Sequoia Broke My Beloved Universal Control

[Jadedogsome]

As the title states, Universal Control has been totally borked by Sequoia. Constantly connecting and disconnecting, both over wifi and connected via thunderbolt. In the off chance it works, I get about ten seconds of solid mouse moving on the iPad only for it to disconnect. I'm unfortunately not surprised by such an important feature being overlooked in a mediocre software update. I was curious if anyone else has noticed this and if you've found any solution for it. I've restarted both iPad and Mac several times, messed with handoff settings, and nothing.

 

[sydlow]

It's broken for me too - can't find any workaround or fix.

 

[Jadedogsome]

It's broken for me too - can't find any workaround or fix.

I found something that has worked, but intermittently, and it's a pain.

Sign out of iCloud on your iPad, keep in mind this means re-downloading anything that hasn't been stored locally, this includes Apple Music, TV, and many more things.

Then log back in, and boom, suddenly it works again. Although I've noticed I need to re-pair it manually when I need it, rather than having it 'just work'. Hopefully this helps!

 

[MultiFinder17]

I've noticed the same thing between my 2020 27" iMac and my M1 Air. It's super spotty and is incredibly hit or miss when it will or won't work. It seems to barely work when I first wake both of them up, constantly disconnecting and reconnecting. After about an hour of them both being awake, it seems to settle in and it works more reliably, though still has connection issues. Fingers crossed this is just some bug that will be fixed soon, as this has been working perfectly since Monterey

 

[CalMin]

It's not free, but I've had luck with using Synergy (from Symless) instead of Universal Control. UC got temperamental with me and I couldn't always rely on it. TO make matters worse, I then needed to use it on a machine signed into another AppleID (for work) and there's no way to do that.

 

[CharlesShaw]

This is so frustrating. Mine just stopped working after testing it for a couple days (with M4 mini, M1 iPad Pro, Mac Magic Keyboard and Trackpad) where I thought it had become reliable since I last tested it when it first came out.

 

[CharlesShaw]

Although I've noticed I need to re-pair it manually when I need it, rather than having it 'just work'. Hopefully this helps!

I should have asked yesterday what you meant by "re-pair it manually..." This morning I was determined to try the old school process of turning things off and back on again when, DOH!, my brain finally sees that when UC is not working, it's because my iPad does not appear in the Mac's display settings. Clicking on the + button and linking it again gets it working again, without having to log out of iCloud on the iPad.

 

[koochey]

One question - would Universal Control support Vertical/Portrait Mode for iPad as External Monitor ?
Can't get it working but also don't have any prior Sequoia testing since i just got my iPad Pro and run latest OSX and padOS.
3rd Party Apps let me do this but not Apples own Ecosystem or am i missing smt ?
thanks in advance - btw i don't have re-connecting issues so far

 

[svenmany]

One question - would Universal Control support Vertical/Portrait Mode for iPad as External Monitor ?
Can't get it working but also don't have any prior Sequoia testing since i just got my iPad Pro and run latest OSX and padOS.
3rd Party Apps let me do this but not Apples own Ecosystem or am i missing smt ?
thanks in advance - btw i don't have re-connecting issues so far

Universal Control works fine when the iPad is in portrait mode. Sidecar, the technology which allows an iPad to be an external monitor, does not.

I just tested my iPad in portrait mode and set it as an external monitor. It displayed sideways as if the long side was horizontal rather than vertical. I think that answers your question, but I'm in the same position as you in that I only have Sequoia running.

 

[pshufd]

It's not free, but I've had luck with using Synergy (from Symless) instead of Universal Control. UC got temperamental with me and I couldn't always rely on it. TO make matters worse, I then needed to use it on a machine signed into another AppleID (for work) and there's no way to do that.

Older versions are free. https://github.com/amankhoza/synergy-binaries

I've been using Synergy since around 2008. I tried Universal Control and found it to be buggy.

 

[CalMin]

Older versions are free. https://github.com/amankhoza/synergy-binaries

I've been using Synergy since around 2008. I tried Universal Control and found it to be buggy.

