Apple Seeds First Public Beta of macOS Monterey With Universal Control

[Realityck]

Did that and it still will not install on both of my Macbook Pro's.

I'd first run disk utility - first aid on your boot volume (Command-R: Start up), if there are no issue found, then reboot into safe mode with your intel laptop.

1. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key as your Mac starts up.
2. Release the key when you see the login window, then log in to your Mac.

Its does seem weird that you tried 4 times and ran into that, could be a bad time of day for downloading compared to now

Now its possible it something that is connected to your MBP that is causing installation to fail.

• Unplug all accessories from your Mac, including printers, drives, USB hubs, and other nonessential devices. You could have an issue with one or more of those devices or their cables.

 

[IAMDAVE1969]

I'd first run disk utility - first aid on your boot volume (Command-R: Start up), if there are no issue found, then reboot into safe mode with your intel laptop.

1. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key as your Mac starts up.
2. Release the key when you see the login window, then log in to your Mac.

Its does seem weird that you tried 4 times and ran into that, could be a bad time of day for downloading compared to now

Now its possible it something that is connected to your MBP that is causing installation to fail.

• Unplug all accessories from your Mac, including printers, drives, USB hubs, and other nonessential devices. You could have an issue with one or more of those devices or their cables.

Did all that and the same issue on both my MacBook Pros. Same Error. Failure to install after download. Reported through feedback assistant.

 

[almeath]

Is the Music app still a dumpster fire for anyone who wants to import their local music libraries and NOT use Apple Music?

 

[lowkey]

Just tried Universal control with iPad Pro and 16” M1 MacBook Pro. It’s been a while since Apple made my jaw drop, using the trackpad on the iPad is incredible, no discenable lag, entering text on the iPad is now a pleasure using the MacBook Pro keyboard. Seamlessly moving back and forward between the two screens. It’s been worth the wait for this feature.

Can you use the iPads input device (the Apple Pencil) to do things on the Mac??

Or only the Macs input devices to do things on the iPad?

 

[Username-already-in-use]

This is a cool feature. I hope Apple enables iPad-to-iPad at some stage.

 

[fivenotrump]

Is the Music app still a dumpster fire for anyone who wants to import their local music libraries and NOT use Apple Music?

please explain: what isn't working for you?

 

[James_C]

Can you use the iPads input device (the Apple Pencil) to do things on the Mac??

Or only the Macs input devices to do things on the iPad?

The Apple Pencil won't work on a Mac in Universal Control as the Pencil is constrained by the iPad display. If you have a Mouse or Trackpad attached to the iPad that should work (I have not tested though).

However Sidecar which is another technology Apple created before Universal control turns the iPad into a second display, and you should be able to use the Apple Pencil as a drawing tool on an App moved over to the iPad display from the Mac.

 

[almeath]

please explain: what isn't working for you?

I performed a fresh install of Monterey 12.1 , and tried importing my music from a backup of my Mojave system with iTunes. It imported the playlists, but a whole lot of album art was missing, many tracks randomly disappeared from playlists, and some tracks “could not be located” even though definitely in the imported music folder. Then, after closing and re-opening Music, all the tracks in every single playlist disappeared. My music was still in the right location, but all the play lists were blank and nothing would bring them back. When I realized I would have to re-create all my playlists from scratch, I gave up in disgust. I don’t want or need Apple Music streaming, which you can no longer hide from being in your face so to speak. I just want a digital jukebox that can handle basic things like importing iTunes playlists without errors and managing to locate my local music on the hard drive without choking. I guess I can try again, now that Music has been re-written, but I got burned first time through.

 

[hoodafoo]

Can someone explain why all the excitement over universal control? Also, was it really that hard to implement that we couldn't have it by 12.0 release?

 

[Realityck]

This was added in the release notes today

Warning

If your Mac currently has macOS Catalina installed, installing macOS Monterey 12.3 beta or macOS Big Sur 11.6.4 beta on a volume with FileVault enabled might cause a boot loop when attempting to log back into the previous volume. (88163545)

 

[yitwail]

Can someone explain why all the excitement over universal control? Also, was it really that hard to implement that we couldn't have it by 12.0 release?

I'm excited because I'll be able to type on an iPad without plugging a keyboard into it. It's also not the same as sidecar because you're not turning the iPad into a monitor, and there should be little or no latency, and apps that are running in the iPad don't use any of the Mac's CPU/RAM/GPU resources. Who knows why it was released right away, but given that 12.0 was buggy, I think it was a good decision by Apple to hold off on UC until the rest of Monterey was more or less stable.

