We've only waited five years for Sidecar to recognize iPad in portrait orientation
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Apple has finally updated Sidecar to let you extend your Mac's screen onto your iPad when it's in portrait, not just landscape, orientation. It's a pain in the ass for now, but here's how to do it.
Five years after Apple introduced Sidecar in macOS Catalina, it's made a long-awaited update. Previously, Sidecar only extended your Mac's display onto your iPad in landscape orientation, no matter how the device was held or mounted.
There was a pretty nerdy workaround that let you do this using a third-party app. But now, with macOS Sequoia 15.1 and iPadOS 18.1, you can simply turn on Sidecar and then physically rotate your iPad.
How to Turn on Sidecar
- Open System Preferences, Displays.
- Click the plus sign below the image of your Mac's screen.
- The plus sign is a drop-down list of different devices.
- Find your iPad and select it.
- Look for the “Use As” section.
- Select “Extended Display”
from the drop-down list, which defaults to “Primary Display.”
The iPad must be turned on, but it will still appear in the list of devices even if it is turned off. This is a list of compatible devices associated with the Apple account used on the Mac.
Sidecar lets you drag your iPad relative to your Mac, but you must physically rotate the device to rotate it.
With both your Mac and iPad on and Use As set to Extended Display, the Mac screen now extends onto the iPad. There is an arrange button that lets you set whether the iPad is on the right or left of the Mac screen.
This section will show a view of your two screens side by side. You can only change their positions to have each one to the left or right of the other.
But if you physically rotate your iPad, its view on your Mac screen will also rotate to portrait orientation.
It's Simple Until It Isn't
This new feature was introduced in macOS Sequoia 15.1. However, at the time of writing, it was missing from the separately released developer beta for macOS Sequoia 15.2.
This will undoubtedly be resolved before macOS Sequoia 15.2 is released to the public. But it's also a bit buggy at the moment — for example, it sometimes won't let you select Extended Display.
Apple hasn't confirmed when macOS 15.2 will be released to the public. However, its biggest addition to the Mac is Apple Intelligence, and Apple has committed to rolling it out over the next few months.
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