Participating Frequently

Answered

Cannot specify which is my "Secondary" monitor.

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
September 22, 2010
20 replies
41846 views

I have 3 monitors attached to a Mac Pro running Lightroom 2.7.

When I enable the Secondary Monitor view feature of Lightroom, it uses the monitor far to my left when I want it to use my calibrated monitor to my right. Any idea how to tell Lightroom to use the other monitor as the Secondary Monitor?

Thanks,

-Ryan.

Correct answer johnrellis

If you have three or more displays, LR 9.2 finally lets you choose which to use as the secondary display. Go to Preferences > Display.

[Use the reply button under the first post to ensure replies sort properly.]

Show previous replies

Stephen Barrante

Inspiring

This issue still persists in CC 2015.

Just hooked up my 3rd display on a MacPro 2013 - two monitors are connected via thunderbolt and the 3rd is an LED TV connected using the HDMI port. For some reasons, similar to the rest of you, it thinks my LED TV should be the second display. This is also contrary to the configuration I have in my OS. Which is from L to R [Dell 24"][Dell24"][LEDTV], with the left most being primary and other dell being secondary, and so on. Really annoying...

A

Anonymous

Why won't anybody from Adobe Lightroom CC 2015 comment on this problem? ... at least acknowledge that it exits and suggest some 'workaround'.

Many of us do our edit and finesse work on two large PC monitors and have a third calibrated color accurate monitor to see the results of our changes ... we need to be able to EASILY assign the Secondary Window to whatever monitor works best for us.

Come on Adobe ... fix this problem .... your product is called CC 2015 after all ... OP first posted the issue in 2010 .... that's five years ago btw :-(

johnrellis

Legend

This is a user-to-user forum in which Adobe product developers rarely participate. There is a long-standing topic on this issue in the official Adobe feedback forum, where developers do occasionally participate: Lightroom: Ability to assign a second monitor with more than 3 monitors. Please add your vote and opinion to that topic, to make it (a little) more likely that Adobe might prioritize the issue.

A

austinman12345

Participant

At the risk of being accused of adding to a very old thread, has this problem been fixed in Lightroom 6? I use Windows 7 with 3 monitors and the secondary window insists on using the laptop monitor, which also happens to be the smallest on my office setup.

Gavin Farrington

Participating Frequently

I'm just playing with this again on Win8.1x64, LR CC 2015.1 (AKA LR 6.1.)

It appears I still can't specify the exact monitor that the secondary screen appears on, but this only applies if you insist on running it in "full screen" mode. You can also run the second screen as a normal window, and this will let you drag it wherever you want. You can manually expand the window to take up the entire screen, which will do what you want, just with a few additional mouse clicks.

A

austinman12345

Participant

I appreciate the response, Gavin. I guess this is not a feature many people use (me included at the moment :-), or there would have been more demand for a fix and Adobe would have done something. @

L

lgardent

Participant

So this thread was started MORE THAN 4 YEARS AGO, and LR's dual monitor support is still basically cosmetic...

I am a photographer, use a macbook pro retina as my working computer, and have an external eizo screen with much better colour fidelity, gamut, etc.. that I would like to use for LR work.

So, the logical way to make the best of both screens would be to have :

- the primary screen (the mac's one, of course) display a grid view and all the tools (whatever module i'm in),

- the secondary screen (the external one) be the work area. (yes WORK, not the current live/locked secondary preview useless BS)

All tools would seat on the primary low fidelity screen, so as to maximize the work estate of the secondary monitor.

ADOBE :

why on earth can't LR be setup this way ?

what is the point in having such a broken dual monitor implementation ?

why isn't it possible to swap primary/secondary monitors ? (without having to f* around in OSX's graphics driver settings...)

=> seriously, lots of photographers work on a powerful laptop, but hook up to an external large gamut monitor. You DO realize it don't you ?

K

khdetw

Participant

This is inexcusable for an application of the caliber of Lightroom. It's incredible that Adobe has apparently still not addressed it in version 5.5.

mppixel

Participant

SOLUTION for NOW... (Im USING 3 Displays)

I had the same problem... I wanted to use the middle monitor as my main screen and LR secondary to open on my right monitor due to my workstation setup... I searched the internet entirely with no luck...

SOLUTION: To remedy this I just disabled my secondary screen from full screen mode so i could manually move it.

