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How iPhone Mirroring Works on the Mac
Mar 11, 2025
Article on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/how-to/iphone-mirroring-mac More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones #iPhone Mirroring on the #Mac lets you control your phone using your computer — a handy convenience when your iPhone is in your pocket, purse or backpack. All your iPhone notifications can be mirrored onto your Mac as well, letting you triage them and take care of business without touching your phone and interrupting your workflow. Follow us! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cultofmac Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@cultofmac Instagram: https://instagram.com/cultofmac/ X: https://x.com/cultofmac Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cultofmac
View Video Transcript
0:00
iPhone mirroring on the Mac lets you
0:01
control your phone using your computer a
0:04
major convenience when your phone is in
0:06
your pocket your purse or your backpack
0:09
all your notifications can be mirrored
0:11
onto your Mac as well letting you triage
0:13
them and take care of business without
0:15
even touching your phone or interrupting
0:17
your workflow here's how it
0:20
works introduced in iOS 18 and Mac OS
0:23
Sequoya iPhone mirroring is the latest
0:26
in a line of features called continuity
0:29
features that let your iPhone Mac and
0:31
other Apple devices work together
0:33
seamlessly and totally wirelessly other
0:36
continuity features include Universal
0:37
clipboard which lets you copy and paste
0:40
things from one device onto another the
0:42
ability to unlock a Mac with an Apple
0:44
Watch and continuity camera which lets
0:47
you use an iPhone as a highdef webcam
0:50
for your Mac iOS 18 is available right
0:52
now and runs on all of these iPhones as
0:56
is Mac OS tooa which runs on all Apple
0:58
silicon Macs and the last few Intel
1:01
models for this feature to work both
1:03
devices need to be signed into the same
1:05
Apple account which means you probably
1:07
can't use this feature with your
1:08
personal iPhone and a work issued Mac
1:12
both devices also need to have Wi-Fi and
1:14
Bluetooth enabled and you can't use this
1:16
feature simultaneously with AirPlay iPad
1:20
sidecar or Mac internet sharing after
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you update both devices you'll see an
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iPhone mirroring icon on your Dock and
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you can click to launch the setup
1:29
process process you'll see a little
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splash screen explaining how it works
1:33
and then you can click continue then
1:36
you'll be prompted to type in the
1:37
passcode on your iPhone and then you can
1:40
choose whether or not you want
1:42
notifications from your iPhone to be
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mirrored onto your Mac you can click
1:46
either allow or don't allow personally I
1:48
allowed it but only because I diligently
1:51
mute notifications on my iPhone to begin
1:53
with a feature you may want to be aware
1:55
of is that you can go up to iPhone
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mirroring settings and enable
2:00
automatically authenticate that way you
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don't have to type in your Mac password
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every time you launch iPhone mirroring
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which can get kind of tiring personally
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I have that enabled but only because I
2:12
never tell anybody my Mac password and I
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diligently lock it every time I'm away
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from my Mac if that isn't your situation
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then I would keep it set to ask every
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time also if you like you can remove the
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iPhone mirroring icon from your dock you
2:29
can launch it at any time in the future
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with Spotlight by hitting command space
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typing in iPhone mirroring usually it
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autocompletes after just the first three
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letters and hitting return controlling
2:41
your iPhone from your Mac is generally
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pretty intuitive a click of the mouse
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simulates a tap on the screen if you're
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using a Mac with a trackpad or Magic
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Mouse you can swipe across the surface
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to freely scroll in any direction if you
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have a traditional Mouse you can use the
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scroll wheel to go up or down
3:00
or click and drag the mouse button to
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scroll left and right when you're using
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iPhone mirroring the Mac window controls
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are hidden but if you Mouse around the
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top of the screen they'll appear the
3:10
buttons on the right will go to the home
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screen or bring up the app switcher you
3:14
can also use keyboard shortcuts command
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one will go to the home screen command
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two lets you scroll through open apps
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and command three brings up Spotlight
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search you can also use keyboard
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shortcuts to adjust the size of the
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screen on your Mac command Comm minus
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makes it smaller command plus makes it
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bigger and command zero resets it to
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actual size also in a future update to
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iPhone mirroring you'll be able to use
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drag and drop to move files from your
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Mac onto your iPhone drag a file from
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the finder an image or video from photos
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or other items onto the mirrored iPhone
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screen and you can drop the attachment
3:52
into the app you're using if you enable
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notifications banners from your iPhone
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will show up on your Mac just click on
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one of them and it'll launch iPhone
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mirroring into that particular app it's
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very smart however there are a few
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exceptions on the Mac I use Discord
4:11
using a custom Safari web app which
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means I don't need Discord notifications
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to come through luckily you can go to
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system settings notifications and click
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allow notifications from iPhone to
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customize it uncheck any of the apps you
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don't want to see on your Mac apps that
4:29
are already disabled on your iPhone are
4:31
grayed out and can't be enabled but of
4:34
course you can customize this open your
4:36
phone you can even use iPhone mirroring
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for it and go to settings notifications
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to reenable an app that you previously
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silenced iPhone mirroring only works
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while your iPhone is locked if mirroring
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is active and your phone is unlocked
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mirroring immediately stops this is to
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prevent someone from nabbing your
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MacBook to see what you're doing on your
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phone while your iPhone is be being
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mirrored you'll see a permanent
5:01
notification on your lock screen that
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says iPhone in use and the next time you
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use your iPhone you'll see a small
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Banner at the top of the screen that
5:09
tells you mirroring was recently active
5:12
these both make it abundantly clear
5:14
what's happening without getting in your
5:16
way for security reasons your iPhone's
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camera and microphone are both disabled
5:22
during mirroring so you can't leave your
5:24
phone in an inconspicuous spot and use
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mirroring from your Mac to spy on people
5:30
now unfortunately that does mean that
5:32
apps like Snapchat B camo or Final Cut
5:36
camera don't work and iPhone mirroring
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furthermore if you use Snapchat it'll
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alert the other person that you're
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screen recording their snaps and
5:45
conversations so maybe just use the web
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app on your Mac instead also in iPhone
5:50
mirroring you can't change face ID and
5:52
passcode settings the option simply
5:55
doesn't exist in the settings app when
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you open it this prevents someone from
5:59
using iPhone mirroring to change your
6:01
passcode without your knowledge if you
6:03
upgrade or replace your iPhone you can
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easily change iPhone mirroring to use
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the new one from the iPhone mirroring
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app on your Mac go to the menu bar and
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click iPhone mirroring settings then
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click change iPhone this will
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automatically open system settings to
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the desktop and Doc panel under the
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widgets section set the drop- down box
6:24
next to iPhone to the device you want to
6:27
use then go back to iPhone mirroring and
6:30
you'll see a screen that says iPhone
6:32
changed click connect if for whatever
6:35
reason you want to remove iPhone
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mirroring entirely from your Mac you can
6:39
easily do so just click revoke access
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you'll be asked again to make sure and
6:44
click revoke and that is how to use
6:46
iPhone mirror ring be sure to check out
6:48
my other video on more awesome
6:50
continuity features I'm driffin Jones
6:53
with Cult of Mac
6:55
[Music]
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