Sidecar - Has anyone got it working?

[jarman92]

Not completely (rather no) because apple dropped from support all the iPad without official iPencil support.

Even if your 2018 MBP is HEVC capable, your limitation is in the iPad mini 4 hardware (very similar to the iPad Air 2).

But you can have it working again because for chance, during the Catalina beta 2 (around June), I catched a glitch by apple, and so if you use my "SidecarCore beta 9 patched file", you'll have a working Sidecar on your setup, but you should first update Catalina to the latest beta 11 and iPadOS to 13.1.2 and apply these preliminary steps:

- Boot from Recovery with CMD+R , open a recovery Terminal and type exactly: csrutil disable ; reboot

Then follow these tips to replace the file: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/side-car-has-anyone-got-it-working.2184104/post-27807001

Followed your steps and got it working on my MacBook 11,2 and iPad Pro 11"! I started out with a wire but it kept working after I unplugged it, so I guess it works over WiFi as well

 

[jackluke]

Followed your steps and got it working on my MacBook 11,2 and iPad Pro 11"! I started out with a wire but it kept working after I unplugged it, so I guess it works over WiFi as well

Yes, on other tested machines feedback it worked only wired because either the devices (the Mac and/or the iPad) don't supported the Wifi 802.11ac also renamed by Wifi-Alliance as Wifi 5 while the 802.11n as Wifi 4

Instead yours devices do have WiFi ac, so that's why you can Sidecar also in wireless mode.

Probably the feature required from wireless Sidecar are MU-MIMO and WMM (only present from Wifi ac).

In any case my patched Sidecar beta9 will work on any iPadOS device and any Catalina supported Mac at least in wired-mode.

 

[Calleknug]

What gives best performance AC wifi or the usb-c to lightning cable? Thinking of wether I should purchase a cable. Got 2016 non touchbar macbook pro and iPad pro 10.5"

 

[Calleknug]

Also does anyone know if it's possible to change it to full/retina resolution on the iPad?

 

[Storm312]

Not sure if it has an impact on wireless or wired, but make sure your iPad is trusted by your laptop. I wish it was more obvious what the mode of transport is.

Also, does anyone know how to get the touchbar of the focused application on the sidecar touchbar? The logic it currently has seems to be extremely weird and inconsistent. If I put the focused application on my iPad screen, it will show the touchbar just fine. If it's on a separate display, the touch bar goes to the laptop touchbar (which is personally out of reach because I use an external keyboard). Even more weirdly, sometimes it will show me a touchbar for an open app that I at least think is not focused or even currently visible.

Also, does wired require a 40Gbps (Thunderbolt 3) usb-c cable or does a 10Gbps USB-C (USB 3.1?) work for wired display transfer?

 

[Wokis]

Also, does wired require a 40Gbps (Thunderbolt 3) usb-c cable or does a 10Gbps USB-C (USB 3.1?) work for wired display transfer?

I reckon a regular USB-C cable should do the trick since there is no thunderbolt controller on any iPad and the HEVC video stream bitrate being sent is reasonably far far lower than 10Gbps.

 

[Wokis]

Here is an updated fix to make Sidecar work again between iPadOS 13.1 (final release) and Catalina Beta 9 (probably also on the next Catalina GM seed)

---

Thanks for this! Worked like a charm. Now my unsupported 2015 MacBook Pro can output a horrible looking stream to my iPad, both wired and wireless. Won't be using that regularly but when in a pinch it can prove useful

 

[Blue Hawk]

I'm really annoyed about Apple this year. iOS, watchOS, iPadOS, tvOS, macOS... Nothing works like it should be. Nothing is ready for public releases. Bugs, issues, app crashes, apps are freezing, lags... Everything sucks.

I always get a timeout message when I want to use sidecar with my iPad. I feel like I'm on Android or Windows...

 

[Squillace]

Not sure if it has an impact on wireless or wired, but make sure your iPad is trusted by your laptop. I wish it was more obvious what the mode of transport is.

Also, does anyone know how to get the touchbar of the focused application on the sidecar touchbar? The logic it currently has seems to be extremely weird and inconsistent. If I put the focused application on my iPad screen, it will show the touchbar just fine. If it's on a separate display, the touch bar goes to the laptop touchbar (which is personally out of reach because I use an external keyboard). Even more weirdly, sometimes it will show me a touchbar for an open app that I at least think is not focused or even currently visible.

Also, does wired require a 40Gbps (Thunderbolt 3) usb-c cable or does a 10Gbps USB-C (USB 3.1?) work for wired display transfer?

Same here. I see some strange behaviors. Sometimes the Touch Bar don't match the app open. And I can't get the Touch Bar on the iPad while the app itself is on my iMac. That would be the point of using this option for me. Otherwise it's kinda pointless. I don't see myself opening Photoshop in that little 10.5 screen, while I have my big 27" 5K display next to it...

 

[mattrak82]

Thanks to jackluke, I have a perfectly working Sidecar on my iPad Air 2 with my MBP 2016! I followed your precise guidelines and it worked nicely at first try. I'm kind of surprised by the quality by the way. It looks like they could enable it if the cable was not necessary

 

[Invisible Elf]

Sorry if this has been discussed before: Is there a way to make the MBP keep display scaling at "more space" while using SideCar? Mine reverts to the default display scaling while SideCar is active (MBP 2015 15" + 11" iPad Pro).

 

[Chin39]

I can't connect my iPad pro with my MBP 2016 via usb-c cable (A miscellaneous error occurred (32002).), but they are working well via wifi. Anyone has the same issue?

 

[EugW]

Hi,
I have
- 2018 MacBook Pro on macOS Catalina GM2
- iPad mini 4 running iPadOS 13

Is sidecard supposed to work on that iPad?

