How to enable Sidecar on Older Mac hardware

Posted on March 5, 2020

Apple rolled out the public beta of the long awaited iOS 13 and macOS Catalina. One of the biggest new feature is Sidecar which lets you use your iPad as a second display for your Mac. This feature is only available on some latest models of Mac, This is because Older Macs hardware doesn’t support HEVC encoding due to lack of Intel Core 6th gen processor. This is disappointing to many Mac users since most people own Older Macs because generally apple devices last long and not forgetting that crazy price point of getting a new one.

There is a work around to activate this feature on your old Mac device, Follow the procedure below to activate and try Sidecar on your iPad and MacBook

Ensure you have the latest iOS 13 and iPadOS Beta installed on both devices. Readmore on How to install iOS 13 beta 2 without a developer account
Open Terminal and run the command below

defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display AllowAllDevices -bool true; defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display hasShownPref -bool true; open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Sidecar.prefPane

- Connect you iPad to the same WiFi network as your MacBook. Running the above command will activate Sidecar and automatically launch the setup screen.

Select iPad on the connect to drop down list.
This will extend your Mac display to your iPad, The graphics might appear pixelated but it is due lack of HEVC encoding