Sidecar keeps freezing on iPad

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.

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 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 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.

The problem is with the DOCK.. This occurs only, and consistently, when the dock on my Macbook pro is on the left of my screen. If I put it at the BOTTOM, which I normally never do, the problem is solved. Yes, Apple should fix this.

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

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?

Like all of you guys, I've been having the same issue with sidecar to an old 2016 iPad Pro that I purchased only for this use. I like having my messaging apps on a separate screen and a second monitor would be an overkill for that.

I also have an iPad Air 3rd Gen which I share my Mac keyboard and mouse with so I can run iPad apps on it or watch the news through the Fire TV or Pluto app while I work, so both Sidecar and the Universal Control should be working for me. I don't have any issues with Universal Control, only Sidecar disconnecting or lagging really bad.

I had tried all the resetting, reconnecting, network reset, even reformatting the iPad and getting a wired ethernet adapter for it. None of it fixed the issue. I also tried the USB connection solution, which fixed the issue, but wouldn't keep the iPad charged.

I believe I may have found a workaround by luck as this solution I'll describe below has been working well for 3 days now:

I recently purchased an Orico Thunderbolt hub model TB3-S2, which connects to my Mac Studio via thunderbolt port and has an additional thunderbolt port behind it for daisy-chaining. The hub itself is powered through an 85W power supply, but only provides the host Mac with 60W, meaning it uses the other 25w to power itself and for additional hardware plugged to it. I used a USB-C to lightning cable to connect my iPad to the hub and now I don't get any disconnects anymore and the iPad remains 100% charged at all times. I didn't have to touch any login items config.

Even though my proposed solution uses a specific third-party hardware, I believe any powered Thunderbolt hubs capable of providing power over USB-C should be able to power the iPad at least enough for it to not turn off during the day.

I hope this helps meanwhile they work to fix it, but the wifi disconnecting issue definitely remains...

After testing a different tablet, the same model where the problem did not manifest itself, I began to suspect the settings, so I was able to solve this problem by resetting the iPad.

How to reset the settings without loosing the content?

In Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPad, Reset. The tablet will restart, the content will still be available, only the settings will be lost.

I've been using it for a few days, so far, the problem has not manifested itself!

My MacBook Air M2 with iPad 10th Gen have been completely unusable for 4 months. Freezing every 10-30 seconds and making the setting impossible to work on.

Having tried all the suggestions on every thread that I could find I contacted Apple support. They gave me the advice to reinstall the OS completely. 6 hours later, the problem persists.

I was browsing through the settings of my ipad and saw App Activities in the background... turned off all background activities and the freezing stopped...

I used it for a while without any freezing or lockups and then switched background activities back on. It still works fine. Very strange and perhaps not a solution for others, but for me it seems to have worked at least for the time being.

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.

Thanks to this excellent suggestion from bob6507!

I was at my wits end, considering both my devices (Macbook and iPad Pro) fell well within the requirements, and the iPad Pro kept freezing, and I would have to connect and reconnect, which isn't practical and disappointing for the price of the Apple equipment.

Don't want to jinx myself, but I've been using for an hour, and before I switched off the Universal Control, it wasn't lasting three minutes. So again, thank you Bob for your post!!! 😊 👍🏼

Fixed for me by turning off 'automatically adjust brightness' in display options

Now I find out if sidecar is kept active by preventing MacBook or iPad Display from turning off during the period of which it usually starts freezing, it lasts well over 35 hours without freezing, which otherwise would have started freezing already after 31 hours after restarting iPad.

After 42 hours I let the Mac sleep, after Mac woke from sleep, iPad showed “connecting” for a long time without really connect.

The disconnect and reconnect of sidecar triggered then the freezing.