LR > Window (Menu) > Secondary Display > Full Screen (Shift+F11) then just move it where you want and stretch it to the max size. If you switch to full screen for the secondary display it will automatically go back to the left display. You can still use the main window in full screen with this modification.

Hope this helps

CHEERS

R

RyanLWilliams

Participant

This is a simple, almost stupid approach to fixing this, but on some cards the outputs are assigned as "1" and "2". I had no luck trying to force my monitors to assign in software (either Windows 7, Lightroom CC or the nvidia control panel). But, when I swapped the cables it reassigned and now I don't have the issue of Lightroom jumping screens anymore.

Kind of a dumb solution but if you're reading this thread and you haven't tried swapping your monitor ports yet... it just might work.

Z

ZR2A

Participating Frequently

I have a similar issue on 3 different PC systems using dual monitors with LR4, one with ATI, two with NVidia. If I place the secondary display at any size smaller than full screen, when I alt-tab to access running programs, LR4 randomly places the secondary window back on the same monitor as the main LR4 prog. It doesn't do this if the secondary window is full screen, only if it's smaller than full screen. Annoying as crap to say the least and sometimes it will work as it should by staying in place but about 2/3's of the time the secondary screen moves.

MT

M

midimid

Known Participant

Pete Marshall's fix worked for me. I have three monitors - L, M, R. I'm using Lucid Logix on an Intel 4000 with a a dedicated graphics card. My two main monitors are connected to the motherboard (HDMI and DVI) and the third comes off the HDMI on my graphics card to my TV. LR4 was always putting the full screen secondary on the the TV (R) rather than my second monitor (M). When I put the main program on M, the secondary monitor became L. The analysis that the secondary is always to the "left" (wrapped) of the main window within the set of monitors seems to be accurate.

Fortunately both of my monitors are identical and perfectly calibrated, so doesn't matter to me which is which, as long as its not on the TV!

A

Anonymous

+1 for same issue on Win 7x64, LR 3.5

I have 3 monitors, arranged as: 17”, 24”, 24” running off a single AMD card DVI, DVI, DisplayPort. Catalyst lables them as #3, #2, #1

The centre 24” inch is primary, and holds the main LR window. Unfortunately the secondary LR window (loupe view) INSISTS on using the small 17” monitor on the left.

I have swapped around cables, swapped the two 24” (DVI vs DisplayPort), changed the AMD Catalyst arrangement by dragging around the monitors, etc, to no avail.

I have moved around the LR windows and can ‘fool’ LR by temporarily placing the main LR window on the 17”, then dragging it to the 24”, and the loupe view stays on the other 24” inch UNTIL LR loses focus, then its back on the 17” again! Ie NOT Sticky.

I really, really hope Adobe resolve this in LR4

G

gabe.mihu

Participating Frequently

Actually this is the only temporary solution I could also find. Move the main window on the left monitor, second window appears on the right monitor, move the main window back on the center monitor.

As stated, it does not hold.

I guess I'll just have to move my monitors around, although I hate doing that, as it messes up my setup.

Gavin Farrington

Participating Frequently

+1 for the same issue on Win7.

Workaround 1: Uncheck "Full Screen" mode (Shift F11,) drag the "secondary" panel to whatever screen you want it on, and size it to take up the entire screen. Not ideal, but for me as long as I never go to full screen mode it will stay put and remember the location and size.

Workaround 2: On my setup, LR always wants to make the secondary screen the one to the immediate left of the current main window. My layout is three screens, L M R. If I put the main window on M, secondary goes to L. If I put the main window on L, secondary goes to R (it wraps like PacMan.) If I put the main window on R, secondary goes to M.

For full details on my adventures with ennumeration and port-swaps, read on...

From left to right, Windows thinks my display order is 2, 1, 3. I want LR on displays M & R (currently 1 & 3) but the secondary goes to display L (currently 2.) I used the catalyst software to "swap" desktops such that the numbering changed to 3, 1, 2, but LR still puts the secondary in the same physical location (display L, now #3.)

Undeterred I uninstalled and disconnected the little display that I don't want involved in the LR game at all. I restarted the machine just on displays M & R. With some dismay, I notice that Windows has reset the numbering that I had previously changed, and now displays M & R are back to showing 1 & 3, even though there is no display 2.

OK so perhaps the numbering assignment is happening at some lower level regardless of tweaks made in the driver, and I need to mess with the ports? (Years ago this was a real thing.)

