TUTORIALS Universal Control
Control everything on your iPad with your Mac
IT WILL TAKE
5 minutes
YOU WILL LEARN
How to control your iPad with your Mac
YOU’LL NEED
macOS 12.3+ and iPadOS 15.4+
It’s very easy to set up Universal Control and it works brilliantly
The much-delayed Universal Control finally rocked up in March 2022. It builds on Sidecar, which can turn your iPad into an extra Mac display, but this time it keeps the iPad as an iPad: it enables you to connect an iPad or Mac and control them with the same keyboard and mouse, and you can also drag and drop between them. It feels a bit like magic.
In order to use Universal Control, you’ll need to take care of a few things first. The iPad or Mac you’re adding must be running the latest iPadOS or macOS, which at the time of writing is iPadOS 15.4 or macOS 12.3. Your devices all need to be logged into the same iCloud account. And unless you’re connecting an iPad via USB you need to have Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Handoff enabled; those things are all on by default but you can check on your iPad in Settings > General > AirPlay & Handoff.
Know your limits
As we’ll discover, it’s very easy to set up Universal Control and it works brilliantly. But it’s important to know that there are a few limitations too. Mac trackpad gestures don’t currently work on iPad over Universal Control, and if you’re dragging things to your iPad you need to be dragging them into an open app – so for example if you’re dragging an image across you’d need to drag it and drop it onto Photos, not on the Home Screen.
HOW TO Set up Universal Control
1 Select the device
With macOS 12.3 installed on your Mac, go to System Preferences > Displays. In this tutorial we’ll work with a solo MacBook Pro, but Universal Control is still available if you also have an external display.
2 Choose your control
Click on Universal Control and you should see these options. For best results you’ll want to
