If you regularly plug your MacBook into a conference room projector or mirror your screen to an Apple TV to give a presentation, you might have noticed that your Mac suddenly goes completely silent. The moment you start mirroring your display, macOS automatically triggers a specific Focus mode (formerly Do Not Disturb), suppressing all incoming iMessages, emails, and calendar alerts.
While this feature is brilliant for preventing embarrassing text messages from popping up on a massive projector during a board meeting, it is highly frustrating if you are simply AirPlaying a movie to your living room television and you actually want to see when your friends text you. Furthermore, this Focus mode often persists even after you disconnect the display, forcing you to manually disable it to receive notifications again.
You can adjust your Focus settings to ensure macOS never automatically silences your notifications when connecting external displays.
How to Turn Off the Screen Mirroring Focus Mode
You must remove the screen mirroring trigger from your system’s Focus settings.
- Open the System Settings (or System Preferences) via the Apple Logo in the top-left menu bar.
- Scroll down the left sidebar and click on Focus.
- In the right-hand pane, click on the Do Not Disturb profile (or whichever profile is activating).
- Scroll down to the section labeled Set A Schedule.
- Look for a trigger in the list labeled When mirroring to TVs and projectors (or similar language regarding external displays).
- Click on that specific trigger.
- Toggle the switch to the Off position, or click the Delete Schedule button to permanently remove it.
macOS will no longer make assumptions about why you are connecting a display. Your notifications will continue to flow through normally, whether you are presenting to a boardroom or relaxing in front of your television.