I start rearranging cables. Display 1 is M just as I want it. I move the cable for display 3 to the port that 2 was on previously. Now display R is #2 just as I want it. I reconnect the final monitor to my last remaining DVI port, and hurray it comes up as display 3!

Now the order is a natural (not driver-tweaked) 3, 1, 2. I launch LR, hit F11, and to my horror guess where the secondary window goes? You guessed it. #3 in the L position. I'm thinking, "damn, LR sure has a crush on little screen!"

At this point it must be something else. I start toying with the position of the secondary screen relative to the main screen, and that's when I come up with the info in my "Workaround 2" shown above.

Hope this is helpful for someone.

Adobe, please let us assign screens within LR!

R

rjstoneus

Participant

+1 for same issue on a Mac. I have 3 monitors arranged something like

[-2-][-1-]

[3]

For some reason it always picks 3, even though 1 and 2 are plugged into the graphics card and 3 is on a DisplayLink USB adapter.

2m91_2

Inspiring

Hi,

I have the same/a similar problem unter windows7. It seems Lightroom always uses the second display of the primary gpu, the shift+F11 helps somehow, but the window cannot be maximized other than by using the keyboard shortcut again, but then it is switching back to the "wrong" monitor. I'd much prefer a "normal" window for the secondary display, that way it I could use it any way I like...

ambienttroutmask

Participating Frequently

Under windows just drag the main window to whichever monitor you want, the secondary display will then switch. This should remain sticky. Set your main and secondary display in either control panel or in your graphics drivers, depending on how you have initially set up your display.

2m91_2

Inspiring

Thank you very much Pete,

But I think that I didn't make myself clear. Im running 4 displays on my machin:e two 24"-inch main-displays, one wacom-cintiq and a fourth smaller but quite color-true 19" one.

I like to run the main-displays on the primary ports of my GPUs and the additiional ones as secondarys on each card, so that i can disable the additional displays if not needed and use the most GPU-power in 3D apps on the larger monitors.

I can't find a way to convince Windows (or the catalyst drivers - and don't get me sarted there....) to see the displays in any other order then the given one. (1 for GPU1 first display, 2 for GPU1 second display, 3 for GPU2 first display an 4 for GPU2 second display). I can promote whichever display to main-display (in a OS-sense of things) but as it seems Lightroom is not able to use any other combination of displays than one and two - or three and four.

I'm happy with display 1 as main display for Lightroom, but I would like to use display 3 as secondary Lightroom display most of the time, without crawling under the table and messing up my display-settings. But for retouching or color proofing sometimes the other displays would be great to be used too.I can somehow achive that by disabling displays in the OS settings, but that isn't very user-friendly and I#m hoping for a better solution.

ta

M

dorin_nicolaescu

Inspiring

Press Shift+F11 to turn off Full Screen mode for the second window. Drag the second window to whatever monitor you like and press Shift+F11 again. It should stick to that window for the future, I think.

M

Me hereAuthor

Participating Frequently

This (Shift+F11) is an excellent idea, but it didn't work. No matter where I put the second window, the full-screen version always goes to the left monitor.

Under OS X, there is no way (as far as I know) to change the monitor enumeration.

Any other ideas?

-Ryan.

J

Jasonized

Participating Frequently

No way to change innumeration? Hmm... I think you mean position of monitors (L,M,R)?

If you go to system preferences, monitors, you can drag the monitors around to show position, right? I would probably try cabling the monitors differently, and moving them in the display prefernce so the mouse still works. :}

Don't know if it'll help, or you've already tried it, but couldn't hurt!

Cheers!

W

WesternGuy

Known Participant

I believe that you have to tell your graphics software which monitor is which. I am running two monitors under Win 7 using an NVIDA graphics card that handles two monitors, and I had to indicate to the NVIDIA software which monitor was which, before I could tell Lightrrom which one was my second monitor. I do not believe that there is a way to do this from within Lightroom. If you are using two monitors, you can swap them using Lightroom, but I do not believe that there is a way to initially specify which is Monitor 1 and which is Monitor 2 and if you have 3 monitors, then I am not sure how Lightroom deals with this as I understand that it can only deal with two monitors. Maybe you can use the swapping to get things the way you want them - don't know.

If anyone else has any further insight, then please jump in so we can all learn how this works - currently, Ryan, you have my understanding of how it works, or at least how it works for me. HTH.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded