SideMini

Add your iPad as a second screen, at every login

Sidecar can already extend your Mac onto an iPad. What it cannot do is remember. After a restart, a sleep or a dropped connection you are back in Control Center picking the iPad again. SideMini does that part for you, on a MacBook, an iMac or a Mac mini with a monitor, and changes nothing about how your Mac starts.

Download for macOS

Three days from first launch. No card, no account, nothing to cancel.

Already tried it? Buy for $9, once.

What you get

It connects at login. Open the laptop, sign in, and the iPad is already beside it. Nobody opens Screen Mirroring.

It remembers your layout. Extended or mirrored, the resolution, the Sidebar and the Touch Bar strip: chosen once, reapplied on every connection.

It comes back on its own. iPad asleep, cable pulled, a Wi‑Fi hiccup: the first retry fires about two seconds after a drop, then it backs off politely and keeps watching.

It is still Sidecar underneath. Apple Pencil, Retina, USB or wireless. SideMini removes the clicking, not the feature.

Setting it up

  1. Open Settings → Second Screen and pick your iPad.
  2. Turn on “Use the iPad as a second screen”. That sets start-at-login, connect-even-with-a-monitor, extend, and reconnect together.
  3. Choose extend or mirror, and the resolution you like, under Advanced in the same tab.
  4. Log out and back in once to confirm it connects by itself.

What it does not touch

This setup changes nothing about FileVault, automatic login or your Mac’s energy settings. Your Mac already has a screen someone can log in on, so none of that is needed. Those options belong to the monitor-less setup and stay off unless you go looking for them.

What you need

A Sidecar-compatible Mac and iPad on macOS 14 or later, signed in to the same Apple Account with two-factor authentication. A USB cable is optional; SideMini falls back to wireless by itself, and disables the wired path permanently if your Mac is one of the setups where it fails.

Questions

Does it work on a MacBook?

Yes, and that is the common case. The iPad joins the built-in screen at every login. The only-screen setup is for Macs without a display of their own.

Will it connect when I am on the road?

It tries whenever your iPad is reachable. Over a cable that is always. Wirelessly it needs both devices nearby with Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth and Handoff on.

Can I stop it connecting for a while?

Yes. Disconnect from the menu bar and it stays disconnected until you ask again or the displays change.

Does it slow my Mac down?

SideMini itself is idle almost all the time. Sidecar’s own cost is the same whether you started it by hand or not.

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