Anyone else have this issue? Universal Control works great, but as soon as you connect to Cisco AnyConnect VPN (used for work), Universal Control is disabled. This happened with Sidecar in the past.
Ok so I hope I can explain this in a way that makes sense, but basically when you are connected to the VPN your computer can no longer tell that it’s on you local home LAN. That’s what a VPN does is basically secure the connection down to as if the machine was physically connected to a port in your office for example. That being said sidecar and universal control both use WiFi to work and they look for devices on the same network they are on. Your Mac on the VPN will think it’s on your work network so therefore not be able to identify your iPad or whatnot for universal control. I hope this makes sense I can have a habit of talking in a circle sometimes.
AirDrop also doesn’t work with some VPNs.
You need split tunnel VPN
This happens with me too, only I use express vpn. If anyone could give me any tips if it’s possible to use universal control at all with vpn, it’d be appreciated.
It’s less like that the VPN disabled it. And more likely that your Mac is managed by your work. And they have installed managed profile that disabled certain iCloud features that is required for universal control and sidecar to work.
Cisco AnyConnect is a mess
Not just AnyConnect - breaks when I use ExpressVPN. What is strange is that the problem is only on the MacOS side. My iPad can stay on the VPN, but it only works when the VPN is shut off on my M1 MacBook.
Totally makes sense! So I put the iPad and MacBook Pro on the same VPN as my Mac Mini, but Universal Control still didn’t work. My guess is each one has a unique "address’ to it and therefore cannot work together.
Would this not also impact Sidecar? My Mac (Cisco VPN’d) and iPad (not VPN’d) are able to Sidecar, but not Universal Control.
Tell me more… I am interested.