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Ryan Smith Photography
Inspiring
August 10, 2009
Question

Choose second display location 3 monitors?

  • August 10, 2009
  • 21 replies
  • 33606 views

I'm despriately trying to figure out a way to display the lightroom secondary display on my monitor to the right of my main display.  I'm working in Windows 7 RC which seems to have the same monitor properties as Vista.  No matter what I do Lightroom will always choose the display to my left as secondary, I've even tried physically switching my cables for the monitors and it still figures out which display is on the left and displays it there.  Is there any way to pick which display is secondary?

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      21 replies

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      SebastiaanFX
      SebastiaanFX
      Participating Frequently
      August 13, 2015

      The only trick I found is to disable the full screen modus for the second LR window, by right clicking on the small icon at the bottom left, the drag the smaller second preview window to the monitor where you want it to be, and then manually expand it again untill it basically is the same full screen size again. Then afterwards if you close LR and later open it again, it might even remember these settings and open them correctly again.

      Greet Sebastiaan.

      corey_butler9464696
      corey_butler9464696
      Participating Frequently
      May 6, 2015

      Triple monitor set up, airing my grievances. Please allow for alternate monitor secondary display support- well besides the one that is default to be full screen chosen one.

      Sean McCormack
      Community Expert
      Sean McCormackCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 6, 2015

      Hi Corey,

      I see I get notifications from old posts still

      Try here: Recently active topics in Photoshop Family about Photoshop Lightroom for requests.

      Edit: just found this one Lightroom: Enable the use of more than 2 monitors

      Sean

      Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.
      ZhemJZ
      ZhemJZ
      Participant
      July 10, 2015

      I had this working just fine until my video card driver updated today - then I started beating my head against the wall and found this thread. My "main" monitor (on left) was showing as "3" and my "third" monitor (above main) was showing as "1" in the Control Panel settings. Interestingly enough, I finally "fixed" my issue (Windows 8.1, btw) by setting my "second" monitor (on right) as the "Main Display" by checking the box in the control panel. Nothing changed as far as arrangement went, but all of a sudden my full-screen secondary monitor is now back on 2 where it belongs and not jumping to 1 anymore! Huzzah!

      ...I'm sure it'll fine until a restart -_-

      mikecline
      mikecline
      Participant
      December 22, 2014

      Also using Lightroom with three monitors, also agree it's ridiculous triple-monitor setups are still not properly supported.  +1 on the please fix this fatal flaw.  (While you are in there, maybe make the crop tool 4X faster too!)

      P
      PunaJussi
      Participating Frequently
      October 7, 2014

      That's really not a solution, but i guess we'll have to work with that(Shift+F11). Evey time you go to another program you have to move the secondary window back to another screen and resize it when you return to lightroom. It desent just stay where you leave it. It's not too sleek looking either. This is just so stupid. If the second window just acted like a regular window the problem would not be there at all. HOW HARD IS IT TO MAKE BASIC THINGS WORK, ADOBE?

      W
      WhatsAFoote
      Participating Frequently
      November 7, 2014

      My secondary window stays where you put it when not full screen, what OS are you on PunaJussi?

      It is still ridiculous that a 5 year old problem still exists...

        P
        PunaJussi
        Participating Frequently
        December 10, 2014

        Windows 7

        There really is no real fix for this...

        Lightroom: How do assign a second monitor with more than 3 monitors?

          mppixel
          mppixel
          Participant
          July 24, 2014

          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...

          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

          M
          m_i_k_a
          Participant
          June 11, 2013

          Found a workaround (LR5), proably works on earlier versions :

          Open LR and enter full screen on second (left) monitor.

          Then drag the main window to the left, the second shall move to the right ! (make sure to expand the main)

          Move again the main (LR) window to your center (main) screen and voilà !

          Now adobe please fix this properly since it is a HIGHLY wanted feature for all us triple screens users !

          Edit : il will only live until LR focus is lost

          Message was edited by: m_i_k_a

            J
            josephallannz
            Participating Frequently
            June 25, 2013

            I want this feature too!

