Sidecar keeps freezing on iPad

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 have exactly the same issue since i upgraded to MacOS 12.4 (Macbook Pro M1 Pro) and iPadOS 15.5 over usb using apple cable.

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've been having issues with this since universal control as well, but I found a fix that I think might lead to a culprit.

When using the Ipad, have it hooked up to power. This for me has been the only way to keep the freezing from happening. Using a Powerbank works as well. everything began working beautifully again. Maybe this is a power management issue?

Thank you but I am not seeing this at all. My iPads are always hooked to power when this happens. I tried without power and it makes no difference. The only thing which fixes it is a reboot of the iPad and it is stable for about 20-24hrs.

Looks like 12.5 fixes the bug...

Not for me, it didn't. Updated bothe the iPad and the macs... problem resides. After ~24Hrs I get SideCar freezes within 20s.

I was too optimistic... problem resides after ~24Hrs I get SideCar freezes within 20s...

I have the same problem, and every time it happens, by restarting the iPad it will not freeze for the next day or so, than it will start freezing again suddenly.

Besides every time the iPad auto-locked or the screen is turned off, in a few minutes the Mac will show „unable to connect-device time out“ message and if you tun on iPad screen again, it shows „lost connection“:(

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.

Ooops. May have spoken too soon. The iPad screen is still freezing. Interestingly, when iPad frozen, pencil movements on the iPad are seen and active on the MBP. It seems that the iPad is not refreshing. Sure wish Apple could at least acknowledge this as an issue; the troubleshooting they push out is not helpful :-(. Maybe updated MacOS/iPadOS will help. We shall see.

I have this problem as well with an M1 MacBook Pro (2021) and iPad Pro, both updated (iPad not using 16 yet, but on 15.7). Moreover, if I use a USB cable things kind of work, but if I disconnect the cable and plug it back in (because my iPad stops charging for some reason), all Networking functionality in the MacBook dies and I have to do a hard reboot.

Needless to say Sidecar has become unusable, and it was working before... I'm not sure exactly when it stopped working, but it was definitely earlier this year, so it probably corresponds to when others noticed it started appearing.

I'm still having a sidecar issue as well. Using a M1 macbook air 2020 installed with 12.6 and Ipad pro with 15.7. Doesn't matter if I'm wireless or wired, at work or at home. I get about 20 good seconds out of it and it freezes. I've tried ALL the things previously listed to troubleshoot and the only fix for me is to disconnect and reconnect from my Mac. This is unreasonable with how frequent it occurs. Definitely hoping for a bug fix soon!