how to connect imac with macbook air using thunderbolt cable

Hey moxiedoggy,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities! It sounds like you want to use Target Display Mode to use your iMac as a second screen to your MacBook Air. Since your said your MacBook Air is from 2011, it should have the thunderbolt, and you can connect the two computers using the following instructions:

Use an iMac with Thunderbolt as a display

If you have an iMac with Thunderbolt, any other Mac with Thunderbolt can use it as a display. The iMac will play both the video and audio from the other Mac.

1. Connect the Thunderbolt cable to the Thunderbolt ports on each computer.
2. Make sure both Mac computers are turned on and awake.
3. Press Command (⌘)-F2 on the keyboard of the external display Mac.
4. If you want the external display Mac to play audio as well as video from the primary Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Sound, and then click Output. Select the external display Mac from the list of devices.

You'll want to go over the requirements for using Target Display Mode here, along with other FAQs:

Target Display Mode: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3924

Take care,

David

Hello !

Can I use an old iMac with no minidisplay port as TDM with a MacBook Air that has the thunderbolt port ?

Here is a picture of the connections of the iMac attached.

Hello !

I just checked the iMac in question, it's a Mid 2007 iMac. Can I use it in TDM ?

I am trying to do this as well. In the PC environment, it was easy to plug and external (big) monitor into my windows laptop, get the two screens arranged and oriented, then hey presto! the two screens magically worked together. I could move documents and files from my laptop screen to my desktop screen, just by dragging and dropping. The mouse would travel easily between the two different screens.

I haven't been able to find a way to do this in the MAC environment yet. I have a 2012 MacBook Air, and a 2014 iMac 27". The two are connected with a thunderbolt cable. I expected to see something in the display preferences, or in the Shared / Devices area in Finder, or even an added icon on my desktops. Nada.

I also tried Command (⌘)-F2, as suggested above. Nothing happened.

Advice?

Earlier in a discussion, I found a solution to connect my 13" MacBook Air (Mid 2012) to my 27" iMac (Mid 2011) using a thunderbolt connection:

On iMac, Press and Hold Command, then press & hold fn, then press F2 along with holding the other 2, and that works. On my iMac, just pressing Command F2 does not work.

#^@(@&( This indeed works. Thank you johannb2009. It costed me the whole day, you could image how happy I was when it worked. Thanks a bunch!

David,

This did not work for me. I have new Mac Air. plugged my thunderbolt into the MacAir and my IMac, a late 2013 27inch. I pressed command F2 on my IMac, which is what I am trying to use as my external display. What happened is that my IMAC screen flashed and went very dim to the point where I could not see the cursor. The screen went blank except for the the "display system preference screen showed, but I could not see my MacAir. So this did not work. Someone also suggested pressing commend, FN and F2. That did nothing for my situation. What else can be done?

Thank you so much for the above, it solved the issue I've been having for days.