 

[Realityck]

Can someone explain why all the excitement over universal control? Also, was it really that hard to implement that we couldn't have it by 12.0 release?

Look at the YouTube video in the first post of this thread. Also you can read the linked article I have in my earlier post about how many older Macs/Ipad's that can now support Universal Control.

 

[hoodafoo]

I'm excited because I'll be able to type on an iPad without plugging a keyboard into it. It's also not the same as sidecar because you're not turning the iPad into a monitor, and there should be little or no latency, and apps that are running in the iPad don't use any of the Mac's CPU/RAM/GPU resources. Who knows why it was released right away, but given that 12.0 was buggy, I think it was a good decision by Apple to hold off on UC until the rest of Monterey was more or less stable.

your keyboard example make sense. Outside of that, I just don't see a whole lot of usefulness dragging stuff between different operating systems. I do find sidecar useful though

 

[semistandard]

I understand the excitement about universal control... But what about less exciting and more important things this beta is also supposed to address - are memory leaks (at least some of them) fixed?

 

[semistandard]

A couple of questions...
1. What happened to the elephant in the room - memory leaks and co. Are they addressed in 12.3 beta as well?
2. How does this work with several ipads? Is this feature enabled by default, or one needs to enable it explicitly (I think it is preferable). What happens if the ipad next to computer belongs to the another person?

 

[yitwail]

A couple of questions...
1. What happened to the elephant in the room - memory leaks and co. Are they addressed in 12.3 beta as well?
2. How does this work with several ipads? Is this feature enabled by default, or one needs to enable it explicitly (I think it is preferable). What happens if the ipad next to computer belongs to the another person?

For your last question, an iPad belonging to someone else would only be affected if it's logged into the same iCloud account as your computer.

 

[hohohong]

No
see https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/universal-control-3812900/

Compatible Macs include:​

• MacBook Pro (2016 and later)
• MacBook (2016 and later)
• MacBook Air (2018 and later)
• 21.5in iMac (2017 and later)
• 27in iMac (2015 and later)
• 24in iMac
• iMac Pro
• Mac mini (2018 and later)
• Mac Pro (2019)

Compatible iPads include:​

• iPad Pro
• iPad Air (3rd generation and later)
• iPad (6th generation and later)
• iPad mini (5th generation and later)

This means that if your Mac is from 2015 or earlier it's not a feature you will be able to enjoy (unless you have a 27in iMac from that era).

Even the beta version? I've 2012 MBP retina.

 

[Hunter5117]

Can someone explain why all the excitement over universal control? Also, was it really that hard to implement that we couldn't have it by 12.0 release?

My workday setup is two MBP's and sometimes an IPP. My main MBP has a mouse and full sized keyboard. Mouse only on 2nd MBP and just the folio keyboard on the IPP. The prospect to control all of these devices from my one mouse and keyboard is a game changing upgrade for me, it will definitely at least incrementally improve my output.

 

[IAMDAVE1969]

Did all that and the same issue on both my MacBook Pros. Same Error. Failure to install after download. Reported through feedback assistant

Did all that and the same issue on both my MacBook Pros. Same Error. Failure to install after download. Reported through feedback assistant.

Tried again today and the update installed. Strange that it didn't work over the weekend but it did today.

 

[hoodafoo]

My workday setup is two MBP's and sometimes an IPP. My main MBP has a mouse and full sized keyboard. Mouse only on 2nd MBP and just the folio keyboard on the IPP. The prospect to control all of these devices from my one mouse and keyboard is a game changing upgrade for me, it will definitely at least incrementally improve my output.

Wow, I didn't know it could work between Mac & Mac

 

[Hunter5117]

One keyboard (and mouse) to rule them all...

Wow, this is so much better than you might imagine. I had not been running beta MacOS since the official release. I decided that UC was worth getting a jump start instead of waiting. This will take a little while to get used to, but just having the mouse and keyboard shared is worth it. During the week I do a lot of market research and keep a lot of pdfs and other material in Notes documents so the drag and drop across machines will be well used as well.

Once installed, the transition between machines is virtually instant, no delay at all for me, just like moving between 2 monitors on one machine.

 

[Sing Kwok]

I have 12.2 and I am experiencing battery drainage. It seems that Bluetooth is the problem. So I disabled it.

 

[yitwail]

I have 12.2 and I am experiencing battery drainage. It seems that Bluetooth is the problem. So I disabled it.

Don't know if Monterey bluetooth causes battery drain, but you should only have bluetooth turned on if you need it for AirPods, keyboard, UC, etc.