The flagship feature of macOS Sequoia is iPhone mirroring. As part of Apple’s Continuity feature set, iPhone mirroring allows a user to access an iPhone through a Mac. Additionally, notifications that typically appear on the iPhone also appear on the Mac, and you can even drag and drop files between the two devices.
iPhone mirroring creates a wireless connection between the Mac and iPhone, so Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are required. Additionally, the iPhone must be running iOS 18 and the Mac needs macOS Sequoia. (We have all the details on iOS 18 and (MacOS Sequoia in our superguides.) The Mac and iPhone must be signed in to the same Apple account.
Here’s a look at how to use the iPhone mirroring feature. The guide below uses a MacBook Air M3 and an iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Tools needed: iOS 18, macOS Sequoia Required materials: iOS 18 compatible iPhone; M-series Mac or Intel Mac equipped with T2
iPhone Mirroring: First Time Setup
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- On macOS Sequoia, go to the Dock and you’ll find a new icon for iPhone Mirroring. Click on it. (The Dock icon is an alias for an iPhone Mirroring app that’s located in the Applications folder.)
- A window explaining the feature appears. Click Continue.
- You are prompted to unlock your iPhone to continue.
- After a few setup steps (you may need to enter your PIN on your iPhone), a “iPhone Mirroring is ready to use” window will appear. Click To start.
- Your iPhone screen appears, but it’s under an alert titled “Does it require a Mac connection to access iPhone?”
- If you want to use Touch ID or be prompted for a password every time you use iPhone mirroring, click Ask every time.
- If you do not want to authenticate each time, click on Automatically authenticate.
- If you change your mind about this setting, you can change it in the iPhone mirroring settings.
Using iPhone Mirroring After Setup
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- Open the iPhone Mirroring app. (Click its Dock icon or launch it from the Applications folder.)
- An iPhone screen will appear and say “iPhone Mirroring is locked”. Use Touch ID or enter your user password to unlock it.
- A “connection to [your iPhone’s name]The “ ” screen appears.
- Once connected, you will see your iPhone screen and you will be able to access it.
Let’s say you decide to directly access your iPhone while the iPhone Mirroring feature is active. In this case, the session ends in the iPhone Mirroring app and an “iPhone in use” screen appears, with an icon Try again button that you can click after locking the iPhone. If the iPhone is in use while the iPhone Mirroring app is trying to connect, an “iPhone in use” screen will appear and you will need to quit the app, lock the iPhone, and then restart the iPhone Mirroring app.
iPhone Mirroring App: Settings
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The iPhone Mirroring app only has one setting to allow you to authenticate yourself every time you launch iPhone Mirroring. Select Ask every time if you wish to authenticate at any time, or Automatically authenticate if you don’t.
iPhone mirroring requires access to an Apple account; this tells the app which iPhones are associated with the user. If you have multiple iPhones, you can select which iPhone to access in System Settings > Desktop and docking stationand in the Widgets section, search iPhone. (See screenshot above.) A pop-up menu displays the iPhones associated with your user account. Select the one you want to access.
What can you do with iPhone mirroring?
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You have full access to your iPhone and can do pretty much anything you would normally do with the iPhone in your hands. For example, in the sequence above, I played Pokémon Go on my iPhone via iPhone mirroring.
If you’re using a trackpad on a Mac, use two fingers instead of one to perform the usual swiping gestures you do on iPhone. For example, to turn pages from the Home screen, swipe left or right with two fingers.
Notifications that usually appear on your iPhone appear on your Mac. When you click on a notification, that action is triggered on the iPhone and displayed in the iPhone Mirroring feature.
iPhone Mirroring supports drag-and-drop file transfer from Mac to iPhone, but at the time of writing this option was not enabled in the beta.
Resize iPhone Window
For presentation purposes, this image has been modified from what the user
really experiences.
.
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With macOS Sequoia beta 4 and iOS 18, Apple added the ability to resize the iPhone window. See menu, users have three resizing options: Smaller, Actual size, And Bigger. You can’t click and drag an edge or corner of the window; you must use one of these three sizes. It’s unlikely that Apple will add the ability to click and drag, as the aspect ratio must be maintained for proper presentation.
How to Turn Off iPhone Mirroring
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If you want to turn off iPhone mirroring, this is not done on Mac. It is done through the iOS 18 settings on the iPhone. Go to Settings > AirPlay and Continuity > iPhone MirroringTap the Mac paired with the iPhone, then tap To modifyTap the “—” icon and the DELETE button that appears. When you do this, the iPhone Mirroring section disappears from the AirPlay and Continuity settings.
However, at the time of writing, the iPhone was still accessible in iPhone Mirroring even after removing iPhone Mirroring on the iPhone. This feature is still in beta, so Apple will fix this issue before it goes official this fall.
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