After purchasing my M4 Mac mini in 2024 to keep a finger on the pulse of macOS, I installed a number of apps, including WhatsApp.
Here’s my setup:
I’m using the base model M4 Mac mini, fully up to date with the latest version of macOS. It sits on a Satechi Stand & Hub for the extra ports and built-in SSD. I use it with a Logitech MX Keys wireless keyboard, and I don’t have a monitor connected—only a pair of Bose Companion 2 speakers for audio.
Every so often, when opening WhatsApp on the Mac, I’m told that an error has occurred and that I need to sign out and back in again to resolve it. Once signed out, I’m required to re-link WhatsApp by scanning the QR code.
Because I normally don’t have a display connected, I ended up purchasing a small 7-inch monitor that I occasionally plug in solely so I can scan the QR code using WhatsApp on my iPhone. I’ve had to do this several times over the past year, and I can’t figure out why the app keeps signing me out.
At one point, I tried opening WhatsApp every time the Mac booted, thinking that keeping it active might help maintain the connection. While this sometimes worked, it didn’t prevent the issue from returning.
I’ve started wondering whether the lack of a permanently connected monitor could be the cause—perhaps WhatsApp expects a display to be present in order to remain connected. If that’s the case, it seems a bit odd, but it’s the only explanation I can come up with so far.
Before going as far as permanently mounting a small monitor just to deal with this, I wanted to ask if anyone else has experienced similar behavior with WhatsApp on macOS, particularly on a Mac mini running headless, or if anyone has other thoughts on what might be causing this.
Any insight would be appreciated.
Comments
No problems here
I have a similar setup, except with an M4 Max Mac Studio, no dock since this computer has plenty of ports, an iPad Mini A17 Pro that I use as a camera or display every once in a while because this Mac is naturally also missing a camera and microphone, and never had any issues with WhatsApp on the desktop. I think that my WhatsApp client was installed from the App Store but can't remember, but I do know that there was a legacy version that I moved out of at some point. WhatsApp is always running on my system so maybe that's why it's not getting kicked out.
Editing to add that, although there's no physical monitor, applications running on a headless Mac still think there's one, since somewhere in the system something is actually emulating a display. For years I kept buying Macs with screens because I thought that not having a screen would cause problems to a graphics-centered system like macOS, so when I bought this Mac and realized that not having a screen was not even an issue during the installation, I was pleasantly surprised. When I go to System Settings -> General -> About, the Displays section contains a single virtual display configured as 30,5-inch (1920 × 1080), which is probably the configuration of the ancient Apple Cinema Display, so for all intents and purposes, applications think that the system has a connected display.