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Universal Control Broken

B

boylerman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 17, 2010
146
52
Massachusetts
I've got an iPad Pro running OS 15.5 and a 2022 MacBook Pro running 12.3.1. At one point, Universal Control worked, but when I went to use it yesterday, I could not get it to work. The Mac sees the iPad, and I can set it up as a display in the Display Settings, but it does not show up as a display to control via keyboard / mouse.

Both devices are on the same Apple ID, and on the same WiFi network and Bluetooth is enabled. I have restarted both devices, toggled Universal Control on and off on the Mac, but I cannot get it to work.

Has anyone found a solution to this?
 
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When iOS 15.5 and MacOS 12.4 entered beta, Apple said universal control would not work with 15.4.x and 12.3.x.

Your Mac needs to be on 12.4 if your iPad is on 15.5.
 
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boylerman said:
I've got an iPad Pro running OS 15.5 and a 2022 MacBook Pro running 12.3.1. At one point, Universal Control worked, but when I went to use it yesterday, I could not get it to work. The Mac sees the iPad, and I can set it up as a display in the Display Settings, but it does not show up as a display to control via keyboard / mouse.

Both devices are on the same Apple ID, and on the same WiFi network and Bluetooth is enabled. I have restarted both devices, toggled Universal Control on and off on the Mac, but I cannot get it to work.

Has anyone found a solution to this?
Click to expand...

Update your MBP. The release note of the beta clearly state that both devices need to run the beta for universal control to work
 
The only time mine ever breaks is when I connect to my work VPN. Are you on a VPN by any chance?
 
spiderman0616 said:
The only time mine ever breaks is when I connect to my work VPN. Are you on a VPN by any chance?
Click to expand...
I updated to the RC of each OS, I do have VPN (Windscribe) I always disable and it works, though disabling now doesn't fix the issue. I will continue to troubleshoot. It may have something to do with the VPN being installed prior to OS update.


EDIT: I ended up getting it working. It was my VPN client interfering somehow (even if it was disabled). I uninstalled completely my VPN software and it worked immediately upon reboot.

*BONUS - I figured out I can still use my VPN *enabled* with Universal Control simultaneously via Wireguard app (with my VPN credentials). So for those that don't want to sacrifice one or the other...

Use the WireGuard app:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wireguard/id1451685025?ls=1&mt=12
 
Last edited:
My MacBook Pro is running 12.3.1, and I acquired a new iPad Pro yesterday, running IOS 15.5. Universal Control does not work......My previous iPad Pro is running 15.4.1. Universal Control on the older iPad Pro works perfectly with the MacBook running 12.3.1 ....... Updating MacBook to 12.4. Comments that UC needs versions XX.X or later are clearly wrong, you must have the latest updates.......
 
Hello,

Since this week's update it has completely stopped working on my MacBook Pro.
Very strange things happen that I have tried to fix with reboots of all devices, resetting SMC, PVRAM, etc. and nothing.

I have a Mac mini, iPad Pro and MacBook Pro 16 Intel (all compatible with Universal control).
The Mac mini and iPad detect fine but with the Macbook there is no way.
If I have it connected to multiple monitors via a Thunderbolt dock from Plugable it does not detect any other device for universal control (yes for adding sidecar).
If I disconnect it from the dock, it detects the iPad and the Mac mini. Sometimes I have to disable the Firewall (Mac's own) and reboot to get it to detect it even though it is supported in the Firewall for universal control.

If I connect universal control with iPad and the Mac mini without the Thunderbolt Dock, and I connect, universal control process death and I can't use universal control.

Before this week's update, I could perfectly have the Macbook with two monitors connected by Dock, the Mac mini and the iPad Pro all connected by universal control. Now there is no way and I don't know what else to try.

Captura de Pantalla 2022-05-25 a las 18.24.49.png



Captura de Pantalla 2022-05-25 a las 18.21.42.png


Thanks.
Best regards.
 
Last edited:
alberto.aig said:
Hello,

Since this week's update it has completely stopped working on my MacBook Pro.
Very strange things happen that I have tried to fix with reboots of all devices, resetting SMC, PVRAM, etc. and nothing.

I have a Mac mini, iPad Pro and MacBook Pro 16 Intel (all compatible with Universal control).
The Mac mini and iPad detect fine but with the Macbook there is no way.
If I have it connected to multiple monitors via a Thunderbolt dock from Plugable it does not detect any other device for universal control (yes for adding sidecar).
If I disconnect it from the dock, it detects the iPad and the Mac mini. Sometimes I have to disable the Firewall (Mac's own) and reboot to get it to detect it even though it is supported in the Firewall for universal control.

If I connect universal control with iPad and the Mac mini without the Thunderbolt Dock, and I connect, universal control process death and I can't use universal control.

Before this week's update, I could perfectly have the Macbook with two monitors connected by Dock, the Mac mini and the iPad Pro all connected by universal control. Now there is no way and I don't know what else to try.

View attachment 2009395


View attachment 2009399

Thanks.
Best regards.
Click to expand...
Make you have the latest versions on all devices. I found the same after an IPad update, and then found the MacBook had a pending update. See previous replies. Once all updated, it worked again.
 
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