When a display is disconnected, sometimes it's impossible to re-connect it

[paoloconi96]

Hey everyone,
I’m working on a bash script that uses BetterDisplay CLI to programmatically toggle two external displays:
Turn off:

betterdisplaycli set --UUID=[UUID] --connected=off

Turn on:

betterdisplaycli set --UUID=[UUID] --connected=on

The issue I’m running into is that sometimes—though not always, and not immediately after running the “off” script—the displays no longer show up as available. They don’t even appear in the --identifiers list, which makes it impossible to turn them back on through the CLI (and also through the app).

When I disable the displays directly through the BetterDisplay app, this problem never occurs, so I don’t think it’s an issue with the monitors themselves. I’ve also verified that all hardware power-saving features are disabled.

Has anyone experienced this before, or does anyone know how I could debug whether the problem lies in my script or in the CLI tool?

Thanks in advance for any help!