Screen Resolution Not Changing

DNLS · 2022-07-23T15:49:29+00:00

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I am on a Mac connecting to a Windows 10 desktop. I am unable to change the resolution. I select View>Screen Resolution and selecting any resolution will not change it—a checkmark remains next to 1024 x 768. I have scaling set to Scaled.

I have the issue on another Mac (laptop) as well. It seems like there is a problem changing the resolution on Macs.

I have been able to do this before with no problem. I am able to change the resolution when going from the Windows 10 desktop to the Mac.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue or know how to fix it.

Thanks!

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Punik

The quick and easy fix, for free, no hardware required.😉

(Assuming that You want to change resolution on headless (no monitor attached) system.)

1) On the target machine, run "regedit".

2) Navigate to "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration\"

3) Find the correct "virtual" monitor. In my case it was NOEDID_8086_3E91_00000000_00020000_31013^53F8D5930757FC6478DA395B2023D3E0, but Your mileage may vary, and probably will.

🤨

If not sure, try to navigate to "00" subfolder and look for PrimSurfSize.cx and .cy - if it matches the undesirable small resolution, You probably have Your guy.

🤔

If still not sure or feeling lucky and lazy, just delete all the folders under "Configuration" and restart the PC. The only one which pops up after restart is definitely THE ONE.

😁

4) Navigate to "00" and change PrimSurfSize.cx and PrimSurfSize.cy to the resolution of Your choice. In order to calculate the right value, run Windows Calculator and switch it to "Programmator mode", in which You type the value in decimal and You will see the correct value in Hexadecimal. Or just use 780 for .cx and 438 for .cy, which will get You a nice, 21st century, 1920 x 1080 resolution.

5) Go deeper, to the second "00" and repeat.

6) Now change the resolution as You are used to and voila, now and forever - You are happy.

😍

You are welcome. 😎

DNLS

Yes, the issue persists when set to Original and also when set to Scaled.

Also, I do believe the monitor is turned off when connecting. It is usually turned off when I connect to it and it hasn't been a problem in the past, so it never occurred to me that the monitor would need to powered on.

I will try connecting when the monitor is turned on and report back to you.

Thank you for taking the time to work through this with me.

DNLS

Never mind! I updated that comment too soon. I am not able to change the resolution. If anyone knows what might be going on I'd appreciate the help.

DNLS

I am still looking for a solution to this. Thanks!

JoshP

Hello @DNLS

Thanks for your post, and all the information!

With screen resolution, TeamViewer simply provides (or mirrors) the resolutions provided by the OS.

That said, can you recall any recent changes to any hardware/software in regards to video? (Graphics card, display (if laptop), new monitor (if desktop), etc)

Please also go look at the system settings for resolution and confirm if other resolutions are still seen and available (meaning you can change to other resolutions in the system settings) or if it too only allows 1024x768. This can help us determine the root of the issue a bit better.

If you can think of anything else that may have changed, please let us know too.

Thanks in advance!

DNLS

Hi @JoshP

Just to clarify, TeamViewer on my Mac will mirror the resolution provided by the PC that I am connecting to? Does that mean I should be recalling any video hardware/software changes on the PC (computer that I am connecting to)? There are no changes that I am aware of.

The system resolution on the PC is currently set to "2540 x 1440 (Recommended)" and I can change it to any resolution in the list. This is the resolution I usually select when I connect to this computer from my Mac. It initially connects at a much lower resolution, and I have to change it to 2540 x 1440 (which has "–" to the left of it). However, now when I select this resolution in TeamViewer, when connected, the resolution does not change. It also will not change no matter what resolution I select from the list.

I tested connecting to the PC from another PC and I was able to change the resolution from the drop down list as normal. But I am unable to change the resolution when I connect from two different Apple computers.

Hope this additional information helps.

I am now understanding that when I change the resolution with TeamViewer, it changes the system resolution of the computer I am connected to and then mirrors this...correct me if I am wrong here. It seems that the two Apple computers running MacOS operating systems are no longer doing this. Perhaps I can work around this by connecting to the PC, then going into the system resolution settings and making sure that it is still set to 2540 x1440 after I have connected, and if not, change the resolution there. I'll have to try this later today when I am in front of my Mac.

Thank you!!

JoshP

Hello @DNLS

To clarify the screen resolutions: When you connect to a machine, the screen resolutions provided in TeamViewer's Remote Control Toolbar are the ones provided by the remote machine - in your case, the Windows computer you are connecting to.

When in a remote control session, you should only need to change the resolution from the Remote Control Toolbar, so I am curious if it will show something differently in the system settings when you are connected and cannot alter resolution - definitely let me know the results of changing it in the system preferences when connected!

