For most people, the release of Apple’s iPadOS 16.4 and macOS Ventura 13.3 last week brought a few new features to their devices, but some users report that it also broke something important: According to numerous posts online, Universal Control stopped working after installing these updates . .
There are posts on the Apple support forum from several users claiming that universal control between Mac and iPad no longer works, and that Handoff is not responding either. Support thread author, platan, wrote that Universal Control stopped working after updating his M1 Pro MacBook Pro and iPad Air 2022. They say they have tried several solutions: switching Handoff, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and restarting, but to no avail. The replies to Platan’s post say that Handoff has also stopped working on some machines.
Some users were able to restore functionality by restarting all their devices, while others were able to sign out and then sign back into iCloud. I haven’t used Universal Control since I installed the updates, but after seeing these reports I checked and found that it doesn’t work. A simple restart didn’t restore Universal Control for me – I had to sign out of iCloud, restart, and then sign back into iCloud to restore functionality, which isn’t an ideal workaround and can take a few minutes.)
Universal Control, which was introduced with macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15, allows the user to use the Mac to control screens on other compatible Macs and iPads. When enabled on both devices, all the user needs to do is move the cursor over the edge of the screen and control will switch to the other device. Handoff is an Apple ecosystem continuity feature that allows you to perform functions such as copying text on iPhone and pasting it on Mac.
Apple is currently developing beta versions of iPadOS 16.5 and macOS 13.4, and it’s unclear if a fix for this issue is included. There are reports that a minor update (iPadOS 16.4.1 and macOS 13.3.1) may be coming to fix the bugs that have appeared.