Can't Interact with Second External Monitor

Question

I have connected two external monitors to my MacBook Pro through USB-C to an Anker docking station.  The displays appear to be arranged correctly in the settings (screenshot below)
In the image, Monitor 1 is my Macbook Pro.  Monitors 2 and 3 are external through the docking station.
The problem is, for some reason monitors 2 and 3 are 'mirrored' in the sense that their displays are identical.  However, I can drag my mouse from 2 to 3 as though they were extended.  I cannot actually interact with monitor 3 using the mouse however.
Any pointers to fix this bizarre behavior would be appreciated!  Thanks for looking

phil · Answer

The solution in my case was to use a monitor from a different model/manufacturer for display #3.  When monitors 2 and 3 were identical in make and model, the bizarre pseudo mirroring would happen.  When I changed out #3 to a different make/model everything worked normally.
Also check out Jake Hilborn's answer for displayplacer on github if using a different monitor is not an option

Jake Hilborn · Answer

You could try using the program I wrote, displayplacer, which was developed to deal with the wonkiness of macOS screen layouts. For your particular situation, you'll want to run displayplcer list to output your current monitor setup. Then, edit that profile so that it isn't mirroring. Mirrored monitors are after the + sign in the id section. It'll take a bit of fiddling. Once you get it working though, you can assign that displayplacer command to a hotkey. Then, whenever this happens again (usually every time you plug in), type the hotkey to set your monitors to the correct layout.

Answered by Jake Hilborn on October 30, 2021

Can't Interact with Second External Monitor

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