Sidecar doesn't work after reconnecting

Question

Level 1

9 points

Sidecar doesn't work after reconnecting

Hi everyone,

I just updated to Catalina and tried out Sidecar for the first time. I am using a 2018 iPad Pro 13" and 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.

Sidecar is found in the AirPlay menu perfectly, I click on it, it connects almost instantly and works perfectly. Absolutely flawlessly. I disconnect (tried it both from the Mac and the iPad, same end result), the connection ends.

My iPad is still in the AirPlay menu so I try to connect to Sidecar again, this time nothing happens for a few seconds, then my iPad's screen goes black with the "Connecting" message and an abort button. Moments later it connects, but I'm only greeted with a black screen on the iPad and nothing else. I tried toggling the sidebar and the touch bar to see if it would fix it but nothing happens.

I tried toggling all radios on the iPad and the MacBook in any order and the same thing happens. The only reliable solution that seems to work is a full restart on the Mac.

Can anyone give me any ideas on how to overcome this? Thanks!

The only difference I see between the two is that when I restart my Mac, the iPad appears in the AirPlay menu list with a separator below the Apple TV. When it doesn't work it just appears normally right after it, no separator. (Strange, I know)

Update: I tried mirroring to the Apple TV and the same black screen is being streamed to it.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Oct 7, 2019 2:38 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Michel Douwma

Level 1

19 points

Oct 10, 2019 3:01 AM in response to lehel_

What you can do is kill the Sidecar app on the iPad and then go to System Preferences > Displays -> Arrangement. There you should tick the mirror display checkbox. Wait for the screen to be mirrored, and then untick the box. This has worked for me without having to reboot. In once case I had to repeat the steps 2 times, but it was always working afterwards :)

I know that it's annoying, but it's less of a pain compared to rebooting. Hopefully Apple will fix it soon.

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Answer 2

Oct 8, 2019 1:39 PM in response to lehel_

I am experience the same problem.

I am trying to turn on side car through air play, assuring:

same wifi network
same apple account
link Mac book pro to iPad Pro through bluetooth

After click on iPad in airplay I receive a message "Unable to connect to iPad Pro - The device timed out"

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Answer 3

alxcay

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2019 7:18 PM in response to lehel_

I'm experiencing the exact same thing. I can't find any other online forums that mention this so I thought maybe it is another application that's making it not work correctly. I Force quit all 3rd party apps etc. through activity monitor but I still have the issue. Very Frustrating.

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Answer 4

lehel_ Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 7, 2019 10:07 PM in response to alxcay

I'm so sorry that you're also having issues! I tried force quitting the services that begin with AirPlay and coreaudiod (according to the internet restarting that reenumerates AirPlay devices, which it did), without much success. It's useful to know that I'm not alone with this, at least.

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Answer 5

lehel_ Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 8, 2019 2:26 PM in response to lehel_

Update 2: when restarting or turning off my Mac, the Sidecar desktop's background overlaps about 75% of the screen with my main desktop background showing behind that, so it seems like the second desktop is actually maybe being rendered somewhere but not on the iPad.

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Answer 6

Oct 8, 2019 3:07 PM in response to lehel_

got the same black screen issue when re-connect devices, hide side bar, hide touch bar. you can get rid of black screen by rebooting your mac or check/uncheck Mirror monitors in the Display Setting but it’s not a solution.

as well got this mega annoying “java command-line jdk” upon starting up and cannot get rid of it.

catalina is a huge disappointment

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Answer 7

Oct 8, 2019 5:30 PM in response to lehel_

Kind of similar issues I think with 2018 Macbook Pro and 2017 12.9" iPad Pro. No black-screen, but Catalina drops Sidecar and I need to reboot:

On first connecting, everything works as expected. The AirPlay>Sidecar icon is in the menubar. But if sidecar drops the connection (as happened a few times in Logic Pro and Final Cut when I was utilizing a second display and switched between programs) the icon disappears. I've tried toggling the display mirroring option in Preferences to get it back-but no good.

The only way I have found to get the Airplay>Sidecar icon back and reconnect the iPad is to do a complete reboot.

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Answer 8

Oct 10, 2019 6:57 AM in response to Michel Douwma

Hmm...the piece I don’t get is “kill the Sidecar app on the iPad” since there is no Sidecar app on my iPad. When I first connect, the MacBook simply finds the iPad and I make the connection from the MacBook via the Sidecar icon. If the connection drops there is no settings on the iPad that I know about, so you will have to explain what you mean by iPad Sidecar app. Thanks.

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Answer 9

Oct 10, 2019 3:38 PM in response to lehel_

There is no Airplay icon in my iPad control centre with the latest OS. On the Mac in system preferences there is no Airplay display option except "Off". Toggling the Mirroring options checkbox does nothing. So when I loose the menu bar Sidecar icon (which includes the Airplay icon) my only recourse is to reboot the Macbook.

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Answer 10

lehel_ Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 8, 2019 3:09 PM in response to vitaly258

I have no solution to the mirroring stuff but have you tried to install this to fix your java issues fix-java-command-line-tool-popup-mac?

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Answer 11

Oct 8, 2019 3:14 PM in response to lehel_

i did. it worked in previous versions but now target disk for installation is not active and says newest version of java has been already installed. drives my crazy

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