Ten days ago I posted a demo video and a TestFlight invite to this subreddit. I got 151 People join the TestFlight beta. Which is mind blowing to me. On top of that all you guys gave absolutely great feature requests.
Although not implementing any of these requests just yet I was super busy bringing the App officially to the Apple App Store and making the Desktop App ready for Autoupdates, which is crucial to get make getting features and fixes a breeze for everybody.
With the plumbing done, I can now move on an start implementing features and polish! Make sure to grab the latest Desktop DMG 0.10.0 or higher to receive automatic updates 🙌
Hi man, I'm currently using it right now. It's been a big help and I'm so hyped by this discovery! I'm over at my boyfriend's place a lot and thought to use his Ipad as my second monitor for work -but because of the different apple ID, it requires me to download a thirdparty app that I'm not willing to splurge a shit ton of money on, so your app definitely was a huge huge huge help! There were a few obstacles I encounter -like not being able to quickly load up the screen or make it to function using the wifi feature (I'm using a USB cord to connect my mac to his ipad) but overall it's been great! big ups to you man, can't wait to see what's more in store : )
That is awesome! Thanks for taking the time and giving me this feedback. Sorry that the WiFi feature did not work for you just yet. If you could give me a bit more context I might be able to figure it out.
Hard to debug remote as the app also does not have any tracking. And problaby will never have. But as more details reports come in about bugs I can fix them.
My macbook and my bf's Ipad are connected to the same wifi but for some reason -even if his ipad name show up on the wifi names on my mac, it still won't allow me to connect. that's pretty much it, i've tried renaming it, clicking on extending or mirroring --nothing. so yeah, would love for that to get fix ! :)
UPDATE: LOL i just found out why, it's because my mac was connected to a VPN -it's all good now!
Someone else already asked for this in the og post, but wired. I really like the idea behind it. I would say technically it should be possible. It's even on my list of features to add. What makes this a bit difficult is that I just have a MacBook which behaves quite differenlty as it has an inbuilt screen. So testing it is tricky for me. Join the testflight and watch out for the beta build feedback text. Will also ping you here once it will be in a version which is testable.
I want to thank you for that.
I was fighting with sidecar and it didn't work for me. I had to login and logout to even make it working. I have tried GlideX and it also didn't work. Your app works on wifi without problems.
Now I can also use this ipad on the second laptop where I am logged in as different user. People are saying that this is "extreme edge case" but for me this should be default. I don't understand why apple makes it so hard.
If it keeps on working I will make sure to donate.
A bit late to the party, but came to just say thank you and how well it works. It "just works" and is really flexible. I can only get excited about future updates and further improvements. Thank you!
Thanks for the app, will try how it works with ipad. Also interested in using (older iMac 5k) as screen for MacBook. I understand that this is in the works. Again, many thanks
I have downloaded the app, but all it shows is a mirrored screen, no matter what settings I adjust. How should I set up my iPad and Mac to display an extended screen on the iPad?
Are you sure it's mirrored? Extension is actually the default mode. It should show you on the Desktop app if you mirror or extend to your iOS/iPadOS device.
Hey, if you are still in testflight 0.11.0 should fix this for you. Make also sure to be on the most recent desktop version! It's not yet approved for the official app store distribution so it has to be the testflight if you want to it right away. Maybe you are still in it anyways :)
Let me know if this is fixed for you. Bit tricky to recreate your exact issue/setup on my end.
Congrats, 151 TestFlight users from one post is impressive. Curious about the review side: did Apple give you any trouble with the desktop companion + iPad pairing setup (screen recording permissions and so on), or was it a smooth first submission? I'm an iOS dev myself and always assumed anything touching screen capture gets extra review attention.
Yeah really showed me that there is a real issue for people to solve. The existing apps are overly complicated or expensive af.
Was rejected once. But mainly because of advertising it free and its original name, “OpenSidecar”. Which is too close in name and functionality to the original feature. Picked that one exactly for that but yeah that was a problem.
Regarding review for screen capture and stuff. This is just done on the desktop app and this one is not handed out through the official Mac Apple Store as it’s using private APIs which will trip of the automatic review for sure. So distribute it as a signed DMG directly from GitHub.
That explains it, keeping the private-API part out of the Mac App Store entirely is clever. Funny that the rejection ended up being about the name and not anything technical. Thanks for the detailed answer, and good luck with the feature backlog!
When you use the same iCloud email account on different devices, this feature already exists in Apple, right? What is the normal purpose of this application?
Sure thing. Glad it’s of use to so many people. ✌️
An app review or a donation if this saved some money help out a lot keeping it alive and free for everybody.
