PSA: BigSur and AppleTV mirroring

The Nine Hammers Tavern - General Chat
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I lost an hour today troubleshooting why I could not mirror my iMac to AppleTV, as I have done for about 77 years. I can only surmise this new issue popped up as a result of upgrading the OS to BigSur. It would not connect because the audio was connected (not the right word, keep reading) to my headphones.

The last time I used my desktop I was listening to music through a pair of bluetooth headphones. After I was finished, I powered down the headphones and put them away. Fast forward to today, I jumped through hoops that included, restarting both devices, double-checking all restrictions and permissions, reading no fewer than 9 articles (none helped), and some other things. Finally, I happened to notice in the new control center that the audio section had a headphones icon. I clicked on it and saw AppleTV as a choice. I chose AppleTV and then tried to mirror it again. That did it.

For those of you who mirror to an AppleTV, if it does not connect, check to see if your audio is connected to the AppleTV. Seems a silly reason to fail an operation rather than flash a warning/reminder, but that is the case.

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Isn’t it “fun” when operating systems force us to change how we do things?

I had similar issues the first time I went to mirror from my mac after the update- including the fact that Apple removed the mirror icon from appearing at the top of my screen. So I had to google how to get that back.

Remember that we are here to help, even when the issue stems from an OS update! I do appreciate your PSA @WebbKOS! Surely, you’ve saved a few Sufferlandrians from unnecessary suffering!

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OMG, our troubleshooting did not even do the trick.

UPDATE: Spent 1.5 hours on the phone with AppleCare today. If you have BigSur and you want to mirror, turn off your security software. Others have had the same issue as me, but I was the first to report with my particular security software. For me there was no clear way to disable it so I uninstalled it, mirroring worked as it should after that.

The security software peoples need to get busy writing a patch, if that it was it is called. :wink:

Cheers

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