iPhone notifications and Live Activities can appear on a Mac once iPhone Mirroring is set up. Notifications need macOS Sequoia 15 on the Mac and iOS 18 on the iPhone, and Live Activities need macOS Tahoe 26 or later.
The Mac has to be an Apple silicon Mac or a Mac with the Apple T2 Security Chip, and both devices must meet the iPhone Mirroring system requirements. Alerts, timers, ride status and sports scores then show up on the Mac without picking up the iPhone.
Setting Up iPhone Mirroring Turns On Notifications on the Mac
Notifications switch on as part of the iPhone Mirroring setup, so there is no separate install.
- Open iPhone Mirroring from the Dock, the Applications folder or Spotlight on your Mac.
- Enter your iPhone passcode if the Mac asks you to unlock the iPhone.
- Click Allow when the Mac asks whether to allow notifications from your iPhone.
Once iPhone Mirroring connects, notifications and Live Activities from the iPhone arrive on the Mac automatically. They arrive whether or not you are using iPhone Mirroring and whether or not the iPhone is nearby, as long as the iPhone is turned on.
If you click Don’t Allow during setup, you can change the choice later in the Notifications settings on your Mac.
Notification Settings Sit on Both the Mac and the iPhone
On the Mac, open System Settings, click Notifications in the sidebar (scroll down if you do not see it), and click Allow notifications from iPhone. Turn the main switch off to stop every iPhone notification, or leave it on and use the Mirror iPhone Notifications From list to switch individual apps on or off.
On macOS Tahoe 26 or later, the same screen has an Allow Live Activities from iPhone switch. Turn it off to keep timers and ride status off the Mac while the regular notifications continue.
On the iPhone, open Settings > Notifications, choose an app and turn Show on Mac on or off. Turning off Allow Notifications for that app stops the alerts on both the iPhone and the Mac.
If an app on the Mac says mirroring is disabled from your iPhone, open the app’s notification settings on the iPhone and check the Show on Mac switch.
Allow Notifications From iPhone Disappears After You Revoke iPhone Access
The Allow notifications from iPhone option only appears on a Mac that has been set up with iPhone Mirroring. If it is missing, check whether iPhone access was revoked in the iPhone Mirroring settings.
Revoke iPhone Access resets the iPhone Mirroring setup for that iPhone and removes the option from the Notifications settings. Setting up iPhone Mirroring again brings the notifications back.
Our Take
My read is that the Show on Mac switch on the iPhone is the setting to use first, because iPhone notifications can get noisy on a Mac fast. The main Allow notifications from iPhone switch is the quick way to stop all of them at once.
