external displays.

Nothing special in settings.

I have found two other occurrences of the same issues on reddit and apple forums without any resolution, I could not find any mention of menu or menubar or shrinkage or small on issues here.

Same issue found elsewhere:

-> https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1b4nkrt/how_to_prevent_betterdisplay_from_shrinking_my/
-> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255568210?sortBy=best

Thanks, apologies if issue is already open under some other name/explanation.

[waydabber]

Hi there, wow, this is wild. 😱 Wasn't aware of this.

Which Mac model are you using? Is it the new Air/entry MBP that can repurpose the built-in screen for an external display?

Based on the discussion this seems like a generic macOS issue.

[mbianchihr]

Sorry, should have written down the specs in the first post:

Macbook PRO 14, November 2023
M3 Pro
OSX 14.4 (23E214)

I would also think that this is an OSX issue rather than Better Display ( saw mention of Spectacles with others who had the same issue), but I am sure you would potentially know a bit more.

Edit: Restart seems to resolve it, how long not sure.

[ForsakenHarmony]

I'm having the same issue on an M3 Max MacBook Pro 16 inch

Having to reboot is very frustrating, but I guess it's not something betterdisplay can fix

[lingxi-at-contextual]

Same issue here as well. 16-inch M3 Pro Macbook Pro. Every time I disconnect from external display, my on-device display turns into the exact situation as this post. Reboot works, but it is annoying that you have to spend time doing this.

[mbianchihr]

It has been months now, I have used external displays and laptop ( both clamshell and not ). Past the first time when this happened and I restarted I have not had it happen again. I was planing on closing this but since @lingxi-at-contextual mentioned will leave open for some time now. But I believe it is either fixed or does not happen as often ( last time mentioned in original post ).

[lingxi-at-contextual]

Thanks for keeping this open! I can replicate it every time I did this so I am not sure if it was fixed. I just updated to macOS 15 today so I will let you know if it is eventually fixed after macOS 15 :)

[uwcollin]

I'm also having this same issue on a M2 MBA Ventura 13.4 every time I switch users. Sometimes connected to an external display, sometimes not. Logging out or restarting works, but can be frustrating when you are in the middle of working on something.

[waydabber]

I had it from time to time as well, but gone lately. Had it without BD and soft-disconnect though as well (similar to others) so it is an occasional issue/bug that happens. I don't actually know the exact reason why. Would be a nice feature to be able to replicate it intentionally. :)

[lingxi-at-contextual]

It is a macOS bug instead of software bug. Upgrade to latest macOS 15 resolves this issue entirely.

[Chris-Petty]

I'm not a better display user but this is the first online discussion I've found that is reporting the same issue! Specs:

• 2023 14" 18GB M3 Macbook Pro
• macOS 14.6.1

Similarly it happens to me after using some of the external projectors via usb type c hubs around my office. Reboot is the only thing I've found to fix it.

I'll try macOS 15, hopefully that stops this occurring...