Sidecar keeps freezing on iPad

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“:(

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!

Yep, totally rubbish. Such a shame because it has great potential and works really well, when it works. I extend my desktop to my iPad Pro (M1) from my MBP 14 inch and it works for a bit, sometimes a short amount of time other times longer, then freezes and is unusable, or seems to flip to universal control if anything. As mentioned elsewhere here, the iPad hasn't frozen, just the connection between the Mac and iPad I suppose. Does look like universal control is confusing things and I wonder if there was some way I could disable that maybe it'd work? Anyway, totally buggy software - who the heck tested this? - and Apple really shouldn't be promoting this stuff as a usable feature when it's so clearly not.

I am having the same issue with SideCar - Universal Control, or whatever they are calling it today. I have an M1 iPad Pro running iPadOS 16.1.1 and a 2017 iMac Pro (Intel Xeon 18 core) running macOS 13.0.1.

Both devices are signed in with the same apple id, both have 2-factor authentication on. Both are on the same network. I have read countless threads on how to set it up correctly and ensure i did... It works for roughly 10-20 minutes and then it freezes, with Wifi enables on both devices. It also freezes over USB with wifi and bluetooth turned off on the iPad.

A reason why I recently moved from the Windows PC ecosystem to iMac, is because this was now possible and the form factor is modular and minimal. I am so frustrated with this that I am beginning to regret making that decision.

Oh i forgot to mention, I also have Windows 10 via bootcamp (so i can game) on this same iMac as another boot option. When in Windows, I use a 3rd party app called Duet to use the iPad Pro as a separate wired display... It NEVER freezes. Im baffled as to how it works better in Windows with 3rd party software...... These are mac devices.

I am having the same problem... the video freezes within 20 seconds of connecting. However, the touch functionality continues to work. I can still run my Apple Pencil on the screen and the actions are viewable on my MacBook.

MacBook Pro on v. 13.0.1

iPad Pro on v. 16.1.1

Super frustrating!

I’ve contacted Apple Support multiple times since almost a year and every time they just end up responding no more. I even went to an Apple Store and two of the employees there told me they also experience sidecar freeze, but a friend says he never had a problem.

Now when it starts freezing, every 30minutes+ the Sidecar shows “connecting” for a couple of seconds and then becomes responsive for a few minutes or so and freezes again and so on…

Well, my iPad Sidecar doesn’t freeze until 40 hours after restart.

And when it starts freezing, every 30minutes+ the Sidecar shows “connecting” for a couple of seconds and then becomes responsive for a few minutes and freezes again or it just refreshes.

And every time the iPad auto-locked or the screen is turned off by pressing the top button, within a minute the Mac will show „the device timed out“ error or sometimes it shows the error (-401), the attempts to connect afterwards results in just a black screen on iPad.

Im at Mac OS Monterery and my Ipad Pro 2018 is iPadOS 16.3.1 . It was working fine being a sidecar until I updated my ipad and my Mac OS. Previously I am on Big Sur and my ipad OS were still previous version which I am not sure which one. The sidecar kept hanging, whether with USB Cable connection or not. Really disappointing as I have been using my ipad as a make shift tablet while traveling and my 2nd screen for video editing for my youtube channel. Geez. Really disappointing.

Don’t you want to wait for a couple of days to see if it freezes again if you restart the iPad?

ln my case it only freezes wirelessly, and downgrade to macOS Big Sur didn’t help, so it’s probably the problem of iPadOS.

Come on!

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.

Same problem here, not sure when exactly started but I remember when sidecar was working flawlessly. In my case it happens several times a day, including when I'm actively using it, the apps are stuck on the iPad screen and will return to M1 main screen after I disconnect the iPad. With the mouse same thing, I can see that it moves where iPad screen should be.

For me the only solution is to disconnect and reconnect the iPad from MBP (universal control is off with the rest of the options available under Displays). I don't have Apple TV, only Apple Watch, AirTag, iPhone on top of MBP and iPad (all up to date). Problem started around Monterey, and persist on Ventura.

I will test with AirTag off, I know it constantly connects to other devices reporting low battery and other stuff.

Hope to keep this thread active and find a viable solution for this issue.

This issue is also driving me nuts, it slows down my productivity a lot. Sometimes when it freezes, simply toggling the display works. Other times, I’ll have to restart the iPad. Apple, this issue is making me go crazy and it has been an issue for a long time now.

MacBook M1 Max 2021 - Sonoma (It was worse on Monterey)

iPad Pro M1