Universal Control stopped working

I also had issues where I could use it for couple of minutes and then it stopped working. What fixed it for me is I go to my iPad Pro in Settings/General/AirPlay&Handoff and toggle Cursor and Keyboard off and on again. I hope with Ventura it will work flawlessly, 'cause you know it is pretty cool :)

I have found a way to get it working again.

I use Universal control to use my MBP 13" M1 to control a Mac mini M1. I have also found it quite flakey. What I do when it disconnects is go to the MBP - Settings - Display - Display Settings and extend the MBP display to my Mac mini via airplay.

Once that happens, I go back into settings and disconnect the Mac mini display. After a few seconds, universal control then starts working again.

When you say "extend the MBP display to my Mac mini via airplay" what do you mean? Do you mean selecting your iPad from the "Add Display" drop-down ("Mirror or Extend to")? I thought that was Sidecar - that works for me even when Universal Control doesn't work.

Woah! That actually worked.

When Universal Control wasn't working, I screen mirrored my iPad Pro 11" to my Mac mini. Then I disabled it.

I tried Universal Control again, and it worked.

So, hopefully I have a workaround that doesn't involve rebooting.

Thanks!

I guess, I have the same setup. A MacBook Pro 2020 with MacOS 12.5.1 and an iPad Pro 2018 with iPadOS 15.6.1. I created another user with admin rights in macOS. After I logged on with this new user Universal Control was working again. So now, I'm wondering what is wrong with my current user in macOS. Any ideas?

Same for me. Universal control is awesome when it works, but it randomly works for a number of seconds, then stops. I've done all the suggested changes about Firewall, Bluetooth, hand-off, etc., but it is continually randomly failing. Both my Macs are M1 (M1 mini, and M1-Studio) on the latest version of Ventura. It's an awesome feature, but frustrating when it can only be used for a few seconds at a time

Unfortunately the screen mirroring trick stopped working.

However, I've had a really good string of luck with Universal Control working, I definitely think it has to do with other accounts not being logged in. My family hasn't used the desktop Mac mini for quite some time, so there haven't been any other users on the system. Universal Control has worked perfectly.

I think - for me at least - it stops working when other users are logged in.

The next point release (iPadOS 15.5 & MacOS 12.4) just came out today (5/16/2022). OP might try upgrading to those new releases and seeing what happens.

I think something finally worked with the update and I now have the additional option to link my keyboard and mouse. All good now! Thanks!

Yes, seems very flakey. I updated to 12.5 and it started working again.

I really hope they get this sorted as I really like this feature.

That's a cool trick! I had no idea. I'll keep an eye out on this and report back.

I just tried that and it didn't work. I can extend the display via Sidecar and it works fine. After I disable it, Universal Control still doesn't work. Very frustrating!

Sorry to be clearer, I go Add Display, Extend to Mac mini via Airplay, then disconnect and it seems to work. Maybe try using Airplay rather than Sidecar if possible?

Hah! Awesome! Mine tends to drop off at least once a day, so it was a fair bit of trial and error to find this fix, so I am stoked it worked for you too!

logging out other user account helped!