How to Use an IPad As a Second Mac Display
It’s no secret that Apple products go well together. But what you may not know is that you can actually turn your iPad into a high-quality secondary display for your Mac. Whether you’re using a desktop computer or traveling, you can use your iPad as a wireless display to show off any app from your computer. It’s as easy as mirroring your Mac’s screen to your TV, thanks to a relatively hidden macOS feature called Sidecar.
What you need to use your iPad as a display
First, the requirements. You’ll need a Mac running macOS Catalina or later and an iPad running iPadOS 13 or later. There are also some hardware limitations, although any MacBook Pro released after 2016 and MacBook Air released after 2018 will work. Typically supported are the latest Macs within the last 5 years. The same goes for the iPad. All iPad Pro models work, all iPads 6th generation and later will work here, as well as iPad Air 3rd generation and later.
However, you may have to work on the software. First, both devices need to be signed in with the same Apple ID, and you need to use two-factor authentication. To use this feature wirelessly, you need to enable Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Handoff on your iPad. To enable handoff, go to Settings > General > Airplay & Handoff > Handoff . If you are using a modem on your iPad or Mac, this feature will not work.
How to Connect an iPad as a Second Display to a Mac
Now that the cleaning is done, you can set up your iPad as a secondary display. First, place your iPad next to your Mac, turn on the display, and unlock it.
Then go to Control Center on your Mac, click Screen Mirroring , and select iPad from the list.
To use it as a secondary monitor, be sure to select the Use as a separate display option. You’ll notice that your iPad will instantly mirror your Mac’s screen, including the menu bar, and some apps may even move to the iPad’s screen. To help you out, iPad can display a sidebar as well as a Touch Control Bar, which is useful if you use your iPad separately from your Mac. If you need more screen real estate for Mac apps, we suggest disabling both the Side Bar and Touch Bar. You can do this on your Mac under System Preferences > Displays .
The instructions above will work if you are running macOS Monterey and above. If you’re using macOS Big Sur, you’ll find the mirroring menu in the Display section of Control Center.
Finally, make sure that the way you place your iPad in the physical space matches the setup of your macOS software. If you’ve ever connected an external monitor to your Mac and tried to use it next to your MacBook, you know this.
Essentially, you can tell macOS that your iPad is to the left or right of the Mac so that your cursor can move smoothly from one screen to the other. To do this, go to System Settings > Displays . Here you will see the current layout of your displays. If you are happy with the default option, then you don’t need to do anything.
If you want to rearrange the iPad screen, click the Arrange button, freely drag the iPad screen to where it is in your physical space, and click the Done button.
Everything you can do with iPad as a second display
Now that everything is set up, you can freely move the cursor between your Mac and iPad display and use your iPad like any other external display. This is similar to another Apple feature, Universal Control , which lets you use the keyboard and mouse on your Mac with an iPad connected. However, the crucial difference with Sidecar is that your Mac’s screen also extends to your iPad. With Universal Control, your iPad still displays iPadOS.
If you don’t like dragging windows between your Mac and iPad, there’s a shortcut for you. Hover your mouse over the Maximize button in any macOS window and you’ll see the option to move the window to your iPad. I like to use this option because it automatically resizes the window to fill the entire iPad screen.
This feature disables the touchscreen on your iPad, so it’s not the touchscreen Mac you’ve been dreaming of. However, Sidecar does support Apple Pencil. You can use the Pencil to draw on the screen, and you can even go to System Preferences > Displays to enable the double-tap feature on the Apple Pencil, which will let you make selections on the iPad.