I didn't know that! Nice find.

 

[svenmany]

I didn't know that! Nice find.

Definitely find out who that developer is before you use code they put on GitHub. It would be better to find an official source if possible.

-- Edit --

I logged into my Symless account. They don't seem to provide anything as old as the versions from that developer. The oldest I see is 1.14.6. I suspect it's not free to use though.

You might consider the alternative

GitHub - deskflow/deskflow: Share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers.

Share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers. - deskflow/deskflow

github.com

Synergy is a sponsor of that project.

 

[CalMin]

Definitely find out who that developer is before you use code they put on GitHub. It would be better to find an official source if possible.

-- Edit --

I logged into my Symless account. They don't seem to provide anything as old as the versions from that developer. The oldest I see is 1.14.6. I suspect it's not free to use though.

You might consider the alternative

GitHub - deskflow/deskflow: Share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers.

Share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers. - deskflow/deskflow

github.com

Synergy is a sponsor of that project.

Always good advice. I actually already paid Symless/Synergy for the official version - just didn't know it was available for 'free' on GitHub as well.

 

[pshufd]

Definitely find out who that developer is before you use code they put on GitHub. It would be better to find an official source if possible.

You can look but I've been using it since around 2019.

It's open source so you can just pull the source code and build it yourself but Synergy KM (the company) charges you

 

[Adora]

Several weeks ago maybe in an early 15.4 Beta suddenly Universal Control appeared in the Menu Bar Display Settings.

I never really heard of it or used it before. Somehow the settings were already activated. A few months before I saw the mouse courser on my iPad and wondered what that is, but forgot about it because I almost never use iPads.

It worked for a few weeks and was perfect for using a Mac mini with one Display and iMac next to each other. Then I removed a Thunderbolt 4 Dock from my iMac, moved everything on my desk a bit and it was suddenly gone. Of course the first thing I did was putting everything to the same place as before. The mini is even under the iMac display now. But nothing helped.

I tried everything to activate it again, even logged out of iCloud on both Macs. The display from the other Mac is still visible in System Settings of boths and when I click on one of them I only have those options:

But I want those:

Also this is running on both Macs:

Handoff is turned on for both, both have Wifi an BT enabled and are on the same network, incoming connections are allowed for Universal Control in the Firewall, it worked with VPN on before, but I of course tried turning that and Adguard too off.

The Macs are M3 and M4 Pro, so also no big age difference. I tried if it might work with my M2 Pro MacBookPro on one of both Macs but that also did not work. For the iPad only display sharing no mouse courser anymore.

Every solution I found was just an instruction how to activate it. Or parts of it.

Since it stopped working, suddenly apps that are in use on one Mac like Mail or Notes appear in the Dock as last icon on the right side. Those Continuity/Handoff options had not been there before when Universal Control worked.

I almost never used Bluetooth before and switched to Ethernet from WiFi last year, so BT was turned off on my other Macs since and iPhones since years most of the time before and WiFi later on the Macs.
Sometimes when I needed Universal Clipboard for pasting something to an iPhone I turned it on for a while. But otherwise all this is new to me. I knew about most Continuity features, but I never really used them.

Universal Control was an exception I never heard of it until I found it in System Settings. I didn't even know how it is called. Sidecar for iPads was the last I heard of.

Before that I used only one M2 Pro MacBook Pro for a year and before that I had for many years only Macs with nothing newer than High Sierra installed. So I maybe missed it's introduction.

It just was there suddenly in February this year and gone a few weeks later in March without changing anything special in macOS or doing an update to a new beta.

Both Macs have a Thunderbolt Bridge and the Ethernet connections to the Router too and I wonder why I can't use this for such features.

Is it maybe possible to use those sharing options instead? I can only copy files over in Finder but not just drag them with the mouse on the other screen.

 

[pshufd]

Several weeks ago maybe in an early 15.4 Beta suddenly Universal Control appeared in the Menu Bar Display Settings.