              R
              rdalrt93
              Participant
              August 10, 2013

              I have this problem too.  And this is an absolute joke that it is not fixed by now.  Friggin ridiculous.  I am disliking Adobe more and more every day it seems.

                T
                Tom Culler
                Participant
                January 5, 2013

                I  have essentially the same problem. I have three monitors; I want the LR primary window to show on monitor 1 (left), where my taskbar is, and the LR 'secondary monitor' window to show on monitor 2 (center). Monitor 3 has some other windows open on it that I need to watch.

                LR opens fine on my primary (left) monitor, but the LR 'Secondary monitor' window always shows up on monitor 3 (right), leaving monitor 2 (center) unused...

                Heeeelp. Right now as a workaround I've turned off the 'Full Screen' option and am manually moving the 'Secondary monitor' window, but it should be a simple click-drag-maximize-remember to move it, or at least a menu option. Premiere Pro understands how to do it...

                  M
                  Mediapix
                  Participating Frequently
                  November 8, 2017

                  i installed an extra graphic card.

                  grtz Ronald

                  Verzonden vanaf mijn Samsung Galaxy-smartphone.

                  R
                  Ryan Smith PhotographyAuthor
                  Inspiring
                  August 10, 2009

                  Awesome, I figured out a way to do it.  It's still not the best because if you do anything that makes lightroom lose focus it will revert back to the default monitor.  But at least in Windows 7 if I put lightroom's main window on my monitor on the left so the second display in where I want it to be over on the right, then drag lightroom to my center display the secondary display will stay where it was opened on the right.  If I do anything outside of lightroom the secondary display will pop back over to the left.  So this seems to be a pretty good work around.

                  R
                  Ryan Smith PhotographyAuthor
                  Inspiring
                  August 10, 2009

                  Thanks for the suggestions.  I should describe my setup better.  I really need Lightroom to be on the center monitor, it's my really high quality one. I have a monitor on the left and the right of my main.  When clients are looking at the pictures, the setup of my office I really need to be able to open the secondary display to my right.  It's funny you say that Lightroom always opens on the monitor to the right, it's always to the left for me.  I just can't understand why there isn't a setting somewhere to choose which display opens the secondary view.  I know I can make the second display not full screen and drag it to the monitor I want, but then if I select full screen it pops back over to the left.  I guess not using full screen mode will have to be my solution, it just doesn't look as good.  I wonder if there is a registry tweak or something that would change Lightroom's default behavior.

                  Sean McCormack
                  Community Expert
                  Sean McCormackCommunity Expert
                  Community Expert
                  August 10, 2009

                  The second screen opens to the right of the main screen. If you move

                  the main program, the other screen should move to the right again.

                  Why isn't there more control? Same as all features in Lightroom: time!

                  2ND monitor was a big request for version 2, so they opted to put in

                  basic support, rather than leave it out altogether. Local corrections

                  were a huge task to implement from what I can gather, so it might have

                  been dropped altogether. Fortunately not.

                  Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.
                  R
                  Ryan Smith PhotographyAuthor
                  Inspiring
                  August 10, 2009

                  I wasn't really complaining, it just seems like it would be such an easy fix, I thought there must be something.  Especially since mine always opens on the left no matter what I do.  It almost seems like there could be a setting in the registry somewhere or something.  Or maybe even in Windows itself that says this is monitor 2 and this is 3.  Under my display properties my monitor to the left is always number 2 no matter what I do and the one of the right is 3.  Maybe they can implement this in a future update hopefully.

                    ambienttroutmask
                    ambienttroutmask
                    Participating Frequently
                    August 10, 2009

                    If it the same as Vista and XP, in Display Settings drag the monitor icons into the order and position  you want them and select which one you want as the main and which as the extended. LR will open on the main.

                    Sean McCormack
                    Community Expert
                    Sean McCormackCommunity Expert
                    Community Expert
                    August 10, 2009

                    Lightroom opens the 2nd monitor on the Right normally, so this might dictate where you can place the 2nd screen.. e.g. if you drag Lightroom onto the 3rd monitor, and open the 2nd screen, it'll appear on the 1st monitor.

                    (or at least this is the way it used to be!)

                    Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.
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