Universal Control

For me, it all works whether my MacBook lid is open or closed. When it's open, both the MacBook's keyboard & touchpad work with Universal Control , as well as the external Bluetooth keyboard & mouse (and, yes, it can be confusing to have two sets of controls active at the same time). When closed, only the external Bluetooth keyboard & mouse work.

Although, again, I don't have any kind of hub anywhere in my setup.

Hello,

Since last 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 last 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.

If this answered your question, You Are Welcome.

If not, I will be willing to achieve success in your problem. Please also try to send pictures (if available and optional) or a more detailed text. Thanks.

Sincerely, Blue_The_Dog

Go to System Preferences -> Displays -> Universal Control and turning the top option "Allow the cursor......" off and on.

This worked for me with my iPad when I lost the connection after turning the iPad screen off.

Works for me with my 2018 MacBook Pro in clamshell mode with external Bluetooth keyboard & mouse with a regular iPad (7th gen). There's a tendency for the MacBook to "forget" the link to the iPad screen after one (or both?) of the systems go to sleep ... but after both have been awake for a while, the MacBook eventually "remembers" that there's a link.

But then, I'm using an external monitor directly connected to the MacBook -- not through a hub.

I have the same issue as OP, and I am not using a hub or anything that would cause this not to work. I'm also on a brand new MBP 14". All OS's are up-to-date and Universal Control works fine when the laptop is open. It just immediately shuts off when closed and connected to my LG external monitor directly via HDMI. Please help.

I can’t duplicate that problem with my 13” MBP (circa 2018) and my directly-connected external LG monitor. I’ve tried this connected to the external LG monitor using Display Port as well as HDMI.

Universal Control over to an iPad continues to work whether I open or close the MBP (as long as I’m using an external keyboard & mouse connected to the MBP, of course).

Both the MBP’s own monitor and the LG external monitor go briefly black when I open or close the MBP, but then come back up within 2 seconds (in the remembered alignment, when MBP is re-opened).

I keep my '20 Intel MBP closed fulltime and docked to an external monitor. Universal control does does work for me in this configuration and I can control my iPad Pro. But... this only works intermittently. I can't 100% reproduce the behavior at will or I'd open a ticket with Apple. However, if I go into the iPad Pro's setting and toggle hand off off/on, this sometimes temporarily fixes the problem.

Bottom line, it shouldn't matter if your MacBook lid is open or closed but Universal Control is still not fully baked yet - which may be why it's still labeled as "Beta".

I'm in the same boat - a Samsung monitor that is old enough that it uses DP instead of HDMI and is running through an OWC thunderbolt dock. The monitor is 6 years old now and relatively low res. When I'm at work plugged directly into a Thunderbolt monitor - we're good. But when I'm at home plugged into the hub it's a no-go. Hopefully, it'll get fixed in an update.

Just out of curiosity - does SideCar work? Sidecar works just fine for the iPad as an additional monitor, but I can't get the Universal Control to work when I need the iPad to be an iPad.