Enable Sidecar on Unsupported iPads and Macs running iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina
Unlocks Sidecar for older, unsupported iPads and Macs (supports all iPads running iPadOS and Macs running macOS Catalina).
Full list of supported iPads (running iPadOS): iPad Air 2, iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad (5th generation), iPad (6th generation), iPad (7th generation), iPad Mini 4, iPad Mini (5th generation), iPad Pro 9.7-inch, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 11-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation)
List of supported Macs (running macOS Catalina): iMac: Late 2012 or newer, iMac Pro, Mac Pro: Late 2013 or newer, Mac Mini: Late 2012 or newer, MacBook: Early 2015 or newer, MacBook Air: Mid 2012 or newer, MacBook Pro: Mid 2012 or newer
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SidecarCore.framework/Versions/A/SidecarCore
(can be done with any hex editor of your choice).SidecarCore
.cp /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SidecarCore.framework/Versions/A/SidecarCore ~/Downloads/SidecarCore.bak
cp /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SidecarCore.framework/Versions/A/SidecarCore ~/Downloads
System Preferences - Security & Privacy - General
and select Open Anyway
) and choose the location of the SidecarCore file to be patched (~/Downloads/SidecarCore from step 2).Click Enable
to enable sidecar for the corresponding device. This will modify the SidecarCore
that you've selected in step 3 (you will be replacing the system SidecarCore
with this file in step 7):
sysctl hw.model
in Terminal to find out your mac model. For iPad model, go here.
Disable System Integrity Protection. This will allow us to mount /
as read-write and modify SidecarCore
under the /System
directory.
csrutil disable
Mount system volume as read-write (in Terminal):
sudo mount -uw /
sudo cp ~/Downloads/SidecarCore /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SidecarCore.framework/Versions/A/SidecarCore
xcode-select --install
, see #3) or updated (through App Store, see #2).sudo nvram boot-args="amfi_get_out_of_my_way=0x1"
, then skip step 9.
sudo codesign -f -s - /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SidecarCore.framework/Versions/A/SidecarCore
csrutil enable
"The iPad picture quality is sub-optimal!"
Try using wired connection. For older Macs without hardware HEVC encoder/decoders, it may need extra bandwidth to transmit the screen.
"Error 32002"
This happens on wireless connection for some models. Try using a wire instead and confirm your device appears listed on Finder and it's trusted. If it does not appear, try a different lightning cable (Some people have reported that wired isn't working either on some older models e.g. MacbookPro 2012)
"None of my apps open anymore, They keep crashing!"
You probably forgot to do step 8. If you can use the Terminal, do steps 5,6 and 8 again. If you can't use the Terminal (it keeps crashing), boot into single user mode and do steps 6 and 8 after doing step 5 in Recovery Mode.
"In the code-signing step, I'm getting the codesign_allocate helper tool cannot be found or used
."
Make sure you have the latest Xcode comandline tools! See issues #2 and #3.
On Macs without touch bar, the Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys
preference may be replaced. See #61 and #56 for solutions.
General questions to consider before opening an issue:
"My question isn't listed"
Search in issues or open a new one! Note that I can only fix things that are specific to Free Sidecar (enable/disable sidecar for certain devices). Most usability issues with Sidecar can only be addressed by Apple.
"I want to revert to the original SidecarCore
"
Hope you still have the backup file from step 1! (~/Downloads/SidecarCore.bak
). Disable System Integrity Protection (step 5), mount the system volume as read-write (step 6) and run the following command in Terminal:
sudo cp ~/Downloads/SidecarCore.bak /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SidecarCore.framework/Versions/A/SidecarCore
sudo nvram -d boot-args
Your system should be in the same state as before you applied the patch!
Submit PRs and open issues!
SidecarPatcher - ~This replaces a hex string that only exists in beta versions (and apparently some official releases?) (thus does not work for me in the final release).~ (Update: SidecarPatcher has updated its patch method to be the same as Free Sidecar. Now the two projects can be used interchangeably :tada:). Free Sidecar uses partial device model string matching (details here) and should work for future versions of macOS as well.