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Universal Control: Everything You Need to Know
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So I like UC and have been testing it out today, but one huge deficiency with it is that I cannot switch application focus back to the ipad app from the keyboard (e.g. with Command+Tab).
The most effective multi monitor working setup is to have your chat app (Slack) with office mates on the second monitor and cranking away at stuff on the main screen on the Mac, and you want to be able to toggle over and type up a rapid message and send it without your hands leaving the keyboard. UC gives us everything else we've ever wanted to have, in spades, and just kind of completely forgot about how locking the Command+Tab switcher to the local device prevents these basic use cases.
I'm hopeful that they'll improve this behavior soon. Hoping it wont have to wait for many more update cycles. I do worry, though, because it is a bit nontrivial to share the recent-application state between the multiple devices and unify them. Especially since 3 total devices are supported. Realistically, there also needs to be some design done for how to visually differentiate a local app and a remote app.
For other more leisurely or already mouse-intensive work, this limitation is not as annoying. But I already can tell this will bother me to no end...
I can probably put up with shoving the mouse back over in that general area to quickly switch the app, but this doesn't work, I need to not only travel over there, wait for the actually sadly perceptible delay for the handoff (not too bad tho), and I still have to actually reactivate the text entry field before I can type a message. Sigh
OK and one more big bug: momentum scroll seems not to fully work from iPad magic keyboard -> Mac with UC. This should be easier to get fixed.
The most effective multi monitor working setup is to have your chat app (Slack) with office mates on the second monitor and cranking away at stuff on the main screen on the Mac, and you want to be able to toggle over and type up a rapid message and send it without your hands leaving the keyboard. UC gives us everything else we've ever wanted to have, in spades, and just kind of completely forgot about how locking the Command+Tab switcher to the local device prevents these basic use cases.
I'm hopeful that they'll improve this behavior soon. Hoping it wont have to wait for many more update cycles. I do worry, though, because it is a bit nontrivial to share the recent-application state between the multiple devices and unify them. Especially since 3 total devices are supported. Realistically, there also needs to be some design done for how to visually differentiate a local app and a remote app.
For other more leisurely or already mouse-intensive work, this limitation is not as annoying. But I already can tell this will bother me to no end...
I can probably put up with shoving the mouse back over in that general area to quickly switch the app, but this doesn't work, I need to not only travel over there, wait for the actually sadly perceptible delay for the handoff (not too bad tho), and I still have to actually reactivate the text entry field before I can type a message. Sigh
OK and one more big bug: momentum scroll seems not to fully work from iPad magic keyboard -> Mac with UC. This should be easier to get fixed.
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I have it working between two Macs and an iPad Air. But the two Macs fail to see/connect to each other. The failure mode for this is clearly "say nothing" which is frustrating to no end but very .
I am also having issues with this, intel MacBook Pro 2020 i7 13 inch 16gb Monterey 12.3.1 and a iPad 6th generation iOS 15.5. Both signed in on the same iCloud account, both devices have bluetooth enabled, connected to the same wifi connection, 2fa is on. Hand off and cursor and keyboard ( beta) is switched on the iPad. The Mac has all 2 options selected in the UC menu. And the firewall is turned of in the security settings on the Mac
The fun part is, safari bowser handoff and sidecar are working perfectly. UC does not. Any suggestions what else you can tr?
The fun part is, safari bowser handoff and sidecar are working perfectly. UC does not. Any suggestions what else you can tr?
For me I have found that if I go to the hand off section (general - sys prefs) and click it off then on again it works. Or as it happens sometimes you try to click it off and you a warning about universal control. if that pops up, click cancel.
Then I find it works. Also you made need to flip the little switch in the control centre under display.
I find clicking a few things off and on ‘wakes it up’ generally then it works flawlessly until the next time I need to do it.
Talking about on the Mac here, not the iPad.
So this only works on 'all-in-one' Macs like iMacs and Macbook Pros. What about the Mac Mini or Studio connected to a Studio Display? Does the A13 chip in it have anything to do with making that compatible too?
So how does it work out where your screen is in comparison to where your Mac Mini is situated? Did you have to do any setting up?
It figures it out based on the direction you are trying to push through. It’s a pretty neat little hack and works in practice. I have no idea how it would work with 3 devices but only have 2 to test with.
My iPad Pro has on problem app switching using cmd-tab (you need click the mouse once on iPad display when you move mouse pointer into it).
This is for one keyboard/mouse/trackpad for multiple devices.
How can two users use the same set of keyboard/mouse/trackpad?
I don't know what is 'split tunneling', but I have no problem with one Mac VPN to my office and switching its mouse/keyboard around a iPad Pro and another Mac's display.
Let me stress it: VPN doesn't interfere with UC in my case; I can ssh login with remote X, or screen sharing, into my office Mac via VPN, without any issue.
The VPN server is L2TP of Apple's OS X server running on a aged MacMini.
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Yeah that's what I'm saying. And once you think about the architecture of this software (the app switcher wasnt designed with UC in mind) it's not clear to me that it can be fixed easily.