I never really heard of it or used it before. Somehow the settings were already activated. A few months before I saw the mouse courser on my iPad and wondered what that is, but forgot about it because I almost never use iPads.

It worked for a few weeks and was perfect for using a Mac mini with one Display and iMac next to each other. Then I removed a Thunderbolt 4 Dock from my iMac, moved everything on my desk a bit and it was suddenly gone. Of course the first thing I did was putting everything to the same place as before. The mini is even under the iMac display now. But nothing helped.

I tried everything to activate it again, even logged out of iCloud on both Macs. The display from the other Mac is still visible in System Settings of boths and when I click on one of them I only have those options:

View attachment 2497554



But I want those:


View attachment 2497555
Also this is running on both Macs:

View attachment 2497556

Handoff is turned on for both, both have Wifi an BT enabled and are on the same network, incoming connections are allowed for Universal Control in the Firewall, it worked with VPN on before, but I of course tried turning that and Adguard too off.

The Macs are M3 and M4 Pro, so also no big age difference. I tried if it might work with my M2 Pro MacBookPro on one of both Macs but that also did not work. For the iPad only display sharing no mouse courser anymore.

Every solution I found was just an instruction how to activate it. Or parts of it.

Since it stopped working, suddenly apps that are in use on one Mac like Mail or Notes appear in the Dock as last icon on the right side. Those Continuity/Handoff options had not been there before when Universal Control worked.

I almost never used Bluetooth before and switched to Ethernet from WiFi last year, so BT was turned off on my other Macs since and iPhones since years most of the time before and WiFi later on the Macs.
Sometimes when I needed Universal Clipboard for pasting something to an iPhone I turned it on for a while. But otherwise all this is new to me. I knew about most Continuity features, but I never really used them.

Universal Control was an exception I never heard of it until I found it in System Settings. I didn't even know how it is called. Sidecar for iPads was the last I heard of.

Before that I used only one M2 Pro MacBook Pro for a year and before that I had for many years only Macs with nothing newer than High Sierra installed. So I maybe missed it's introduction.

It just was there suddenly in February this year and gone a few weeks later in March without changing anything special in macOS or doing an update to a new beta.

Both Macs have a Thunderbolt Bridge and the Ethernet connections to the Router too and I wonder why I can't use this for such features.

Is it maybe possible to use those sharing options instead? I can only copy files over in Finder but not just drag them with the mouse on the other screen.


View attachment 2497568

Maybe UC is fixed for 15.4. Menubar access sounds nice - if UC works reliably.

 

[Adora]

Maybe UC is fixed for 15.4. Menubar access sounds nice - if UC works reliably.

Back then I found it here. There suddenly was an option to enable/disable it, then the icon of the display changed to something different, after I enabled it.

I just updated from RC2 to the final version and it still does not work.

 

[svenmany]

My experiences might not relate to your situation at all, but I thought to share just in case it does.

I recall that I've seen some stuff in the menu bar before, but I see nothing now. I control everything from System Settings / Displays. There's a small dropdown arrow near the top where you can select various external devices. From there I can configure devices for Universal Control or Sidecar. Choosing one prevents choosing the other, for any particular device. For example, if I choose Sidecar for my iPad, to use it as an external computer display, then it is no longer available to be used as a iPad, controlled by my computer's keyboard and mouse.

For some reason, that dropdown allows me to choose my other laptop for Sidecar. If I do that, it doesn't work and I only get a blank screen, but it does prevent using that laptop with Universal Control.

For quite a while only Sidecar worked for me. I would almost never see my iPad available for Universal Control. Even if I saw it sometimes, it was intermittent. There is only one thing I changed from back then; I no longer connect my computer to my iPad directly using a cable. Apple does support doing that for Sidecar, but I don't believe it's used at all for Universal Control. I've always speculated that the direct connection interfered with Universal Control.

