iPhone Mirroring on Mac: Everything you need to know

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.

This feature also could come in handy if you shatter your iPhone screen. You can mirror an otherwise unusable iPhone to your Mac to make sure it’s backed up. You could even factory-reset your broken phone before sending it in for repair or replacement.

Here’s how iPhone mirroring works. Keep reading or watch our video.

How to use iPhone mirroring on the Mac

Introduced in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, iPhone Mirroring is the latest in a line of features called Continuity. These surprisingly sophisticated features let your iPhone, Mac and other Apple devices work seamlessly together, totally wirelessly. They offer innovative solutions to common tech problems and annoyances. And they illustrate the unmatched power of the Apple ecosystem.

Other Continuity features include Universal Clipboard, which lets you copy and paste items from an iPhone to a Mac (and vice versa); the ability to unlock a Mac with an Apple Watch; and Continuity Camera, which lets you use an iPhone as a high-def webcam for Mac.

Table of contents: How to use iPhone mirroring on the Mac

1. Update to iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia
2. Set up iPhone Mirroring and authenticate your phone
3. How to use and control iPhone mirroring
4. Customize notifications
5. Limitations for security
6. Change the paired iPhone
7. Remove your iPhone from mirroring

Update to iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia

First, you’ll need to make sure you’re running iOS/iPadOS 18 or later. It’s available right now as a free update in Settings > General > Software Update. It’s compatible with the iPhone XS, iPhone XR, iPhone SE (2nd generation) and later.

On a Mac, you need to update to macOS Sequoia 15 or later. Go to System Settings > General > Software Update to install it. (Also known as System Preferences in older versions of macOS.) It’s available for any Mac with Apple silicon and a few of the last Intel models.

For iPhone Mirroring to work, both devices must be signed into the same Apple Account. That unfortunately means you likely can’t use the feature with a personal iPhone and a work-issued Mac. Both devices also need to have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled. You can’t use this feature simultaneously with AirPlay, Sidecar or Mac internet sharing.

Set up iPhone Mirroring and authenticate your phone

After updating your devices to the necessary operating system versions, you’ll see a new iPhone Mirroring icon in your Mac’s Dock. Click it to launch the feature, and you’ll see a setup screen explaining how it works. Click Continue.

First, you need to type in the passcode on your iPhone. Then, you can choose whether you want iPhone notifications to appear on your Mac — click Allow or Don’t Allow. (I enabled them, but only because I diligently mute notifications on my iPhone to begin with.)

Next, click Get Started to try it out!

I recommend going to your Mac’s menu bar and clicking iPhone Mirroring > Settings and enabling Automatically authenticate. Otherwise, typing in your Mac password every time you want to use iPhone Mirroring gets a little annoying. But that’s only because I don’t tell anyone my Mac password and I always lock my computer when I’m not using it. If this isn’t your situation, you should keep iPhone Mirroring set to Ask every time.

If you like, you can remove the iPhone Mirroring app icon from your Mac’s Dock. You can open the app at any time by bringing up Spotlight with Command-Space (⌘␣) and typing in “iphone mirroring” (it usually auto-completes after just “iph…”) and hitting Return.

How to use and control iPhone mirroring

Controlling your iPhone from your Mac is generally pretty intuitive:

• A click of the mouse simulates a tap on the screen.
• If you’re using a Mac with a trackpad or Magic Mouse, you can swipe across the surface to freely scroll in any direction.
• If you have a traditional mouse, you can use the scroll wheel to go up or down, or click and drag the mouse button to scroll left and right.

When using iPhone Mirroring, the Mac window controls are hidden. However, if you mouse around the top of the mirrored iPhone screen, they’ll appear. The buttons on the right will go to the Home Screen or bring up the app switcher.

You can use keyboard shortcuts on your Mac to control your iPhone. ⌘1 will show your iPhone’s Home Screen. ⌘2 lets you scroll through apps open on your iPhone. Hitting ⌘3 brings up Spotlight search on your phone. You also use key commands to adjust the size of the iPhone screen shown on your Mac. ⌘- makes it smaller, ⌘= makes it bigger and ⌘0 resets it to actual size.

Audio from videos, music or podcasts playing on your iPhone will come out of your Mac speakers while mirroring.

In a future update to iPhone Mirroring, you’ll be able to use drag-and-drop to move files from your Mac to your iPhone. Drag a file from the Finder, an image or video from Photos, or certain other items onto the mirrored iPhone screen, and you can drop the attachment in the app you’re using.

Customize iPhone notifications on Mac

If you enabled notifications, you’ll see notification banners from your iPhone on your Mac. Click on one of them, and it’ll launch that app using iPhone Mirroring.

I want most of my iPhone notifications to come through on my Mac — but there are a few exceptions. I use Discord on the Mac using a Safari web app, so I don’t need Discord notifications.

To set which iPhone notifications you see on your Mac, go to System Settings > Notifications and click Allow notifications from iPhone to customize. Uncheck any apps you don’t want to see on your Mac.

Apps that are already disabled on your phone are grayed out and can’t be enabled, but of course, you can customize this. Open your iPhone (hey, use iPhone Mirroring for it!) and go to Settings > Notifications to reenable an app you previously silenced.

Limitations for security

iPhone Mirroring can only be used while your iPhone is locked. If iPhone mirroring is active and your phone is unlocked, it immediately stops. This is to prevent someone from nabbing your MacBook to see what you’re doing on your phone.

While your iPhone is being mirrored, a non-dismissable notification will appear on its Lock Screen that says “iPhone in Use.” The next time you use your iPhone, you’ll see a small banner to alert you that mirroring recently occurred. These both make it clear what’s happening without getting in your way.

For privacy and security reasons, your iPhone’s camera and microphone don’t work while mirroring. You can’t leave your phone in an inconspicuous hiding spot and use mirroring to spy on someone.

But that also means you can’t use iPhone Mirroring with a camera app like Snapchat, BeReal, Camo or Halide. Furthermore, opening a conversation thread in Snapchat will alert the other person that you tried screen recording the chat — because your display is being mirrored.

Also, in iPhone Mirroring, you can’t change Face ID & Passcode settings. The section simply doesn’t appear in the Settings app. That way, anyone with access to the feature can’t change your iPhone passcode without your knowledge.

Change the paired iPhone

If you upgrade or replace your iPhone, you can easily switch iPhone Mirroring to work with the new one. From the iPhone Mirroring app on your Mac, go to the menu bar and click iPhone Mirroring > Settings. Then click Change iPhone.

This will automatically open System Settings to the Desktop & Dock panel. Under the Widgets section, set the dropdown box next to iPhone to the device you want to use. Then, go back to iPhone Mirroring and you’ll see a screen that says “iPhone Changed.” Click Connect.

Remove your iPhone from mirroring

If you want to remove the iPhone Mirroring feature entirely from your Mac, you can easily do so. From the iPhone Mirroring app, go to the menu bar and click iPhone Mirroring > Settings and click Revoke Access. You’ll be asked again to make sure. Click Revoke. (In the future, if you launch iPhone Mirroring on your Mac, you’ll see the setup screen again.)

If you don’t plan on using the app, right-click on the iPhone Mirroring icon in your Mac’s Dock. Under Options, uncheck Keep in Dock.

More new features in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia

After checking out iPhone mirroring and other Continuity features, check out other new features in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia: