Universal Control stopped working

I did the point releases (MacOS 12.4 & iPadOS 15.5) and Universal Control works more smoothly for me. Didn't stop working or anything.

If (on the Mac, in Preferences -> Displays -> Add Display (dropdown) you do NOT see

Link keyboard & mouse

[name of your iPad goes here]

... then your systems aren't close enough, aren't both running Bluetooth, don't have WiFi turned on, aren't both logged into the same iCloud Apple ID (not a "managed ID"), or otherwise do not meet the complete set of requirements for Universal Control. I.e., the System/Preference settings must all be correct, etc. as described in the iPadOS 15.5 User Manual

Use a keyboard and mouse or trackpad across your Mac and iPad with Universal Control - Apple Support

Or, as we've also found: any firewall that's turned on must allow incoming connections for at least "Universal Control.app" and rapportd (the firewall itself can even be in "stealth mode" as long as it allows those incoming connections.

Since (with MacOS 12.4 & iPadOS 15.5) Universal Control is no longer Beta, you should be able to get support from Apple Support now. [You can start by going to the top right-hand corner of this web page and clicking on "Get Support"!]

UC seems flakey. I have MBP M1 Pro and MBP M1 2020 and both have been updated to the latest 12.5. I don't exactly remember if UC was working smoothly before the upgrade. I did try rebooting both machines but to no avail until I came to this post and tried the suggestion to sign out from the iCloud account on both devices. That somehow did the trick right after signing back into my iCloud account; the UC was working again. I hope Apple will do something about this. For now, I'll continue to observe and if this happens again, the first place to go would be the iCloud account.

I'm not sure if this is totally related, but I've noticed that when someone else is logged into my machine, it seems to stop working.

I restarted my Mac to get Universal Control working again. Check.

My wife logged into her account on the Mac. Universal Control stops working on my side.

She logs out of her account. Universal Control starts working again on my side, without rebooting the machine.

Very odd, but so far repeatable, I'll continue to experiment with this.

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 :)

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!

rpm04 wrote:

I started using universal control when it was still in the beta. Everything was working fine. One day it just stopped working. I've tried everything...

I use a 2018 iPad Pro and a 2020 MacBook Pro. Everything is updated and working correctly.

Any ideas?

You can wait for the next point update and see if it sorts your issue.

Universal Control: Use a single keyboard and mouse between Mac and iPad - Apple Support

The current stable release of Monterey including bug fixes, is macOS 12.3.1

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Apple seeds fourth macOS Monterey 12.4 developer beta

05/13/22 the macOS Monterey 12.4 "Release Candidate" was issued to developer/seed testers

Apple has advised users of Universal Control in the beta must ensure that they are using iPadOS 15.5 beta for the feature to continue working with a Mac running macOS 12.4.

Update iPadOS - Apple Support

This appears to be something in iCloud. During the beta, I could not for the life of me get it to work, then I left it for an hour and it started working with no intervention. Since it is out of beta, I tried various combinations of toggling/rebooting I even tried using different wifi networks, nothing. 2 days ago I managed to get it to connect to my iPad Air 4 but as soon as I switched on the Mini 6, it disconnected and all options vanishes. I've not been able to get it to connect to even a single iPad since.

However when I log out of my Apple ID and log in with my father's Apple ID, it works fine (!!) - So this seems to be something relating to the account itself and something on Apple's side. I am expecting a call back from Apple tomorrow afternoon, I hope they can fix it as it is a pretty killer feature.

Update from my previous post. It looks like booting the machine into Safe Mode resolves the issue. Perhaps it helped clear the remnants of caching. This may not work in every situation, but it's worth a try.

Well, there is a way to toggle Universal Control ... which I've found useful while troubleshooting Universal Control,

Add Displays to the Mac's main menu bar:

System Preferences -> Doc & Menu Bar -> Display -> Show in Menu Bar always

A new icon will show up on your main menu bar which links like a miniature split screen when Universal Control is working, and like a miniature monitor when it isn't.

If it isn't working, but potentially _could_ work, click on the miniature monitor and if you see and you see "link keyboard and mouse to <name of your iPad>" with a little dark monitor icon below that, then click on it that; it should turn green and look like a little split screen. Thus toggling it on (without having to try to drag the mouse over past some edge of the monitor).

If it is working, the little icon in the popup should be green. Click on that to toggle Universal Control off.

Note that in Display preferences, for your iPad you must have either chosen to Use as: "Linked keyboard and mouse" (which is Universal Control) _or_ Use as: "Extended or mirrored display" (which is Sidecar). Whichever one you choose will foreclose using the other.

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.

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?

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'm on all the latest versions (macOS 12.5.1 and iPadOS 15.6.1) and Universal Control stops working after awhile. The only solve is to reboot either the Mac or the iPad or both. I've tried toggling it on/off on both devices, toggling bluetooth, toggling wifi, and nothing gets it working again.

This feature is awesome, until it just stops working. That's very frustrating! I've submitted a bug report to Apple about this.

What's strange is that Sidecar still works, the Mac still "sees" the iPad, so why can't it connect with Universal Control? I really wish there was a toggle just for Universal Control rather than the "push past the side of the window."

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.

logging out other user account helped!