I was really excited to get a setup with two MacBooks sharing one display and it has been so incredibly frustrating, nothing works the way it should
Through work I got the new Asus ProArt 5k display and an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, and got a Magic Trackpad from my dad he no longer used. The display supposedly has KVM functionality. I should be able to just plug the keyboard and trackpad into it and everything just works right? Nope!
Most of the frustrations come from Apple which just seems to go out of its way to frustrate such a setup. Touch ID can only be paired to one Mac. (I thought I'd read otherwise but was misled.) The trackpad won't stop trying to be a bluetooth trackpad paired to a single computer.
Meanwhile both computers detect the external display and extend to the desktop no matter which input I select. So invariably one of them gets a phantom display unless I physically disconnect.
This is only the extant issues I'm dealing with now, I also had to deal with the maddening world of getting the right adapter and cable combo so that one of my Macs could transmit a 5k signal through an HDMI cable from its USB-C port, apparently using DisplayPort?!
I was trying to avoid getting an expensive Thunderbolt KVM switch and I don't even know if it would help. Obviously shared Touch ID is out, I guess I'll just make do with my watch.
All I want is to be able to smoothly use one keyboard display and mouse as the primary setup and switch them between my work laptop and my personal laptop.
@misc I know this does not help since you already have a display, but I am using a Gigabyte KVM monitor to switch between a Mac mini and a MacBook Pro and operation is almost flawless. https://www.gigabyte.com/Monitor/All-Series?fid=2730
@Eggfreckles Thanks... I wouldn't completely rule out getting another monitor because this is through work and if I don't use it someone else definitely can - but I really want that retina pixel density, which I'm assuming this doesn't have (because apparently there are only 3 options for that on the market rn)
@misc being legally blind makes this less of an issue for me. My other monitor is a Dell 4K.
@misc to be honest, I've done research for this and I've come to the conclusion that a single thunderbolt dock I move between my different laptops is the way
@starica What did you go with? Do you have a 5k display?