Universal Control not working after updating your Mac and iPad? It's not just you

Universal Control
(Image credit: Apple)

Apple's slate of Continuity features designed to provide seamless interactions between a Mac and an iPad have broken with the latest macOS and iPadOS updates. 

As reported by MacRumors, a plethora of users who have upgraded to macOS 13.3 and iPadOS 16.4 have reported a number of issues using Continuity features across Mac and iPad since updating to the new software. 

The biggest issue appears to be related to Universal Control. Hailed by Apple as a way to control multiple Macs and iPads using the mouse and keyboard from just one device, the feature appears to be broken and rendered useless by last week's update. "I have 2 Macs, a 16" M1 MAX MacBook Pro and a 13" M1 MacBook Pro that previously worked utilizing Universal Control to control both machines. After updating both to Ventura 13.3 today, Universal control no longer works," wrote one user in Apple's support forums. 

Discontinuity

Alongside Universal Control, users are reporting issues with Handoff, Universal Clipboard, and Auto Unlock and Approve with Apple Watch. 

What's worse is that there's no obvious fix for these issues. The only solution touted so far is restoring your Mac to an older version of macOS, or manually resetting a ton of features by signing out of iCloud on both devices, disabling the features, restarting your devices, re-enabling the features, and then turning off and on both your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as toggling the Universal Control checkboxes. 

More likely, you're going to have to wait for Apple to patch this Continuity Nightmare in the .1 update for both of these software releases, which are likely on the way soon. 

In the run-up to WWDC 2023 and iOS 17, the latest round of software from Apple has been very rough around the edges. This Continuity issue follows reports this week that iOS 16.4 is destroying battery life across all of Apple's best iPhones, another issue that will require a software update to patch. 

 

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9