Regarding the actual issue: Allow me to also run some tests on my own devices, to see if I can replicate any of this - fortunately, I have both devices as well!

I will report back here once I have more findings. I hope you do the same!

DNLS

Hi again @JoshP

I just tested changing the resolution in system preferences when connected to the PC and it will not change. It stays at 1024 x 600. If I select a resolution less than or equal to 1024 then the resolution will change, otherwise it will stay at the last resolution set. So I can set it to 800 x 600, 1024 x 600, and 1024 x 768.

Obviously I want to set it to the resolution 2560 x 1440, otherwise I'm viewing the PC through a much smaller window. This is the resolution I was able to set it to until recently. Let me know what you discover.

I'm not sure what changed to set this problem off.

DNLS

Hi @JoshP

Do you happen to have an update on this yet? I still haven't figured out what might be causing the issue or how to fix it.

JoshP

Hello @DNLS

Thanks for your patience. I had a separate computer issue that prevented me from testing this right away.

I attempted a connection from my Mac to my Windows computer - in the resolution menu, I was able to view all resolutions as well as switch between them with no issue.

That being said, I did notice a user reported in another thread a remarkably similar issue:

https://community.teamviewer.com/English/discussion/comment/136667#Comment_136667

Therefore, allow me to investigate internally, and check with my support teams to see if there is any known issues occurring currently. Other users mention a similar occurrence in Windows --> Windows, so perhaps it is not OS-specific. Regardless, could you please let me know the specific TeamViewer versions on both devices, as well as the specific OS versions? Thanks in advance!

As soon as I have more information, I will let you know!

EDIT:

DNLS

@JoshP this sounds exactly like the same issue I am experiencing. I'm a little confused about the RDP comment. Though, if I am understanding it correctly, it sounds like something I have tried. When I am on my Windows PC, I remote connect to my Mac, I then remote connect back to my Windows PC (it's a little trippy), but in this instance I am able to change the resolution of the Windows PC through TeamViewer with no problem. I also see it change the resolution on the PC since I am in front of it. I hope that was clear.

Here are the TeamViewer and operating system details:

Windows Pro 10, OS Build 19044.1826, TeamViewer version 15.32.3 (32-bit)

macOS Monterey version 12.5, TeamViewer version 15.32.3

As I mentioned before, I also run into the same issue when connecting from an old MacBook Air. It is running an outdated OS, though I don't have that information for you at the moment.

Thanks again for trying to get to the bottom of this!

DNLS

Hi @JoshP! Any progress on this?

DNLS

Well, this ended up being an easy solution after spending hours troubleshooting. The computer I was connected to didn't have the most recent version of TeamViewer installed.

If anyone comes across this because they are experiencing a similar issue, make sure TeamViewer is up-to-date on all computers!

DNLS

@JoshP, it looks like you found the cause of the problem! I left the monitor of the remote computer on and I was able to change the resolution successfully.

I am a very proficient troubleshooter. I only post on the forums or contact customer support after I have exhausted all of the troubleshooting steps that I can think of to take. It never occurred to me that the monitor would need to be on since I had no issue with the monitor turned off until this point.

My only question now, which you probably won't be able to answer, is why I now need to keep the monitor on for this to work? I have been using TeamViewer for over two years and I always turn the monitor of my remote computer off when I am not actively using it. I was able to change the resolution with the monitor off until a few weeks ago.

My guess is that this is a result of a recent update.

It's a minor annoyance that I need to leave the monitor on now, but I will make it work.

If you have any way to relay this information to the development team, I would greatly appreciate it. I would certainly appreciate a fix so that I can continue to turn the monitor off like I have been able to do for the last 2+ years.

Thanks again for all of the time you took to help me find a solution—I really appreciate it!

JoshP

Hello @DNLS

Thanks for confirming this information!

The interesting thing about my "sudden realization" of the monitors is that this information did not come from any new sources, but rather older threads here in our own community describing similar issues. This 2018 comment from @Scotty accurately describes how TeamViewer works regarding monitors and graphics cards, which is what got me thinking!

https://community.teamviewer.com/English/discussion/comment/38811#Comment_38811

Since TeamViewer can only show what the computer provides, when the monitor is off (or no monitor connected), there may be no screen visible at all, or just the default resolution. TeamViewer cannot work with headless (no monitor) systems out of the box.

That means this would be considered expected behavior when dealing with monitors that are turned off. As mentioned, similar reports of this issue have been reported as far back as 2016.

The big question, then, is why has your experience changed in this specific connection, and also still not reproduced when connecting from other (Windows) devices? Well, we may need more information.