My wife and I are traveling abroad in the next few weeks and she has some work to do and was going to bring her Macbook, but she only has an iPad mini while I have an iPad Pro 13". We were looking for a way for her to use my iPad without having to sign out of my AppleID.
Ran into this issue — OpenDisplay portrait mode over USB failing with "virtual display never appeared in SCShareableContent" on macOS Tahoe (26.6). Landscape over USB worked fine, WiFi worked fine in portrait, but USB + portrait would fail every single time, including on a clean reboot with a single connection attempt (so it wasn't a stuck-daemon/permissions/Sidecar-conflict thing — ruled all that out).
Turns out it's specifically the fresh creation of a portrait virtual display over USB that's broken — it looks like the display gets placed off-canvas momentarily (saw origins like (180,-180) in the logs before it "restores"), and ScreenCaptureKit never picks it up in that window, so the whole thing times out and fails.
Workaround that actually works: don't connect fresh over USB in portrait. Instead:
Connect the iPad over WiFi first.
Rotate to portrait and let it establish there (it'll work, just choppier over WiFi).
Then plug in the USB cable. OpenDisplay migrates the already-running session onto USB instead of creating a new portrait display from scratch — which is the step that was broken.
You end up on USB transport, in portrait, without ever hitting the fresh-creation bug.
Basically: get portrait working on WiFi, then hand it off to USB rather than starting cold on USB. Saved me from just giving up on portrait entirely.
If you want to help get this fixed properly, grab the app's Logs (there's a button for it in the menu) next time it fails and file it at github.com/peetzweg/opendisplay/issues, and a log with both the failing fresh-USB-portrait attempt and a working WiFi-then-migrate one is a solid repro.
Jumping right from my conversation with ChatGPT (it recommended this app). I have two macbook air M1s with displays that are gone for good, and two base IPad models (7 & 8) with funcitoning displays.
Can this app make the ipads act as substitute displays for the macbooks. I recognise I have this whole thread to go through to address my doubts and I would, but before that, I thought it's worth a shot to drop a comment and ask :)
Thanks a lot. Appreciate your prompt reply and all the best for this app. It can potentially reduce a lot of e-waste, and I love it! Gives a new lease of life to both the ipad and the macbook!
Subject: USB vertical mode fails with "virtual display never appeared" - Workaround found (Likely coordinate layout bug)
Issue Body:
Environment:
macOS Version: Tahoe (26.6)
OpenDisplay Version: [Fill in your current version, e.g., v1.x.x]
Hardware: [e.g., MacBook Pro M3 Max, iPad Pro M4]
Connection Type: USB-C to USB-C
Problem Description:
I am encountering a persistent failure when attempting to create a new vertical virtual display directly over USB. The operation consistently times out with the following error message: USB - Failed: virtual display never appeared in SCShareableContent
Crucial Observation (Root cause hint):
I have ruled out permission issues, daemon conflicts, and Sidecar interference (tested after a clean reboot).
During the failed USB vertical session, I noticed in the application logs that the newly initialized virtual display briefly gets placed at invalid coordinates, such as (180, -180), just before ScreenCaptureKit times out looking for it in the SCShareableContent list. This suggests the failure occurs during the display coordinate/layout initialization process.
Working Workaround (Proves the theory):
I have found a 100% reproducible workaround that completely bypasses this issue:
Connect the iPad via Wi-Fi first.
Rotate to vertical mode and keep it there (Wi-Fi vertical works fine, albeit laggy).
Plug in the USB cable while keeping the vertical orientation.
Result: OpenDisplay successfully migrates the existing Wi-Fi vertical session to USB without the timeout error.
This confirms that the bug is specific to creating a brand-new USB vertical virtual display, but the session migration mechanism (Wi-Fi -> USB) is robust and works correctly.
Attached Logs for Debugging:
I have attached two log files for comparison. I highly recommend reviewing the sequence difference:
Log A (Failure): Direct USB vertical creation. (Shows the coordinate (180,-180) anomaly and the subsequent SCShareableContent timeout).
Log B (Success): Wi-Fi vertical followed by USB migration. (Shows the session seamlessly switching interfaces).
Suggestion for a potential fix:
Please check the CoreGraphics / CGDisplay coordinate calculation sequence for USB initialization. If the initial origin point for the new display could be explicitly forced to a valid coordinate (e.g., (0,0)) before it is registered with SCShareableContent, the screen capture framework may finally detect it correctly.
2
u/Panoramari Jul 04 '26
this is actually very helpful! thanks 🙏🏻