Editor’s note: Apple released iOS and iPad OS 16.4.1 and macOS 13.3.1 on Friday, but whether the updates fix the problems mentioned in this article has yet to be confirmed.
For most people, Apple’s release of iPadOS 16.4 and macOS Ventura 13.3 last week brought several new features to their devices, but some users are reporting it also broke something important: According to numerous online posts, Universal Control has stopped working after those updates are installed.
Apple’s support forum has postings from several users claiming that Universal Control between a Mac and iPad no longer works, and that Handoff is unresponsive as well. The author of the support thread, platan, wrote, that after updating his M1 Pro MacBook Pro and 2022 iPad Air, Universal Control stopped working. They say they tried several solutions: toggling Handoff, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, and restarting, to no avail. Replies to platan’s post say that Handoff also stopped working on some machines.
Some users were able to restore functionality by restarting all of their devices, while others had success with logging off and then back on to iCloud. I had not used Universal Control since I installed the updates, but after seeing these reports, I checked and found that it wasn’t working. Simply restarting did not restore Universal Control for me—I had to log off of iCloud, restart, and then log back into iCloud to regain functionality, which isn’t an ideal workaround and can take several minutes.)
Universal Control, which was introduced with macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15, allows the user to use a Mac to control the screens on other compatible Macs and iPads. When enabled on both devices, all the user has to do is move the cursor through the edge of the screen, and the control switches to the other device. Handoff is a Continuity feature of Apple’s ecosystem, which allows functions such as copying text on an iPhone and pasting it on a Mac.
Apple currently has iPadOS 16.5 and macOS 13.4 in beta development, and it is unclear if a fix for this issue is included. There are reports that a smaller update (iPadOS 16.4.1 and macOS 13.3.1) could arrive to address the bugs that have popped up.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor
Roman has covered technology since the early 1990s. His career started at MacUser, and he's worked for MacAddict, Mac|Life, and TechTV.