Is there ANY WAY to do Universal Control without the same Apple ID logged in as primary?

[zorinlynx]

The situation is thus. At my desk at work, I use an iMac and a Macbook. The iMac is signed into my work iCloud, the Macbook is signed into my personal iCloud.

I'd love to be able to use Universal control to use the Macbook with the keyboard and mouse from the iMac. However, no matter what I try, I can't get it to work.

I added my work Apple ID as a secondary account on the Macbook, nope.

I added my personal Apple ID as a secondary account on the iMac, uh uh.

It seems the only way to get it to work would be to have the same Apple ID signed in as primary on both machines, but I can't do that and use the machines how I want to use them. Has anyone managed to get UC working in this situation? There really should be a way to manually pair two Macs regardless of what Apple IDs are logged in on them!

 

[chrfr]

The situation is thus. At my desk at work, I use an iMac and a Macbook. The iMac is signed into my work iCloud, the Macbook is signed into my personal iCloud.

I'd love to be able to use Universal control to use the Macbook with the keyboard and mouse from the iMac. However, no matter what I try, I can't get it to work.

I added my work Apple ID as a secondary account on the Macbook, nope.

I added my personal Apple ID as a secondary account on the iMac, uh uh.

It seems the only way to get it to work would be to have the same Apple ID signed in as primary on both machines, but I can't do that and use the machines how I want to use them. Has anyone managed to get UC working in this situation? There really should be a way to manually pair two Macs regardless of what Apple IDs are logged in on them!

Both devices have to be signed in with the same primary Apple ID. This is how they're authenticated.

 

[gwhizkids]

Both devices have to be signed in with the same primary Apple ID. This is how they're authenticated.

Agree with this. Definite security issues unless both are authenticated to the same account.

 

[zorinlynx]

Agree with this. Definite security issues unless both are authenticated to the same account.

Any security issues could be resolved by simply allowing pairing. Display a random number on each Mac. Require the numbers be entered on the other Mac. Done.

It's not complicated, and would resolve this issue. I have absolutely no reason to use Universal Control with two Macs on the same Apple ID, since I can just do whatever I need to do on either Mac.

 

[Whatever2003]

Okay, I had to create an account just to comment on this.

I am in the same position: Two Macs with different iCloud accounts.
I get frustrated with Apple because this is simple and Logitech is already doing it and much more.

The best fix I have found is a keyboard/mouse combo made by Logitech.
They can connect to three computers/iPads and move between them seamlessly.

I use them with my Mac/PC setup at the office and my two Mac setup at home.
I love how I can setup two profiles on the keyboard and switch between computers if I am not using both computers at the same time. Or I can seamlessly flow back and forth between computers when they were both in operation. There is just a lot of flexibility for different workflows.

I was able to copy over large video files from the PC to my Mac using this (it does copy files via IP so you have to be on the same network and the speed at which you can move files is depending on the internet speed). But it was a cool feature and beats using external drives or cloud storage when moving small everyday files.

Here is more info about the features.

Best

 

[gwhizkids]

Any security issues could be resolved by simply allowing pairing. Display a random number on each Mac. Require the numbers be entered on the other Mac. Done.

It's not complicated, and would resolve this issue. I have absolutely no reason to use Universal Control with two Macs on the same Apple ID, since I can just do whatever I need to do on either Mac.

LOL. just got a notification about this post. About 50 weeks after it was posted!