Balloon notification keeps popping up and is driving me nuts
 

15-20 times per day this notification appears from my system bar and steals my keyboard focus:

https://cln.sh/cSjLfwtNf9XJV8XdhGCr+

The info box makes it seem like I haven't allowed the DisplayLink device to connect to the computer, but I have and it is working already. I have no need to use this notification to ensure that the device is working properly, because it is already working properly. I use it for meetings all the time.

This thing is driving me bananas. I will be in the middle of typing something and this thing appears to tell me again and again that there is an FAQ I can read and a survey I can fill out.

This software was shipped with an Elgato Prompter device and Corsair says that they can't really do anything about it.

I emailed the DisplayLink support email address and installed the diagnostic software that they recommended, but doing that just feels like I am just rattling off lines in a support script. The solution to this is must be something like adding a "Do not show again" preference and respect it. I have my doubts about this being a problem with my computer that is causing these notifications to spew out of the system bar.

I am torn on keeping the Prompter or getting rid of it just so that I can free myself of this annoying and stupid persistent notification. Hopefully I'm not the only one who keeps seeing this thing.

Hi chozen,
Thank you for your enquiry.
I would like to inform you that the message you see in the Graphical Interface of the DisplayLink Manager application is a static message that was introduced at the time of the macOS Ventura release and is only an indication that permission to use a USB device is required for DisplayLink-based devices to function correctly on a Mac with Apple Silicon. Granting permission or not does not affect whether the message is displayed as it will be permanently visible as a hint to the user.

If I understand correctly, the problem is that the Graphical Interface of the application opens many times during the workflow despite your intention. This is indeed unexpected and we have not encountered this problem so far. Perhaps some keyboard shortcut you are using is causing it to open. Try to have a look if this is indeed not the reason for this unexpected behaviour.

If you are still experiencing this problem please contact our support again referring to this thread and we will certainly try to find a solution.

Regards,
Darek

Same issue here on my Mac Studio. Driving me insane.

Same issue. The notice pops up several times a day.

Been happening since the install, 8 months ago. Still happening after updating MacOS to Sierra.

Same issue here. Had it running MacBook Pro M1 Max on Sonoma (and also after upgrading to Sequoia). Migrated to a new MacBook Pro M4 Max on Sequoia last week and am still having it. Running DisplayLink with an Elgato Prompter. This message pops up multiple times per day and when waking from sleep.

Same here, M1 Mac Studio running Sequoia 15.0, and DisplayLink Manager 1.11.0.
It's driving me nuts so badly that I check if there is a DisplayLink Manager update every couple of days and keep getting really disappointed that updating hasn't fixed the issue so far.

This is so disruptive to getting work done — several times an hour I'm writing and am pulled out of whatever app I'm writing in because of DisplayLink. I found this forum post because I'm trying to find any alternative that will work with Elgato Prompter. Please fix this! Or if anyone has an alternative, please share.

I came here to report this, but in my case it's not the main GUI & has nothing to do with Elgato, I get a notification that seems to come from control centre telling me DisplayLink is screen recording & how many times it's accessed it. I have Do not disturb on, and I hate all notifications, so I always have it on, and/or disable them whenever I can. I don't need them, if I want to know something I'll go and find it. I'm getting increasingly frustrated in general with these kinds of things that Apple seems determined to force on everyone, even if you've been using computers & Apple for decades (e.g. why do we still have to go through all that 'disk must be ejected' nonsense after all these years, without a "don't prompt again", and why is it considered reasonable to casually tell us that some vague thing that I didn't know it was doing or ask for is accessing the volume so it can't be ejected, rather than it being MY computer and I'm saying what I WANT it to do right now, so tell finder to come back to it later when I'm not trying to use my expensive machine ... ?)

That's another story, but kind of the same thing. Is there anyone anywhere who needs to be constantly interrupted to be told the same thing over and over that isn't even useful anyway? Especially if DND is on.

So I'm not sure this is really down to DisplayLink or if it's Apple. But I only experience it here.

It seems to happen any time I change anything in the display settings, or leads get unplugged or bumped. I've looked everywhere but haven't been able to find any way to disable it, and it really is getting pretty infuriating.

So it's kind of interesting most comments I've read here so far are saying they're getting it from the main GUI, but otherwise the same problem.

