I’ve been getting good use out of Mac to Mac Universal Control while setting up my new Mac Studio. So useful to have my MacBook Pro running alongside the new machine so I can can take a look at how I have it set up and duplicate it.
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Is your system remembering that setup across sleep and/or power cycles?
I set up a similar arrangement; stacked displays. However, the next day it had completely forgotten the arrangement and I had to set it back up. The third day I couldn’t get it to work at all (moving the mouse past the edge of the screen in any direction did nothing). I checked all my settings and they were correct (all three boxes were checked in the UC window). And yes, all devices were on the same network every time. All I did was put my devices to sleep over night (closed the lids on my MBA and iPad).
TL;DR: I don’t know.
I had that second MBP in another spot on the house connected to ethernet while I’ve been trying to work out a backup strategy for my Synology. I finally got what I think is a working setup, so I just moved it back to the desk couple days ago and have it set to never sleep for the time being while I test everything out. Then I have to figure out if/when to let it sleep because I still want to be able to access it remotely, run the automated backups, and be able to wake it without having to open the lid. Sorry that’s all off-topic and not helpful 
That’s why I’m slavering to get Universal Control. I’m looking to migrate most of my activity to a different Mac, while still using my current mac for some things. I do NOT want to mess with Synergy or other nonsense; I just want to use the same keyboard and Magic Trackpad for everything.
I mean, iPad-to-Mac is nice but Mac-to-Mac is what I hope will be REALLY useful.
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Well. I came home tonight and reconnected to the docking station after the screensaver (not sleep) on the MBP13 had kicked in, which requires a password. No love from UC until unlocking. I have Jump Desktop, so I was able to unlock it without opening the lid or reaching for the keyboard, but not ideal.
Seems like there should be a way to trigger the unlock. Maybe with Apple Watch.
Stupid question, before I go into a long description of my problem. I have two Macs side by side, one on Ethernet, the other on wifi. Doesn’t work! Do they both have to be on WiFi?
Thanks
If they’re on different subnets, then that might be your issue. But if WiFi is enabled on both devices then it should work, assuming one isn’t connected to a VPN or something.
Not exactly the same situation as you, as I use UC with a Mac and an iPad. The Mac is on ethernet, the iPad WiFi. WiFi is enabled on the Mac. UC works fine for me.
When I first tried using UC the Mac and iPad were on different WiFi settings. Once they were in sync everything started working. UC has continued to work for me through sleeping and shutdowns of both devices.
Not related, but if I disconnect the ethernet, the Mac cannot connect to the interwebs. This is true of my current 2018 Mac mini, and was true also of my 2010 Mac Pro. I’ve never been able to figure out why. And since I’ve a setup that works I’ve given up trying. 
They are both on the same subnet. But the M1 Mac Mini connected via Ethernet does not have the Wifi enables. I will try it later on and report back. I will probably try it with my iPad to the Wifi enabled iMac first. Then try it again on the Mini annealing wifi first. It has a Logitech mouse and I have heard that it could also be an issue.
From the documentation:
- Each device must be within 10 meters (30 feet) of each other and have Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Handoff turned on.
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It does work with Wifi on both Macs, including the one on Ethernet.
I have noticed, however, that the Macs don’t need to be on the Same WiFi Network at all. Which makes no sense for me.
I am thinking of giving it up, and keep the “old” stop of two mice and 2 keyboards. Because there is also the feeling that I don’t know WHERE my Internet is coming from anymore ( Ethernet or Wifi)
In System Preferences > Network you can set the order of how the system connects to the world. So you could have the ethernet Mac connect via ethernet first, while the other Mac would connect via WiFi.
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Doesn’t that pref pane also reorder itself to show the current connection at the top?
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Not that I’m aware. I’ve set my mini to Ethernet and have WiFi on. And Ethernet stays selected. There is an option to “Set Service Order” option in the menu accessible at the lower left of the preference pane which lets you order connections.
But I could be wrong.
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An update: the uppercase letter bug seems resolved since I can now type them, but strange enough when using my MacBook Air Italian layout keyboard to type on the iPad it look like it switches to an US layout and all the symbols and marks don’t match the faces on the keys…
And I found that using a gen 1 Magic Mouse connected to the Air to control the iPad enables right clicking and scrolling, which are not supported when the mouse is paired with the ipad directly… 
How about the iPad open when I unlock my Mac? I open the mac and then have to go “look” (it’s off to the side) at the iPad and swipe up to open it up to use with Universal control.
Just a little update on my experience with Universal Control. While I do not use it every day, I do use it ALMOST every day. I find it quite reliable and hassle-free (it has remained frictionless as I’ve described above, with one minor footnote). It is tremendously helpful to me to have available. Universal control is, for me, gradually moving into the “big deal” category.
My one footnote about frictionless-ness is that sometimes when I connect, the iPad is put in a different place in the sequence of windows. It does not make it more difficult to work with, but it takes a moment to re-orient yourself to, for example, the iPad being toward the left of a certain display rather than the right were I set it up initially. Minor inconvenience, but it’s probably a feature: the Mac detecting where the iPad is in reference to the other displays and putting it in the seemingly most appropriate place in the sequence.
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I was speaking earlier this week and opened up my iPad while my MBP was connected to a projector. I went back to the MBP and had a very difficult time finding the pointer because UC had kicked in. I even tried the “shake the mouse pointer to locate” thing, but I guess it was between screens because it wouldn’t show up anywhere. I eventually used the keyboard to look at the display configuration in system settings and traced the path of the three displays. Haha I don’t know why I didnt just turn off the iPad.
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Here is a fun bit.
As noted in another thread, my Mac Studio came today. And it shipped with macOS 12.3.
Before I updated to 12.3.1 I had set up Universal Control. And while the system was loading the new OS, with the progress bar showing 7 minutes to go, and me not logged into the Mac, I was still able to move the mouse from the Mac display to the iPad.
Pretty cool.
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I also have a few observations after using Universal Control for a few weeks.
I gave up on arranging my displays. The physical location of my iPad is below my Mac display, but every time I have arranged my displays in that orientation, it is forgotten the first time one of the devices is put to sleep. Therefore, I have simply resigned myself to ignore that feature and run the mouse off the side of the display. It’s less than ideal. Hopefully a future update will address the issue.
I have a Bluetooth keyboard which supports multiple devices. With the push of a button I can switch between my iPad or Mac. Yet I find myself using Universal Control instead. It seems weird that I’m using a software solution when I have a hardware button right in front of me. But there is something about moving the mouse back and forth between the screens which works with my mind. When I use the hardware buttons I am always forgetting which device I’m connected to. By using the mouse to determine the state, I don’t seem to have that problem.
I have an email account which uses the Exchange ActiveSync protocol, which is not supported by any desktop email clients (including the desktop version of Outlook). However, it is supported by both Apple Mail and Outlook on iPhone/iPad. I have really been enjoying being able to access that account from my desktop through Universal Control. However, one annoyance I have noted is that Apple Mail does not support drag and drop very well. For example, I can’t drag a file from my Mac to attach it to an email on my iPad. Sure, dragging a file to my iPad in other contexts works fine, but not to attach to an email. I either need to hope iCloud sync is working and attach it from the iPad or open the email account from the browser on my Mac. Hmm, it just occurred to me, I haven’t tried using mobile Outlook. Maybe I’ll see if that works next time.
So, in summary, while there are a few rough edges, overall it is a useful feature that I expect to continue using.
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