Balloon notification keeps popping up and is driving me nuts

[Ian L.]

Originally Posted by crobin

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

[TheBoyler]

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.

[popcorn]

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.

[Szymon]

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

[popcorn]

Originally Posted by Szymon

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Szymon

PS. Are you on the latest 14.2 DisplayLink Manager available?

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.

[knoa]

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?

[popcorn]

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)

[AriaScott]

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.

[Szymon]

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

[bendistraw]

happens a few times per day.