Reset Universal Control?

[4nthony]

I have two Intel Macs and an iPad, all of which support Universal Control and that I have previously used with Universal Control.

I had some issues using Sidecar and Little Snitch -- when unplugging a USB connected iPad, Sidecar would fail to reconnect and ultimately crash the OS requiring a hard reset. Little Snitch was somehow blocking this connection and removing Little Snitch fixed this issue.

Universal Control was working Mac to Mac correctly at one time. I don't know if they are related but after the last Sidecar/Little Snitch crash, Universal Control no longer sees any other device. I've disabled/enabled all the UC settings, enabled/disabled Handoff, rebooted multiple times, confirmed the iCloud accounts are the same, disabled/enabled Bluetooth, and deleted/recreated Wi-Fi connections. I've also reinstalled macOS by booting into macOS Recovery mode. Sidecar continues to work fine but UC does not.

When Little Snitch would crash my OS, one of the symptoms is that all network connections in System Preferences would get deleted but then repopulate after a reboot. I'm wondering if the crash somehow corrupted one of the plist (?) files that UC uses, preventing the discovery of other devices. I do see UC in Activity Monitor so I know it's running.

At this point, I'm stumped and not sure what other steps to take to troubleshoot the issue.

Suggestions?

 

[boylerman]

Wondering if you sorted this out? I'm having a similar issue.

 

[4nthony]

Wondering if you sorted this out? I'm having a similar issue.

Not yet. I still look into it from time to time but have mostly given up.

If you're able to figure it out, let me know. Thanks!

 

[haralds]

I found that turning UC off on all systems, rebooting, and turning it back on and then adding the systems seems to work. It does not seem to like more than three systems during adding. Bunt often works with four later.

 

[4nthony]

I found that turning UC off on all systems, rebooting, and turning it back on and then adding the systems seems to work. It does not seem to like more than three systems during adding. Bunt often works with four later.

Thanks. I've tried turning UC off, rebooting, disabling/enabling Handoff...in all sorts of combinations, but nothing seems to fix it.

If I knew where the settings were stored, I'd delete the file and reinstall Monterey. Maybe it would create a new settings/plist file which would fix UC.

 

[4nthony]

I was troubleshooting UC again tonight after the 12.4 update and after disabling/enabling the built-in firewall on both machines, noticed these entries in the system log:

The entries show up after I bump the cursor into the side of the screen where the iMac should be.

Thoughts on troubleshooting from this?

Thanks!

 

[boylerman]

Interesting. After upgrading my Mac to 12.4, Universal Control is working for me.

 

[vladstart1]

Interesting. After upgrading my Mac to 12.4, Universal Control is working for me.

But sidecar still doesn't work with little snitch?

 

[4nthony]

Universal Control is now working for me. I don't know exactly what fixed it, but here are a few things I did today:

- I reinstalled macOS Monterey 12.4 via Recovery Mode
- I created a second administrator account on my MBP and signed in with my primary iCloud account under that user account.
- I deleted all the network settings on my MBP including the .plist files
- I disabled/enabled Bluetooth
- I rebooted multiple times

The only new thing I did was to create a second administrator account.

Sidecar is working alongside Universal Control. I have not reinstalled Little Snitch.

One thing that I thought was weird is after I deleted the network settings and rebooted, the WiFi settings reappeared. I don't know from where or how macOS recovered the WiFi settings.

 

[bsmr]

I don't know from where or how macOS recovered the WiFi settings.

iCloud!

They store everything ;-)