Sidecar keeps freezing on iPad

Just thought I'd chime in and tell everyone what seemed to have worked for me having absorbed everything in this thread (which was, btw, "Hidden" by default on this page wtf apple)-- now running for 24h and it's working amazingly.

Specs: M1 14" Macbook Pro. Monterey, usb c hookup to M2 11" Ipad Pro

1. Disable Handoff on both devices
2. On macbook: Disable Keyboard/Mouse sharing/Universal Control in the Display Preferences (terrible feature anyway)
3. Restarted both my m2 Ipad Pro and m1 macbook pro

Note that it still worked terribly after just doing 1 and 2, it really took that step 3 to get everything to actually work well! IMHO putting Auto-Lock to either "Never" or "15 mins" helps too. Face ID is still active on my ipad.

Hope this helps! Im an artist that bought an Ipad Pro for using it as a wacom/cintiq replacement and was really frustrated that this didn't work out of the box.

I fixed the issue by these two steps.

1. Turning off System Settings -> Displays -> Advanced -> Allow your pointer and keyboard to move between nearby Mac or iPad
2. Setting iPad Auto-Lock to Never

Using Affinity Designer on my M1 iMac connected via Sidecar with my iPad Pro is the basis of my workflow. It worked perfectly fine until around the time when Apple introduced Universal Control to macOS Monterey. Now my iPad regularly freezes while working, and I need to click disconnect on it's side panel, the Affinity Designer window moves back to iMac, and I need to reconnect via Sidecar again, until the whole things happens again. Sometimes after half an hour, sometimes after minutes. Needles to say, it makes working with this setup impossible. 

I've seen that iPad freezing while using Sidecar is a known issue on Apple forums, but the suggested workarounds (disable Face ID on iPad, use cable connection etc) don't seem to work for me.

I've got all the apps and operating systems updated. My WiFi works completely fine (besides, the issue happened via cable connection as-well). 

The only workaround I've found for now is downloading Astropad. It's an app that basically gives you functionality similar to Sidecar (makes iPad a graphics tablet for Mac), but it's paid and subscription-based, so it would be a bit frustrating to pay for something that previously worked for free as a built in macOS feature.

Will add another report to this widespread problem apparently seen on multiple forums. This has been driving me nuts so I ran quite a few tests:

I have multiple devices to play with, an iPad Pro 11 gen5, an Ipad Gen8, a 2018 Macbook Pro 15 and an 2020 iMac.

1. From my testing, rebooting the Mac does not help. Or if it does, it may extend the time before which Sidecar freeze by a minute. I can also run into a situation where one of the iPad freeze within seconds and the other does not on the exact same Mac and both iPads being within 1ft of each other and of the mac.
2. Rebooting the iPad fixes the problem somewhat but only temporarily. For me it resolves the problem for a few hours at a time and then when it starts freezing, it does so within seconds of the Sidecar connection.
3. Strangely, when an iPad starts freezing from my iMac, it doesn't especially freeze within seconds on the MBPro and vice versa, but eventually, it will after long enough.
4. I used the wireless diagnostic, Sidecar diagnostic to see that it reports a high rate of "TX errors" whenever the freeze occurs.
5. None of the other settings of disabling security on the iPad or on the mac, turning wifi/BT off and back on seem to make any difference.

I concluded that this is not a wireless interference issue, nor is it a hardware problem. It appears to be a Sidecar either security or cache problem which gets reset when the iPad reboots.

I tried every single suggested solution. Nothing worked. I even reinstalled the Mac OS completely. No difference whatsoever.

Now I have had a full week of zero lockups. The solution for me was to change a setting on my ipad, not the Mac. I went into the ipad settings and disabled all App Activities in the background. It immediately fixed the problem. When i turn background activities back on the lockups come back after a very short time.

App Activities in the background are restricted for Apple products and scheduled a bit randomly, and this may explain why the lockups themselves are quite random and can sometimes stop for a few minutes and then come back with a vengeance.

Hi ShivamK,

You've tried some great steps, be sure to also check the additional requirements found in the article here Use an iPad as a second display for a Mac and quoted below.

"Additional requirements

• Both devices must be signed in with the same Apple ID using two-factor authentication. Sidecar does not support Managed Apple IDs.
• To use Sidecar wirelessly, both devices must be within 10 meters (30 feet) of each other and have Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Handoff turned on. Your iPad must not be sharing its cellular connection and your Mac must not be sharing its internet connection.
• To use Sidecar over USB, your iPad must be set to trust your Mac."

Also, be sure any potential wireless interference isn't causing the issue with the help of the steps here: Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference

Should the issues continue, reach out to Apple Support directly using the links below.

Contact - Official Apple Support

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

Cheers.

I also have this frustrating problem. Have stumbled on a temporary work around. Am using sidecar to mirror MBP-M1 on to my iPad(M1) in order to use pencil with Photoshop. To avoid freezing I go into Device Preference and select Universal Control. I then un-check "Allow your pointer and keyboard to move between any nearby Mac or iPad". This solved the issue for me. I use the pencil and iPad keyboard to manipulate the mirrored image on my iPad (which is what I want). One needs to remember that if they connect iPad (or any device) as additional display, this setting needs to be re-enabled if they want the listed behavior.

Just did this with a 13" M2 MBP and a M2 11" iPad Pro and now it seems to work correctly. Not sure what's going on within the OS to do this, but that's pretty wonky. I too ran into the 20 second freeze until I did the above.

I followed the steps described earlier about turning off things on the MBP then rebooting both the MBP and iPad Pro and so far, fingers crossed, it continues to work. I think the commenter said the biggest part was disable these features and then reboot both devices.

I believe it was my VPN causing the issue (Zscaler). When I take the following steps it seems to have resolved it:

1. Disconnect Sidecar
2. Unplug iPad from Mac
3. Turn off wifi on iPad (make sure bluetooth is on)
4. Plug iPad back into Mac
5. Turn on Sidecar

This removes the possibility of Sidecar using wifi to connect devices together. Because my mac is on VPN but my iPad is not, this was causing connection issues. Removing the Wifi variable seems to have resolved it.

I don’t have the charging issue and in the solution you are basically connecting iPad via a hub to mac? This should also stop the freezing.

Sometimes it also shows such ****** colors or just black, then restarting the Mac is necessary to get rid of it and go back to “freeze mode”.

And I discovered if you turn off iPad Display when in “freeze mode” and turn it back on after a certain time(too short it keeps frozen while too long it permanently disconnects), sidecar will show connecting for a few seconds and refresh the frozen picture and this repeats for ever or ends up with an error (-71148).

Don’t know if you guys experience the same. Meanwhile someone l asked don’t have problem using sidecar, which makes me upset.

Seems they are just going to fudge the issue, if we do nothing. Since not all devices exhibit the issue.

Start freezing 44 hours after restarting iPad.

Start freezing 41 hours after restarting iPad.

Start freezing 47 hours after restarting iPad.