This Could Be Why Apple's Universal Control Isn't Working For You

If you're like me, you may have been intrigued by the Universal Control feature which is finally released by Apple albeit they are still calling it a BETA feature for now.

So off I went taking a huge risk by updating to the iPad and MacBook to the newly released iPadOS 15.4 and MacOS 12.3 Monterey respectively and when the updates completed... Universal Control does not work!

I started Googling the problem, trying to find out what I missed or what could go wrong - did the BETA feature not work because I have two Macs and one of it isn't updated to MacOS 12.3 Monterey yet? Maybe there's some settings which I missed out somewhere?

I've read many articles about Universal Control but they only mentioned these prerequisites:

• Your iPad and Mac needs to be a version that supports Universal Control (duh)
• You are on the same WiFi network (of course)
• Your Bluetooth is turned on (yes, it was never off)
• You are signed in to the same Apple ID on all of your devices (I only use one Apple ID)
• You need to make sure that Handoff is enabled (I really dislike the Handoff icon at my dock but the universal copying feature is very useful so yes, enabled)

All of the articles that I read mentions that once you have done the above, Universal Control will just work but that just isn't true (at lease in my case)!

After some messing and fiddling, I realized that there are two other settings that you will need to do in your iPad and Mac before Universal Control will work:

Universal Control Settings in iPad

1. On your iPad, open the Settings app.

2. Tap General and then AirPlay & Handoff.

3. Make sure that the checkbox for Cursor and Keyboard (Beta) is checked (enabled):

Universal Control Settings in Mac

1. On your Mac, open the System Preferences app.

2. Click Display and then the Universal Control button:

3. Make sure all three checkboxes below are checked:

• Allow your cursor and keyboard to move between any nearby Mac or iPad
• Push through the edge of a display to connect a nearby Mac or iPad
• Automatically reconnect to any nearby Mac or iPad

The Universal Control feature should start working as soon as these settings are enabled.

I hope this will save you the time that it took me to mess and fiddle with the settings before I got this to work!