Could you please first confirm that when you connect from a Windows device to this device the monitors are in the same mode? My own monitors have both OFF and STANDBY - in STANDBY mode the graphics card is still communicating with the monitors, whereas when OFF there is no communication.
There also was no update to TeamViewer for Windows or macOS around the original day you posted this. Is the day you posted this when you first noticed the issue? If not, please let us know when you first noticed the issue.

I will see if I can run some other tests as well. I hope that for now, the workaround (not turning the monitors off) will suffice while investigating further.

DNLS

Hi again @JoshP,

Yes, that all makes sense to me. I can see how this is expected behavior with TeamViewer and that there must be a change on my remote computer that is causing me to be unable to change the resolution when the monitor is turned off.

Now that I know the issue occurs when the monitor is turned off, I turned off the remote computer monitor and connected to it from another Windows computer and I was NOT able to change the resolution. When I initially said that the Windows computer was able to change the resolution, it was because I was in the physical location of the remote computer and was using it, so the monitor was turned on. The Windows computer and two Apple computers all experience the inability to change resolution when the remote computer monitor is off. It the monitor is in STANDBY, then I am able to change the resolution.
The day I posted was the day I was experiencing the issue. I had not had a need prior to this date to connect to the remote Windows computer, so I cannot remember the last time I had. It was probably a month or two since I had connected last. I am thinking maybe there was a change in the graphics card of the remote computer? I was able to find that the display adapter (Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630) driver was updated on July 18, 2022. Maybe this driver update is the culprit?

Let me know if any of this additional information is helpful and if you have any ideas how I may be able to get the resolution change functionality back with the monitor turned off.

DNLS

Hi @JoshP,

Once you helped narrow down the cause of the issue to the graphics card, I noticed that the driver was updated recently (as I mentioned in my last post). I rolled back the driver to the previous version and I am able to adjust the resolution with the monitor off!

I'll have to decide whether having an outdate driver is worth being able to change the resolution with monitor off.

Thanks again for all of your help with this. I learned quite a bit in process.

JoshP

Hello @DNLS

I am glad to hear that we were able to locate the source of the issue!

I was suspecting the graphics card once you mentioned it, and was discussing it with my support teams.

Have a great rest of your week!

yuretic

hi @DNLS @JoshP

today I installed TeamViewer as I'm getting frustrated with the poor performance of the combination VPN+RDP I've been using so far, things have gotten worse since I recently bought a 21:9 monitor and the resolution increased

as I was immediately stuck with 1024x768, I went googling and found your post. I have to assume that the situation hasn't changed in the meantime. it seems a bit odd to me to have a monitor stay on for hours with nobody looking at it, even more so in times when energy is scarce, so I'll first look into other providers. just wanted to say many thanks for your debugging above, at least I quickly figured what the problem was

cheers

Winfried1963

Yes I have the same problem. First screenshot is a Windows Server on a DELL Rack machine. These Rack machines are in a computer room with no entrance for me and normally without a monitor connected. I can use RemoteDesktop to this machine while I'm in office and have great monitor resolution. No problem with RemoteDesktop.

The 2nd screenshot is from a machine in Japan (I have currently no information on how this machine is setup). And you see, that I can enjoy all these resolutions. It's better in Japan ;)

Cheers,

Winfried

mgeldart

Hello All, I have had this problem for quite some time, and I looked at these solutions. It is a scary prospect to go poking around in the registry if you aren't sure what you are doing.

I have found a more "supported" work-around for this.

Right Click on Desktop -- Go to Display Settings -- Click on "Advanced Display Settings" at the bottom, then in advanced settings click on "Display Adapter Settings for Display 1" and you will see this pop-up (Graphics properties might be different for your remote pc)

Click on "List All Modes" Button at the bottom and you will see:

Select the Resolution you want and click "Apply" and your resolution will change.

I hope this helps and makes it a bit easier for folks.

Thanks,

Mike

JoshP

Hello @DNLS

Thanks for your patience.

As the issue is not easy to replicate, I currently do not have more information.

I have checked to see if this was related to any known issues, but was unable to find any confirming information. I do have two questions, however:

First - if you set Scaling to Original, does the issue persist?

Second - I actually made an assumption at the beginning of our discussion, and I dont think we ever confirmed this simple piece of information. In my research of the issue I found somewhat similar (but nowhere near as identical as the previous thread I linked) issues with one key similarity - the monitors on the remote systems were turned off during the remote connection.

Of course, we should never assume when troubleshooting! 🙈

So, could you please confirm if the monitors on the remote machine are on when the issue occurs?

Thanks in advance for the additional information!

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