Using 2012 iMac (Catalina) as external display for m1 MacBook Pro (Monterey)

[Soundhound]

Anyone know how to make this work? Target display is no longer available for this combination of Macs, but I'm reading some articles on using Airplay between the two and it seems some people have gotten that to work. But I've had no luck.

I can get the MacBook Pro to be an external display for the iMac, which is lovely but the opposite of what I'm trying to do.

Anyone been able to to do it?

 

[Juicy Box]

You are correct, Target Display Mode will not work with the M1 Macs. Even if you had an older Mac as your source, it doesn't work with the Target Mac on Catalina.

There are other options, such as Screen Sharing, and third party solutions like Luna Display.

I'm reading some articles on using Airplay between the two and it seems some people have gotten that to work. But I've had no luck.

Not sure about AirPlay, but have you tried Screen Sharing? It is built into the OS.

I screen share to multiple Macs daily, even Macs with no displays attached. I screen share multiple Macs from one Mac at the same time, and even daisy chain screen share with multiple Macs. I use it with multiple different OS versions, from very old to Big Sur.

It works great for me, but does have a few limitations.

Not sure why this wouldn't work for you.

The downsides is the trade off of latency vs quality. There is a setting in the Screen Sharing app that allows for full quality, but at the cost of latency. The default setting is better latency (it is called Adaptive Quality).

Having a wired connection would improve everything a lot.

Depending on what you are doing with your Macs, Screen Sharing might work for you.

 

[Soundhound]

That's a great idea, thank you. but I'm not sure it would work in this case which may be because I haven't had coffee yet. I have one 27" monitor connected to the MacBook pro and am wanting to use the iMac as the second monitor. It seems both the iMac and the 27" monitor would be showing the same desktop, rather than functioning as a second display which is what I'm after. I do screenshare a lot, but generally when I'm in another room and need to tend to something on the iMac, see how downloads or large copying of files is going over there, etc...

I need coffee and explore whether screen sharing can work as an extended display. I think.

 

[Soundhound]

It did kind of work! the screen sharing of the macbook pro’snscreen on the imac isn’t quite full screen but it’s close enough for rock n roll until i get my new ultrawide which won’t be all that long once i get the guts to hit the buy button.

thanks again!