iPhone Mirroring on Mac: Requirements and Setup

iPhone Mirroring puts your iPhone's screen in a window on your Mac — you click with the trackpad, type with your Mac keyboard, and your iPhone never leaves your bag. It arrived with macOS 15 Sequoia and iOS 18, so this is a version-specific feature: Ventura and Sonoma don't have it. Here's what you need, how to set it up, and what it can and can't do.

What you need

• macOS 15 Sequoia on a Mac with Apple silicon, or an Intel Mac with the Apple T2 Security Chip.
• iOS 18 on the iPhone.
• Both devices signed in to the same Apple Account with two-factor authentication on.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled on both — they handle discovery and the connection. The devices need to be near each other; the same network is the reliable setup.
• The iPhone stays locked during mirroring — that's by design, and the phone shows nothing while your Mac drives it.

One more gate: availability depends on region. At launch, iPhone Mirroring wasn't offered in the EU, so if the app refuses to connect and everything else checks out, regional restriction may be the reason.

Set it up the first time

1. Open the iPhone Mirroring app — Sequoia puts it in the Dock by default, and it's always in the Applications folder.
2. With your iPhone locked and nearby, click Continue and approve the pairing prompt.
3. Authenticate on the Mac with your login password or Touch ID.
4. Choose whether the Mac should Ask Every Time or connect automatically in future sessions. You can change this later in the app's settings.

After that, launching the app drops you straight onto your iPhone's Home Screen in a resizable window.

Driving your iPhone from the Mac

• Click to tap; scroll with two fingers on the trackpad; type in any iPhone app with the Mac keyboard, autocorrect and all.
• Buttons at the top of the window open the Home Screen and App Switcher; Cmd+1/2/3 switch between actual size, smaller, and larger window sizes.
• Audio from iPhone apps plays through the Mac's speakers.
• On macOS 15.1 and later you can drag and drop files between Mac and iPhone apps — drop a photo into an iPhone app's window, or pull a file out.

If someone picks up and unlocks the iPhone itself, the mirroring session pauses — the phone always wins.

iPhone notifications on your Mac

Mirroring also brings your iPhone's notifications to the Mac's Notification Center, marked with a small iPhone badge. Click one and the relevant app opens in the mirroring window. Control this in System Settings → Notifications → Allow notifications from iPhone, where you can toggle the feature and choose which apps come through — sensible if your phone gets noisier than your Mac should be.

The limits

• You can't use the iPhone's camera or microphone through the mirrored window — Continuity Camera handles that separately.
• Video that's DRM-protected may refuse to play mirrored.
• The iPhone must stay locked; you can't use both screens at once.
• Only one Mac can mirror a given iPhone at a time.

When it won't connect

Most failed connections come down to the requirements list, so re-check it in this order:

1. Lock the iPhone. Mirroring refuses to start while the phone is unlocked or in use.
2. Toggle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and on, on both devices — stale radio state is the most common culprit.
3. Verify the Apple Account matches exactly on both (System Settings → [your name] on the Mac, Settings → your name on the iPhone), with two-factor authentication enabled.
4. Turn off the iPhone's Personal Hotspot if it's active — sharing a connection can block the session.
5. Restart both devices and try once more before assuming the region restriction applies to you.

Not on Sequoia yet?

On Sonoma you still get half the story: your iPhone's widgets can live on the Mac desktop without any app installs. See how to use iPhone widgets on your Mac.