One of the most appealing features in macOS Catalina is a feature called Sidecar that enables you to use an iPad as a second, fully interactive screen. However, it turns out if you have an older Mac or iPad, it may become another reason not to upgrade to macOS Catalina. We have the details…

What Is Sidecar?

With Sidecar, you can use your iPad as a second display for additional screen space. Refer to one app while you work in another, or see how a presentation looks in presentation mode on your iPad while editing it on your Mac. Alternatively, you can choose to mirror the screen on your Mac to have two screens displaying the same content, making it perfect for sharing with others.

With an Apple Pencil, you can draw and write naturally, edit a photo or graphic, or use it to point and click as you do with a mouse with your Mac apps as long as they support drawing tablets.

You can use the same Multi-Touch gestures you're familiar with on iPad, along with text editing gestures that let you cut, copy, paste, and undo without lifting your hands from the onscreen keyboard.

You can connect your iPad to your Mac either by using a cable and keep it charged, or use it wirelessly, within 10 metres, for greater mobility.

Apple tells us that developers don’t need to do anything for Sidecar support, it just works. However, if developers want to support advanced stylus support they need to use Tablet Events to enable pressure and tilt or double-tap on the side of Apple Pencil.

But Not For Everyone

With the release of macOS Catalina, Apple has chosen to restrict Sidecar to only iPads with Apple Pencil support. Even if you’re running iPadOS 13, you won’t be able to use your tablet as a second display if you have an older iPad that doesn’t work with Apple Pencil, even if you don’t want to use the Apple Pencil. If you have these iPads then, unfortunately, Sidecar will not work even with the latest iOS update…

• iPad Air 2

• iPad mini 4

• iPad (5th generation)

If you have one of the following iPads then Apple says that these will support Sidecar running iOS 13 and later even if you don’t have an Apple Pencil, you can still use Sidecar without touch interaction…

• iPad (6th generation)

• iPad (7th generation)

• iPad mini 5

• iPad Air (3rd generation)

• iPad Pro (all generations)

But Apple hasn’t just restricted Sidecar to iPads with Apple Pencil support, you also need one of the Macs listed on the left running macOS Catalina to be able to use Sidecar. As you will see this is a subset of the list of Macs on the right that Apple has approved to run macOS Catalina…

Macs That Support Sidecar…

• iMac 27″ (Late 2015) or newer

• MacBook Pro (2016) or newer

• Mac Mini (2018)

• Mac Pro (2019)

• MacBook Air (2018) or newer

• MacBook (Early 2016) or newer

• iMac Pro (2017) or newer

Macs that Support macOS Catalina…

• iMac (Late 2012 or later)

• MacBook Pro (Mid-2012 or later)

• Mac mini (Late 2012 or later)

• Mac Pro (Late 2013)

• MacBook Air (Mid-2012 or later)

• MacBook (Early 2015 or later)

• iMac Pro (all models)

If this affects you then watch out for an upcoming article that may provide you with an alternative solution.

You can learn more about macOS Catalina and how it will affect pro audio users especially in our range of articles…