Hi everyone,
We have managed to establish that the problem occurs when Elgato Camera Hub is running, which as you know requires DisplayLink Manager to be enabled in order to work properly. The Elgato app will force DLM to be enabled even when it is enabled. And the correct behaviour of DLM is that it opens the GUI when a user tries to open an already opened application.

We are in contact with Elgato and are working to resolve the issue.

I have the latest 1.11.0 (build 28). I just hook up my USB C Docking Station Tobenone to my mac mini m1. I have No DisplayLink-enabled display detected. I've using an old USB 3.0 docking station that work fine for 4 years. How can I get my Tobenone to be recognize on my mac mini m1?

Hi jamesad,
This is a thread dedicated to DisplayLink Manager pop-up issues. Please contact us at technical-enquiries@synaptics.com with a description of your problem and with details of the model of your docking station and the rest of your hardware (Mac and monitors) so that we can more easily help you solve the problem.

Any updates on a fix? I present using my prompter regularly and when this bubble pops up it comes to the forefront which impacts the presentation and the content being shared.

Help. :)

Any updates?

bumping this up. Any updates?

Hello crobin,

We're actively developing this case. Please wait on updates from our team.

Hello all,

Our team has been working on this case, and here is how to avoid the notification popping up.

Firstly, please ensure that you have the latest version of Elgato installed (version 2.0.0, or newer).

In order to avoid the info box showing up, please follow these steps:
1. Click on the Elgato icon on the menu bar.
2. Press the "command" key and hold it while clicking on "Preferences". It will show hidden options.
3. A window with checkboxes should pop up, where you should uncheck the last option "Ensure that DisplayLink Manager is running".

https://www.displaylink.org/forum/at...1&d=1746525974

I was searching for a solution for this poping up behavior.

I tested it to disable "Ensure that DisplayLink Manager is running" but it's not the solution. Unfortunately,

The versions I run:
Elgato Cam Link 2.2.0 (6839)
DisplayLink Manager 14.0.0 (Build 17)

My machine: 2019 MacBook Pro (Intel)

I also still have this problem after following the steps to uncheck "Ensure DisplayLink Manager is running" in Camera Hub.

Camera Hub 2.0.0 (5750) [edit - still happening after upgrading to Camera Hub 2.2.0 (6850)]
DisplayLink Manager 14.0.0 (Build 17)
MacOS 15.7.1 (24G231)

Macbook Pro M1 Max, also occurring on my 2019 Intel Macbook Pro.

Same issue here.

Anyone find a workaround that works with the latest Cam Hub and DisplayLink? Pops up mid-presentation and its super-frustrating.

Something worth trying is disabling the menu bar icon to see if this helps at all. I moved from my MacBook Pro 2020 (Intel) to a MacBook Air (M4) and I never had the issue on my MBP but have experienced the same issue persistently with my MBA. I've disabled the Displaylink menu bar icon so it doesn't show and it seems to give me good results. Just be sure you know how to reactivate it in case you accidentally turn off screen sharing on a monitor as you'll need the menu bar icon for control access to turn the sharing back on for that screen. Below are the commands, just after you process the command in your terminal cli you'll need to reboot so the app restarts and honors the new command setting.

You can hide the icon in menu bar by executing the following command in terminal: 

defaults write com.displaylink.DisplayLinkUserAgent ShowMenuBarIcon 0


To show the icon in menu bar please execute the following command in terminal:

defaults write com.displaylink.DisplayLinkUserAgent ShowMenuBarIcon 1

This is happening on my MacOS, running Tahoe 26.1 - I don't have Elgato products installed. The DisplayLink Manager app is not running and the app is also disabled in the MenuBar section of settings, and still the pop up happens. It's incredibly intrusive and annoying.

Workaround
 

I've determined what I think to be a workaround.

DisplayLink launches a process called "CrashRestartHelper" when it is run.

Ending this process in Activity Monitor prevents the popups from occurring on my machine. I'd love somebody else with the problem to validate.

--

Also, this thread seems to confuse two similar issues. For the issue where you get a popup saying "DisplayLink Manager is already running." that is the Elgato issue, it can be corrected by going to the Elgato Camera Hub software, hold down the CMD key while opening the Preferences page to show the hidden setting "Ensure DisplayLink Manager it running" and then uncheck that box.

