To use Sidecar, turn on Wi‑Fi or connect over USB

I was doing some work on a Sunday morning and wanted to play some music so stuck on a random Study Spotify Playlist. I watned to move the window to my iPad to keep it out of the way so I went into the Spotify App and chose the menu item move to <ipadName> iPad.

Spotify Menu item - Move to iPad Menu
Spotify Menu item – Move to iPad Menu

When I did this I got the error

“Unable to connect to <iPadName>”

To use Sidecar, turn on Wi‑Fi or connect over USB

Unable to connect to iPad with Sidecar Dialogue box
Unable to connect to iPad with Sidecar Dialogue box

This generally comes down to an issue with the computer you’re on trusting the iPad you’re trying to connect to.

To create a Trust, do the following.

  • Open Finder
  • Click on the iPad in the left hand menu. You should see a button like this
Trust iPad Button - Found in Finder
Trust iPad Button – Found in Finder
  • Once you hit the Trust button you’ll get a challenge popup on the iPad asking you if you want to trust the computer trying to setup the Trust.
iPad Trust Computer Challenge
iPad Trust Computer Challenge
  • Press the Trust button and the Finder window for the iPad should change to something more akin to what you expect to se.
Trusted iPad Finder Window
Trusted iPad Finder Window – This is what the Finder should look like when the iPad is Trusted

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