Universal Control extremely laggy

[ismi]

Hey there

I'm wondering if any of you have had this issue. I have a M1 Pro MBP and a 2017 Intel MBP, both 16", both running the latest public release of macOS Ventura.

The first one's for work, the other one is my private machine. I use Universal Control to smoothly switch between them.

My mouse is a Logitech's MX Master 3S for Mac.
My keyboard is a Logitech MX Mechanical.
Both are connected via Bluetooth directly (no dongles from Logitech).

On the M1 Pro Mac, everything is smooth sailing and works perfectly. But when I mouse over to the Intel-based Mac, the mouse gets extremely choppy/laggy and has regular hiccups in its tracking. The keyboard similarly seems to suffer from input hiccups.

According to Apple's own hardware requirements for Universal Control, I'm good to go.

Both Macs are connected to the same WLAN, though the M1 Pro is using 802.11ax and the Intel Mac is using 802.11ac, though I don't see how that would make a difference.

Anyone have an idea what might be causing this?

Interestingly, the issue is intermittent. Sometimes it lags like crazy, other times it seems ok. Could be interference of some sort but I couldn't say.

 

[fisherking]

you could try resetting the SMC (and or NVRAM) on the intel mac.

UC works great here (between my M2 air and an intel imac)...

 

[ismi]

I just resetted the SMC on the Intel Mac, booted again and now the lag seems gone--for now. I'll keep monitoring and update this thread if the lag returns. I didn't touch NVRAM. Thanks!

Edit: Aaaaand it's back.

BTW I get the same lag when I use the trackpads, and the lag occurs in both directions:
Intel Mac trackpad -> M1 Mac and the other way around.

 

[ovbacon]

Now I don't know if this would help but I had similar behavior with my Apple magic keyboard, mouse and trackpad with universal control between my mini M2/macOS Ventura and my iMac 5K/macOS Monterey. My keyboard/mouse were paired with my mini M2 and when using the mouse on the iMac's screen it would get laggy pretty quick. I tried resetting the SMC and NVRAM and some other things people suggested in various places but nothing stuck (some were very temp resolutions). Then I decided to pair my keyboard/mouse with the iMac and the trackpad with the mini. Now it is smooth as butter and I have zero issues. The only tiny problem is that sometimes either of them "forgets" that it is in universal control and I lose connection but if I poke a few times with the mouse or trackpad on the side of the screen that connects to the other it resumes pretty fast.

So if you haven't tried this yet you should connect your Keyboard and mouse to the other Mac.

 

[JamesJaffa]

Same issue here - and: I'm using the same mouse (Logitech MX3)! Could this be the reason? It might be a specific issue with this mouse... Had no problems with my "old" Logitech mouse!
I even tired connecting the mouse with my iPad but then I had a laggy mouse on my Mac. Very frustrating indeed!

iPad Pro 12.9 Gen 5
Mac mini M2 Pro

Any ideas anyone?

 

[hirsthirst]

I'm experimenting with an M1 MacBook Pro 14" (supplied by my employer) and a new M2 Mac Mini (personal use), both of which are on Ventura 13.5.1

Apple Magic Keyboard and Trackpad

• Trackpad cursor has been laggy all morning using MacBook as the 'secondary' machine. I'll try re-pairing the trackpad onto it next.
• Keyboard I thought I was getting duplicated characters, but maybe operator error having the repeat rate & delay set to max 😆