External display won't go away unless I restart my MacBook

If I connect an external display to my MacBook it still think it's connected after the cable is disconnected. When I use "Detect Displays" it still thinks the external is connected. The only way I can get the computer back to using only 1 monitor is by restarting. I connect and disconnect the external monitor quite frequently so it's annoying to have to restart every time I want one monitor back.
Anyone else encountered this or know how to fix it?

I think it's supposed to work that way. Simply unplugging will not "reset" the Mac to go from two displays to one display. Try putting the Mac to sleep, disconnecting the display, and waking it up.

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