Using Apple Studio Display with different laptops

[Magnus81]

I wonder if anyone has found a good solution for sharing keyboard and mouse when using a single Apple Studio Display with several macbook laptops. For example; I have two laptops (work & private), but the wireless keyboard and mouse is connected to my private laptop. This means I have two sets of keyboards and mice that I switch between when switching work / private laptop. I prefer not to use a cable to the monitor.

However, this is quite cumbersome and annoying. Ideally there would be a way to pair the wireless apple keyboard and mouse to the Apple Display and then the keyboard and mouse is only available to the laptop currently plugged in to the monitor. Is this possible somehow?

I think this should be a quite common problem?

 

[xraydoc]

I wonder if anyone has found a good solution for sharing keyboard and mouse when using a single Apple Studio Display with several macbook laptops. For example; I have two laptops (work & private), but the wireless keyboard and mouse is connected to my private laptop. This means I have two sets of keyboards and mice that I switch between when switching work / private laptop. I prefer not to use a cable to the monitor.

However, this is quite cumbersome and annoying. Ideally there would be a way to pair the wireless apple keyboard and mouse to the Apple Display and then the keyboard and mouse is only available to the laptop currently plugged in to the monitor. Is this possible somehow?

I think this should be a quite common problem?

If you're using a mouse & keyboard that works with an RF dongle like some of the Logitech keyboards do (for example), then you can simply plug the dongle into one of the USB ports on the back of the display and it'll connect to whichever laptop is plugged in to the display.

Some non-Apple bluetooth keyboards and mice have multi-device bluetooth and can be paired to more than one computer at a time. Then you can switch between computers, usually using a little button on the mouse or keyboard to toggle between device 1, device 2 and device 3.

If you're using a bluetooth Apple-branded keyboard and mouse, then no, since they only connect to a single device at a time.

 

[Magnus81]

If you're using a mouse & keyboard that works with an RF dongle like some of the Logitech keyboards do (for example), then you can simply plug the dongle into one of the USB ports on the back of the display and it'll connect to whichever laptop is plugged in to the display.

Some non-Apple bluetooth keyboards and mice have multi-device bluetooth and can be paired to more than one computer at a time. Then you can switch between computers, usually using a little button on the mouse or keyboard to toggle between device 1, device 2 and device 3.

If you're using a bluetooth Apple-branded keyboard and mouse, then no, since they only connect to a single device at a time.

Yeah I use Apple keyboard and mouse. Hopefully they can fix so you connect the keyboard and mouse to Apple Studio Display instead of the laptop, if the keyboard and mouse is expected to always be used with the same monitor (usually the case I think as it is stationary).

 

[xraydoc]

Hopefully they can fix so you connect the keyboard and mouse to Apple Studio Display instead of the laptop

While potentially they could, I wouldn't hold my breath that they will.

 

[neuralengine]

One thing that helps is, you can connect the charging cable for the Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard to the Studio Display. After connecting the display to the second computer you can briefly connect the mouse and keyboard to the charging cable, which will pair them to the computer currently connected to the display. So when you unplug them they will be paired to the new computer. Takes a few seconds each time.

It's still a pain but better than doing the pairing / unpairing over bluetooth.

 

[GizmoDVD]

One thing that helps is, you can connect the charging cable for the Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard to the Studio Display. After connecting the display to the second computer you can briefly connect the mouse and keyboard to the charging cable, which will pair them to the computer currently connected to the display. So when you unplug them they will be paired to the new computer. Takes a few seconds each time.

It's still a pain but better than doing the pairing / unpairing over bluetooth.

Yep, this even works with the iPad if connected via USB-C to the back of the Studio Display. This is the easiest way I have figured out to do this when I detach my Mac Studio and connect either my laptop (closed) or iPad.