Hello,

Thanks for the clues.
Since your problem is distinct from the one with Camera Hub, could you share a screenshot of the popup you’re experiencing? I'd like to be sure that we have common understanding.

PS. Are you on the latest 14.2 DisplayLink Manager available?
https://www.synaptics.com/products/d...ownloads/macos

Regards,
Szymon

The problem I'm referencing is where the settings popup and shows, the same screen as chozen posted in the first post of this thread. It's not related to Camera Hub, but some people seemed to get it confused with that older issue.

It looks like I'm on 14.1 Build 28. This started when I installed 14.1, I'll try 14.2 to see if there's any change and report back.

without Elgato
 

I am in the same situation as TheBoyler (I mean, without Elgato). I do not own any Elgato products, and I have never installed any Elgato software. At the very least, DisplayLink 1.11.0, which I had been using right up until recently, did not have this issue.

Timeline:
2025-10-23 (Oct 23) Updated DisplayLink from 1.11.0 to 14.1
2025-11-11 (Nov 11) Applied the Sequoia 15.7.2 security update (possibly unrelated)
2025-11-14 (Nov 14) Started investigating because the popups kept appearing
2025-11-20 (Nov 20) Updated to DisplayLink 14.2 (released on 2025-11-18)

I updated to the latest 14.2, hoping it would fix the issue, but since there is nothing relevant mentioned in the release notes, I am not very optimistic. If this does not help, I plan to roll back to the previous final 1.12.4, or even to 1.11.0, which had been working fine for me. If the issue still persists, then in my environment, the Sequoia 15.7.2 security update might be involved after all.

I also use Duet Display. Could it be related?

I installed 14.2, and while I didn't get the popup for awhile it did eventually happen this morning.

I will now try killing off the CrashRestartHelper process in Activity Monitor and watch for the next couple days to see if it appears.

My theory is that CrashRestartHelper is falsely thinking there is a crash and attempting to restart the process causing the settings UI to appear, but there is no actual crash (my display keeps working)

That kind of constant balloon popup can get annoying fast. It often happens when a background process keeps sending the same alert. Checking the notification settings or turning off the specific app’s alerts usually fixes it. A quick restart can also help if the system is stuck in a loop. Once you track down the source, the popups stop for good.

Thank you, for all reports and valuable insights. After an internal analysis I confirm there is a problem with CrashRestartHelper process which requires fixing. I'll post an update as soon as we have a solution.

Regards,
Szymon

Same issue here.
 

happens a few times per day.

same
 

having the same issue also

Update:
2025-11-22 (Nov 22) The pop-up appeared on 14.2. So I downgraded it to 1.12.4.

Since then, 1.12.4 works fine for me.

This works with the smaller prompter. I have the new Prompter XL and you are unable to mirror the screen with the older version of DisplayLink which renders CameraHub useless.

Waiting for a fix...

Thank you for your patience. A release with a fix for this issue is expected next week.

Regards,
Szymon

I see that driver version 15.0.0 is now live with the release notes including "Fixed DisplayLink App menu bar popping up automatically without user interaction. (VIFR-7107)"

Hi Jamesface,

You've noticed more quickly than I shared the news 😊 Yes, the release is out now and everyone from this thread is encouraged to test it and share feedback 🤞

Link: https://www.synaptics.com/products/d...ownloads/macos


Regards,
Szymon

New version still has the pop up. Admittedly it is happening less often.

Hi JBB,

Thank you for your feedback. It would be really helpful if you reported your case following this FAQ:
https://support.displaylink.com/know...to-displaylink

Thanks!
Szymon

I have done so.

Issue resolved so far with version 15.0 (macOS 15.7.2)
 

Following up on my previous report: I’ve been using version 15.0 for three days now, and the menu bar issue seems to be fully resolved in my environment (macOS 15.7.2 with Duet Display). I haven't experienced the automatic pop-up even once since the update.

I noticed JBB reported that the issue still persists for them (though less frequently), but at least in my case, the fix (VIFR-7107) appears to be working perfectly.

I’ll keep an eye on it for a while longer and will post an update if the behavior returns, but for now, it looks like I won't need to roll back to 1.11.0. Thanks for the fix!