Keynote remote not working on ipados15, ios15, latest big sur

So after updating to the latest of everything, i cannot connect my keynote.

Everytime I go on my macbook pro, then try to link remotely to the keynote on my ipad 12.9 pro or iphone 12 pro max, they both crash. Literally I click link and the keynote on the tablet and phone disappears then gives an error on the macbook keynote that the device in unavailable. It is available until either I try to link it or confirm the code.

Anyway to resolve this? I have tried the following…

1. restart the wifi router all the devices are connected to.
2. restarting all devices multiple times.
3. verify everything is updated from os to the app itself.
4. uninstall keynote on ipad and reinstall then restart.
5. uninstall keynote on iphone and resintall then restart.
6. uninstall keynote on macbook and reinstall then restart.
7. restart with smc reset etc.

so far i am using the workaround SIDECAR and using my ipad as a second screen device. but would love the remote to work!