Sidecar not working after 11.0.1 update, blank icon in menu bar

Question

Sidecar not working after 11.0.1 update, blank icon in menu bar

Hello,

I got one of the new M1 MacBook on Tuesday and as I was setting up the Mac I was able to use Sidecar with my iPad. However, Tuesday evening I did the Big Sur update to 11.0.1 and since round that time I've had a blank icon in the menu bar and Sidecar is not working.

I've cleared the trusted systems on my iPad and reconfirm with the MacBook, so I do not believe the iPad is the issue, the blank icon leads me to believe it is the MacBook. I tried restarting safe mode and clearing the NVRAM (Which I'm not sure it did, has the process changed on the new Macs), both did not work.

Has anyone else seen this issue?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Nov 18, 2020 6:44 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

iamnickfury

Level 1

9 points

Dec 11, 2020 6:28 PM in response to chrisphil1724

Hi, I had this issue and I found on a Macrumours site to reset the Network Settings on the iPad. This worked for me. Can be found on your iPad Settings-> General-> Reset-> Reset Network Settings. After the iPad reboots, find the same wifi network as your MB and join. Hopefully the MB will see the iPad on sidecar.

God speed.

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Answer 2

Nov 19, 2020 5:03 PM in response to chrisphil1724

Update 2: So after going over all my options, the only one I had not tried was reinstalling the OS. I wasn't far into setup so I thought "why not?"

HUGE MISTAKE!

The M1 Macs are all having issues reinstalling macOS Big Sur and Apple has no fix for it yet. I'm trying fixes for this and will keep this updated.

Right now, my new Macbook is a $1299 brick and Apple is no help.

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Answer 3

Nov 20, 2020 7:43 AM in response to chrisphil1724

Update 3: Apple seems sure it was a wireless network issue, I tried a wired connection and the result was the same. I have a time set up for next Tuesday to do the DFU mode + Apple Configurator 2 fix at the Apple store.

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Answer 4

Nov 20, 2020 6:19 PM in response to chrisphil1724

Update: I noticed that the wireless Sidecar works with an older regular iPad but does not work with my iPad Air 4th Gen. However if I plug my iPad Air in with a cable, it will allow Sidecar after I confirm that I trust the computer in Finder. The iPad Air still won't support sidecar wirelessly.

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Answer 5

Zachcos

Level 1

4 points

Nov 25, 2020 10:57 AM in response to blendermoore

I'm having the same issue as blendermoore with the same devices.

2020 M1 MacBook Air (v11.0.1)

2020 iPad Air 4 (v14.2)

Wired Sidecar works after trusting the iPad in finder, but wirelessly, the Sidecar menu does not display my iPad as an available Sidecar device.

Hopefully just a software issue, but would love some additional information if this is a known issue.

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Answer 6

Nov 28, 2020 3:16 PM in response to Zachcos

Hi there,

exactly the same issue here.

MacBook Air on 11.0.1

iPad Air Gen 4 on 14.2.

There is no way to get Sidecar working. I tried every support article, restarted every component in the network. This seems to be some kind of OS issue.

Apple, pls look into that!

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Answer 7

Nov 19, 2020 5:39 AM in response to chrisphil1724

Update:

On the M1 MacBooks, to clear the NVRAM all you have to do is a cold shut down. However, this still did not fix the issue I am having.

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Answer 8

Nov 19, 2020 4:51 PM in response to chrisphil1724

I am also having this issue with my MacBook Air M1. I have tried restarting both devices and all the recommended quick fixes I have seen online such as toggling Bluetooth, and WiFi.

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Answer 9

Zachcos

Level 1

4 points

Dec 12, 2020 7:10 AM in response to iamnickfury

Thanks, @iamnickfury – that did the trick!

I hadn't found this bit of advice, but a sincere thank you for passing it along!

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Answer 10

Dec 12, 2020 10:37 AM in response to Zachcos

Perfect! THX! It's working :-).

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Sidecar not working after 11.0.1 update, blank icon in menu bar

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