Sharing keyboard and mouse between 2 M1 Macs with Universal Control not working

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Level 1

46 points

Sharing keyboard and mouse between 2 M1 Macs with Universal Control not working

Universal Control between my two M1 Macs (both on 12.4) only offer the option to mirror displays, not to share keyboard and mouse. All required settings are in place ...

Handoff is active on both
Both are on the same Apple ID
Both are on the same WiFi
Both have Bluetooth enabled
2-factor authentication is active on the Apple ID

I should be seeing an option (in the Display pane of the System Preferences) to share keyboard and mouse, but I only see the mirror screen option ...

Is this because it's still in Beta and is not yet working in the "public" release (in spite of what so many websites show) ? Or is there something else wrong ?

Note : I'm trying to get this to work with an M1 iMac 24" with Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, and an M1 Macbook Air (2020) standing right next to it ...

MacBook Air (2020 or later)

Posted on May 25, 2022 2:05 AM

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Answer 1

AnnieL2

Community Specialist

May 26, 2022 7:44 AM in response to pplanch

Salutations pplanch,

You found the perfect article for this Universal Control: Use a single keyboard and mouse between Mac and iPad.

Let’s isolate a bit more. First, if you haven’t restarted both Macs, please do so and check for the setting again.

Are you not seeing the setting to share the keyboard/mouse in System Preferences > Displays on both Macs? Any issues trying to mirror or arrange the displays?

Next, let’s test in safe mode How to use safe mode on your Mac.

Thanks.

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Answer 2

Chris_C1

Community Specialist

May 27, 2022 6:14 AM in response to pplanch

Hey there pplanch,

At this point, you'll want to Contact Apple Support for help.

Have a good one!

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Answer 3

pplanch Author

Level 1

46 points

May 26, 2022 10:27 PM in response to AnnieL2

Thanks for your suggestions.

I first tested recovery mode on my M1Max 16"Macbook Pro where the same issue of Universal Control not working (keyboard / mouse sharing not available) with my 2018 11"iPad Pro is occurring. I then re-installed Monterey on the Mac. Still no luck. When trying to "mirror" the display to the iPad, I get a "device time out" message on the Mac.

All settings are as they should be (according to the requirements mentioned by Apple), and I've restarted each device several times.

Before I turn to resolving the same issue on the M1 iMac 24" / M1 13" Macbook Air of my wife, I'd first like to get the functionality back on my own devices (it HAS worked before).

On non-Apple sources (MacRumours, ...) I am picking up suggestions that VPN should NOT be enabled (which is OK on my MBP), and that a connection of the iPad with its Apple Pencil is sometimes the culprit.

How I long back to the days where Mac "just worked" ...

In short ... problem NOT resolved yet.

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Answer 4

pplanch Author

Level 1

46 points

May 27, 2022 6:16 AM in response to Chris_C1

Thanks, Chris. I was hoping someone in this community would have some experience with this, but I guess I'll have to get to them directly then ... will give that a try later.

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Sharing keyboard and mouse between 2 M1 Macs with Universal Control not working

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