Replacement of iMac Target Display Mode for Apple Silicon with Virtual Display and Screen Sharing

[larshansen]

I'd always believed there was a cheap and practical solution to using my 5k imac as a display and here it is. Cheers and thank you

[gastonreal]

This is genius, I tried tons of things and none of them worked nicely, this is the best solution and the cheapest one!

[crochetingsbya.]

THANK YOU! I almost gave up trying to figure out how to get my iMac as a display. You saved me money and saved my sanity. I will share this video with everyone I saw struggling in the other videos. Thank you again!

ps: works like a charm! So awesome!

[CTdavid]

Wow - thank you for the video - this works 100% and is a much better solution than some of the others you mentioned. I'm running this on an primary 2023 Mac Mini 2 Pro connected to a secondary 2009 27" Imac without any issues. The secondary display is super crisp, responsive, and amazing. Much appreciated! Returning all those mini display port cables and the other solutions in favor of the $4 HDMI dummy dongle.

[michellethomas]

Hi Amin,

Hope that you are having a good weekend. I never write reviews/ leave comments. However, on this occasion I feel I NEED TO. I just wanted to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU you for sharing your knowledge with us viewers.

I have tried this and it works!

I wanted to use my old imac as a second display and I watched different videos on YouTude demonstrating that it could be done. I enthusiastically brought a whole load of thunderbolt / hdmi / USC-C cables and adaptors to try it out.

I read the comments sections on solutions shared when the second display did not come up.
I pressed Command F2/ fn button and nothing worked to get a second display. I even called Apple and their advisors emphasised that using an old iMac with a M1 could not be done.

I felt deflated that I could not use my imac as a second display with my new M1.

I have heard of Luna display but I was not prepared to spend that amount of funds.

It was when I was giving up that I came across your video by chance! At first I was not sure if your demonstration would work for me (I had watched others and it did not work). But I reflected on it, watched it multiple times and thought why not give it a go.

I am so happy that my imac will no longer be sitting there collecting dust and that I have a new use for it. I will be telling all my friends about your video.

Once again thank you soo much.

[concerto_no]

THANK YOU !!!! I ve tried everything and that's the only technique that worked for me. I haver a Imac from late 2012 and a 2023 M3 MacBookPro.

[florijandeclercq]

Hey Amin thank you for this clever video. I have recently received a imac 2013 for free and running a dual boot ubuntu/macoshighsierra which is great but for my more demanding stuff I have mac book pro m1 and I am dying to use my imac as a display. Do I need need a third screen to make this work? Or is this dongle plug and play where the imac just magically appears in the display menu?

[rohan]

This solution is great for a 2K iMac but not ideal for iMac with 5K. If you keep higher resolution on 5K iMacs then the picture will be blurry. You will have to continue with the lower resolution which results in small window size on 5K iMacs.

[rayyip]

Can I use this device on a windows notebook share the screen to a iMac 27 inch ?

[jimmykim]

Do you mind sharing the step by step instructions to enable this? I just ordered one of the adapters off of Amazon but want to make sure I follow all of the proper steps to enable this great workaround!

[elenakeler]

Do you have also a solution für iMac 2013 and the new MacBook Air with silicon M2?

[aplinuno]

I got this to work for a very short amount of time. I broke down my system to reorient my displays. Now when I plug in the HDMI dummy head I lose all my menus and dock and just have blank desktop. I cannot control anything when the dummy head is plugged in. I'm sure I have done or not done one of the steps correctly. I can't figure out how to get back to a place that I can make adjustments to the settings.

[florent-thomas]

great video, would I be able to have my MBP shut and still see the other screens ? thx

[joelhencken]

I’m trying to use my 2009 27” iMac as the main or only monitor for my Mac Studio M1.

I’m not sure I understand from your video what kind of cables would be required for that. Also not sure if I need only one of these HDMI dummy plugs (they are often sold 2-3 in a pack, and IDKY). Can you clarify?

Two additional questions: First, I have read that VNC is a security risk. Can you comment? Second, there are several of these plugs shown on amazon. Do they all have the same capabilities, or are some faster, do some have better refresh rates or resolutions? Any advice would be welcome!

Thank you so much for your video!

[jwynne]

Has anyone tried this with a 5K iMac? Late 2014 or 2017?!

[Remidayson]

Hi, do you think this system can work for Mac mini M4? thanks in advance

[AridersLifeYT]

Question, every time you restart the computer do you have to set it all up again?

[ivanvorique]

thx vor the video mate, its gonna save a lot of dead imacs
Could plz diretc me to or make a video explaynig how to set up the VCN on the imac? when i try to connect using the host name on my imac i just cant ( i got a msg saying the the remot computer is not avaliable or that the firewall is blocking screen share - the firelwall is disabled o both mac's).

[guilhermeprates]

I want to use the iMac as a secondary screen for a MacBook Pro. Does it work? Do I need to buy two?

[jonathanlott]

Thank you!! I've been looking for this solution for a while. I had seen the little dongle device online, but didn't know how to get the Screen Share, it's kinda a hidden feature and took me a while to find it. Maybe you can explain how to activate Screen Share. 👍🏻👍🏻 Definitely no need to go with Luna $120!!