How to resolve 'Unlock Your iPhone' loop while iPhone mirroring?

BOTH of my devices are supposed to be compatible with this technology. I didn't check the MacOS version for the MBP at the time but when it updated in the Fall of 2024 (maybe to SEQUOIA), the mirroring capability was suddenly available. I don't know which iOS version I had at that time, maybe the final v17 or 18.0, but IT WORKED--IMMEDIATELY. I used it to type in an older journaling app only located on my iPhone and it worked (I've been looking for a keyboard for over a decade that would work with the iPhone(s), so that I can type with it versus using my fingers. I've tried a couple of other apps from the App Store to no avail, the last one being KEYPAD. That took several rounds of emails with the developer to work through, and then it stopped working, too. Having iPhone Mirroring seemed like HEAVEN!!

Oh, I forgot the bit about CONTINUITY FEATURES...which weren't complete on my iPhone. Under AIRPLAY & CONTINUITY, it now says, "CONTINUITY FEATURES", but there was another one that is no longer present on the screen. It also told me that MIRRORING needed to be checked--that's the one that is missing now.

After NY's Day, I tried to use it again and NOTHING. I got (and still am) stuck in the 'UNLOCK YOUR IPHONE'-LOCK YOUR IPHONE' iPhone- mirroring-won't-work-until-your-phone-is-locked' LOOP. So I start repeating what it's telling me to do--it's a stupid loop that I can only get out of if I stop trying to make this work. There are no instructions on my screen except what you see below in this screenshot:

LOCKING THE PHONE as instructed in the lower screenshot, resets the LOOP.

Some other directions online tell you to use your iPhone's lock code to unlock your phone, but that is not an option that I'm given. By the time the lock screen is showing, my phone automatically unlocks itself--the 'lock' icon at the top of the lock screen, unlocks itself, and this is the recurrent action I get looped in. I am unable to unlock the screen the way it wants me to. All I technically have to do is to flick my thumb up the screen and it'll unlock--it's designed to do that, but when I do that, I get the 'LOCK YOUR PHONE' message, which contributes to the afore-described loop.

Updating my phone to 18.1 didn't help and now it's at 18.3.1 and it still doesn't work. This was a mean 'trick' to play on us. CAN APPLE FIX THIS or stop teasing us with it??

Thank you.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]