I'm surprised it hasn't been posted yet, but this was unexpected for me. Apple is not supporting Sidecar with any iPad that does not support Apple Pencil (regardless if it can run iPadOS or not).

So, besides the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4, it means that the iPad 5th generation is also not supported. It makes sense with iPad Air and mini 4, since they run A8X and A8 respectively, but the iPad 5 is a bit of a surprise since it has A9, which has full hardware HEVC decode support.

 

[Hsuan]

Here is an updated fix to make Sidecar work again between iPadOS 13.1 (final release) and Catalina Beta 9 (probably also on the next Catalina GM seed) with iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4 only in wired mode (using a lightning cable to usb).

The improved patched file is totally safe and will work on any iPadOS device and any Catalina supported Mac.

It works also with the iPad 5th-6th gen (the non-Pro and non-Air edition), non-HEVC GPU Catalina supported Mac, moreover applying the patch doesn't affect the others "HEVC capable GPU Catalina Mac" and modern iPad Pro that are Sidecar natively supported.

Requirements to apply the patch:

- either iPadOS 13.1 and Catalina must be logged into the same iCloud account (with two-factor authentication)
- SIP disabled (booting with CMD+R from Recovery Terminal typing "csrutil disable")
- sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder (from a Catalina Terminal to overwrite the file to patch)
open /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SideCarCore.framework/Versions/A/
- the plugged iPadOS device must be Trusted from Catalina Finder (click Trust) and Authorised from the iPad (tap Authorize).

other tips:

- to use the virtualised "Sidebar" on iPadOS, from Catalina Mac open the little ipad blue icon (or the Airplay icon) on finder top-right menu and select "Use as Separate Display"
- while to use the virtualised "Touch Bar" select "Mirror as Sidecar display"

For reference and other details here is my original post: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/side-car-has-anyone-got-it-working.2184104/post-27561537

It also works on the official version (MBP 2015 Mid+ iPad Pro 2018 11-inch), but the screen of iPad is not very clear and it keeps flickering all the time.

 

[Hsuan]

Sorry if this has been discussed before: Is there a way to make the MBP keep display scaling at "more space" while using SideCar? Mine reverts to the default display scaling while SideCar is active (MBP 2015 15" + 11" iPad Pro).

If works well though wireless connection.

 

[hellfried]

I updated from Mojave to Catalina last night on my MBP 2019 and Sidecar popped right up on my 6th gen iPad. Still experimenting with it.

 

[Bbeelzebub]

I've been shuffling my way through the thread and haven't seen anybody with a late 2013 27" iMac saying if the patch worked for them. I have the 2017 10.5 iPad Pro with pencil and am considering running the patch. If quality is an issue, I may go ahead and spring for Duet Pro

 

[GlenK]

I have a 2015 MBPro and just found this:

With portable Macs, you can use Sidecar if you're running a MacBook or MacBook Pro from 2016 or newer, or a Macbook Air from 2018 or later. The desktop Macs that can use it are the iMac, beginning with the 2015models, the iMac Pro, the Mac mini from 2018 onwards, or the forthcoming Mac Pro.

 

[Outrigger]

I have a 2018 15" mbp and a 2018 iPad Pro 12.9 and both are on the latest os but does not work wire or wireless. I keep getting the device timed out message regardless of what I do. anyone else getting this issue?

 

[EugW]

Sidecar with my 2017 MacBook and 2017 10.5” iPad Pro worked in the betas via wired but not wireless.

However, with the release version of Catalina and the latest iPadOS 13.1.2, it works with wireless too now. Yay! Pretty fast too.

 

[juangueo]

Has anyone tested the SidecarCore Beta 9 Patch on the latest Catalina (Beta 10) + iPadOS 13.2 (17B5068e) on iPad Air 2? These patches provided by @jackluke have been a lifesaver for me, enabling SideCar (wired) to work FLAWLESSLY with an MBA 2018 + iPad Air 2!

Nothing else on the net worked for me.

I can't afford to lose SideCar now so am willing to wait for a proper patch before moving up! Beta 10 + iPad Air 2 experiences anyone?

 

[Aston441]

I updated my 2017 MacBook 12” to Catalina. I clicked on sidecar in settings and it instantly and perfectly connected to my iPad 6, which was connected to the MacBook via pass through USB-C to USB-A connector at the time (for charging the iPad 6).

When unhooked from the macbook it connects perfectly wirelessly too.

I didn’t do anything at all to make it work. It just worked. Very unApple-like.

 

[eyeballs14]

Has anyone tested the SidecarCore Beta 9 Patch on the latest Catalina (Beta 10) + iPadOS 13.2 (17B5068e) on iPad Air 2? These patches provided by @jackluke have been a lifesaver for me, enabling SideCar (wired) to work FLAWLESSLY with an MBA 2018 + iPad Air 2!

Nothing else on the net worked for me.

I can't afford to lose SideCar now so am willing to wait for a proper patch before moving up! Beta 10 + iPad Air 2 experiences anyone?

I tried utilizing the SidecarCar Beta 9 batch on the public Catalina release + iPad OS 13.1.2 on my iPad 5. There appears to be some glitches and the wireless mode doesn't work for me. @jackluke do you plan on releasing an updated patch? From the comments I read earlier, wireless Sidecar should work with the iPad 5 as it's hardware should support it. Thanks for all of your hard work!

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have my iPad mini 5 and iMac Catalina on the same Wifi network and both have BT on.. When I try to Sidecar to my iPad mini5, the connection times out. "Can't connect to iPad mini T-Mobile."

Wired connection is giving me the same error.

Anyone get this working?

edited to add: After rebooting both devices again, it started working wireless and wired.

 

[Diamond Dog]

Working great Mac mini 2018 to iPad Pro 10.5", here. Wired and wireless. ?