Universal Control Not Working

Møar wrote:

I have an Intel 2018 MacBook Air and an iPad Pro and I can't get universal control to work.

I've looked through countless articles online and have read discussions within this support community, but nothing seems to work.

Both devices are on the same wifi network, are logged into the same Apple ID, two-factor authentication is enabled on both devices, they are within a foot of each other, handoff is enabled on both devices, I'm not using a VPN, my firewall is disabled, the software versions on both are up to date, neither are sharing their internet connection with each other, etc.

Does anyone have any advice on troubleshooting/getting it to work?

Verify both—

The current stable release of Monterey including bug fixes, is macOS 12.4

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Update your iDevice - current stable release including bug fixes iOS 15.5

Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

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

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

Verify your hardware is compatible —

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

After spending 2 hours with a senior apple engineer on this issue I can tell you how to solve the problem.

If... after doing all of the recommended fixes, and checks which you can find anywhere without looking too hard then the answer is simply signing out and back into your Apple ID.

Now this sounds easy but be warned.. You may lose photos etc if your device has not backed up to iCloud.

If you want to check this is the reason it's not working first, then the process is to create a new user, log out of your main account and in to the new user.... go through the setup and sign them into your iCloud. Turn on the universal control settings and go to add display and you will see your laptop or iPad under Link Keyboard and Display. (not mirror or extend to). If you still do not see the laptop or iPad then you have to log out of iCloud and back into those devices to. Once you see the devices log out of the test user account and go to main account and sign out and into Apple ID. Delete test user account.

I tried everything and this was the fix for me.

This functionality is game changing.

2021 M1 iMac with MacOS Monterey 12.3 (there is no available upgrade to 12.4 as Software Update says I'm up-to-date) and iPad Air (3rd Gen) with iPadOS 15.5.

All logged in to same AppleID (tried the above, logging out/in to ID from each machine).

All steps listed above gone through as part of set-up (same network, hand-off/cursor and keyboard, UC boxes ticked etc).

Unable to move wireless keyboard cursor from iMac to iPad.

This used to work a couple of months ago when first in Beta (but cursor would always see iPad on wrong side). Now it does not work on either.

Able to add iPad as Sidecar (Mirror or Extend to...)

I feel that this should be a pretty easy thing to get going but turning out to be a real pain.