Even when Universal Control wasn't working, one part of Handoff seemed to be. I would see the application that was running on my main computer in the dock of the other devices. Though, it's always been a bit random when it shows up. For example, my main computer that I'm working on now and typing in Safari is also running Firefox. I see Safari in the menubar of my iPad and Firefox in the menubar of my secondary computer.

 

[Adora]

My experiences might not relate to your situation at all, but I thought to share just in case it does.

I recall that I've seen some stuff in the menu bar before, but I see nothing now. I control everything from System Settings / Displays. There's a small dropdown arrow near the top where you can select various external devices. From there I can configure devices for Universal Control or Sidecar. Choosing one prevents choosing the other, for any particular device. For example, if I choose Sidecar for my iPad, to use it as an external computer display, then it is no longer available to be used as a iPad, controlled by my computer's keyboard and mouse.

For some reason, that dropdown allows me to choose my other laptop for Sidecar. If I do that, it doesn't work and I only get a blank screen, but it does prevent using that laptop with Universal Control.

For quite a while only Sidecar worked for me. I would almost never see my iPad available for Universal Control. Even if I saw it sometimes, it was intermittent. There is only one thing I changed from back then; I no longer connect my computer to my iPad directly using a cable. Apple does support doing that for Sidecar, but I don't believe it's used at all for Universal Control. I've always speculated that the direct connection interfered with Universal Control.

Even when Universal Control wasn't working, one part of Handoff seemed to be. I would see the application that was running on my main computer in the dock of the other devices. Though, it's always been a bit random when it shows up. For example, my main computer that I'm working on now and typing in Safari is also running Firefox. I see Safari in the menubar of my iPad and Firefox in the menubar of my secondary computer.

Im Sytem Settings I have that small dropdown menu too. This is not availabe in the Menu Bar.

I can use my iMac as second Display for the mini or the other way round, Or mirror the entire screen or just parts of it. Like in my first screenshot in the post before.

Only when Universal Control is available it shows up in the Menu Bars's display settings. But it never came back anywhere for a single time.

It's so annoying to have two Macs next to each other when you can't control both displays with the same devices or just drag files over without using the Network option in Finder. Then it's better to have a second display or waste the M3 iMac with 24GB RAM and 1TB drive as display only.

 

[svenmany]

It's so annoying to have two Macs next to each other when you can't control both displays with the same devices or just drag files over without using the Network option in Finder. Then it's better to have a second display or waste the M3 iMac with 24GB RAM and 1TB drive as display only.

Now that it's working for me, here's what I see:

When Universal Control wasn't working, the top section was missing, giving me options like you are seeing. It was infuriating and I wish I knew what fixed it so that I could help.

 

[svenmany]

I had the display widget hidden in the menu bar. I've turned it on and see this:

I'm using two external monitors which is a bit distracting, but I do see the section for linkable devices that you do not.

 

[Adora]

Now that it's working for me, here's what I see:

View attachment 2498858


When Universal Control wasn't working, the top section was missing, giving me options like you are seeing. It was infuriating and I wish I knew what fixed it so that I could help.

That top section is missing, I am looking everyday a few times on both Macs if it's back.

As said I originally found it by coincidence because I saw it in the Menu Bar when clicking on the Display there suddenly it was that option because both Macs at the same time had WiFi and BT enabled, what they never had before.

The lower section has an extra icon that can be put in the Menu Bar too, even when it's not active:

 

[Adora]

I had the display widget hidden in the menu bar. I've turned it on and see this:

View attachment 2498909


I'm using two external monitors which is a bit distracting, but I do see the section for linkable devices that you do not.

Yes that's what I meant, where I enabled it. Thanks, I searched for a picture but did not find any.

I am on 15.5 Beta 1 now by the way and nothing changed.

 

[Adora]

@svenmany

It's back!!! 🥰

The only thing I did was setting the iMac to default resolution. It enabled automatically because my mouse courser was already on the other screen within milliseconds because I was near the left side.

From the other Mac I had to push the mouse three times in the right direction and it was enabled too.

 

[svenmany]

Great news that it worked for you.