iPad Air 13" External Monitor Question

Hardware
1

I’m hoping to get some feedback/recommendations from the wise members of this forum:

My wife recently got a new iPad Air 13" M2, which she absolutely loves. She hates the complexity of regular computers, so the iPad (with a keyboard case) is pretty much her ideal device. One way she routinely uses her iPad is to connect it to an external monitor to mirror for exercise.

What we’ve discovered with the new iPad is that it won’t work with an external monitor. We’ve tried both TVs in the house (an older Samsung and a slightly less-old TCL) and a Dell 25" monitor we have in the house. No luck. I’ve tried a USB-C to HDMI cable, a Belkin HDMI adapter, and the 3 different Hyper docks I have (all USB-C). I even bought a Thunderbolt dock to try that (only to learn that, of course, the iPad Air doesn’t have Thunderbolt). My wife has gone through Apple Support who sent her to the support center at the nearest Best Buy (the nearest Apple Store is 100 miles away) - they told her she didn’t have an iPad Air but an older iPad Pro, so they were exactly as much help as you might expect. They sent her home with the iPad User Guide pages of connecting it to an external monitor through USB-C, or offered to come out to do it themselves for $200. So, not much help.

Any other suggestions? She didn’t tell me about this until we were beyond the 2 week return window, so trying to figure out how to get this issue sorted out. It’s just a little harder when it’s my wife’s device rather than my own, as she hates technology. And dealing with technology. And tech support.

Thank you all!

2

My guess is this is an issue with your usb cable. I know that’s not all that helpful. Not all cables are equal I’m guessing that’s the likely problem. I’ve used an M1 and M2 iPad Pro with two different displays and it works fairly well. That said, I’ve got at least two usb cables that won’t do video and an HDMI that won’t work.

The two monitors I’m using are fairly new. One a 15" portable 4K with usb c which I connect directly to iPad. The other a 27" AOC 4K display that I connect via a DisplayPort cable to a CalDigit SoHo dock, usb C from dock to iPad.

3

I’ve also tried multiple USB-C cables. But only ones that work as intended with my MacBook and my iPad (a Pro). But they’re both Thunderbolt, and maybe that’s difference somehow, even though the cable is labeled as USB-C? I’m guessing it’s an iPad issue, but I’m not sure how to get it taken care of easily.