AEServer explained

I’m sorry, but this is too much info for me to decipher. I want to know if AEServer is proper to be on my Mac mini? It is a Unix executable under Support and allows apps to control my computer. Yet, when I search under support.apple.com there is nothing about it. Why, would a Microsoft product be necessary?

Is there any benefit to allowing AEServer to control your computer?

If as you indicate, this is a feature for the developer community, then excuse my naivety but the proportion of IOS users doing development must be very small. Can't Apple limit development capabilities to versions dedicated to that purpose whilst for the majority of us use runtime versions Only? Today we all have to take the burden of the rapidly increasing size and processing complexity of the operating systems on our ageing devices. . If there is an optional development extension we limit the operating systems size and processing and don't need to have these features appearing in our security lists. I appreciate in this case AEServer is not enabled but we end up wasting time chasing this up when we discover them suddenly appearing in the privacy apps approvals list. Have a special full version for developers which they can accept/register for when loading updates?

This thread led me to a very interesting discovery (and a solution to a totally different problem):

I had a system at work where it had become totally impossible to connect with via screen sharing (VNC). I've been working with Macs for a lot of years and am a pretty competent system admin and troubleshooter and this had me stumped, especially when the problem was inherited when I migrated the system to a newer computer.

I stumbled onto this thread while I was googling some log entries that were puzzling and saw AEServer sitting unchecked in my Privacy preferences panel. I enabled it and, goes what, the system now connects for screen sharing like immediately!

My sincere thanks to @doHernandez or pointing me in the right direction to solve this mystery!

Ric

Just to chime in,

Apple Events are part of the macOS, not just a development tool. Remote Apple Events has been a thing on Apple platforms for decades. Go to System Preferences > Sharing and you can turn it off there. You can also leave it unchecked in System Preferences > Privacy...

In short if you googled "AEServer Mac", Keep Calm and Just Disable it.

It's very simply put this way by Apple:

Overview

The macOS 10.15

SDK provides support for developing apps for Macs running macOS Catalina

10.15. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 11 available from the Mac App

Store. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 11,

see Xcode 11 Release Notes.

General

Known Issues

• During
• installation of macOS 10.15 you might be prompted to enter your
• administrator password multiple times to allow installation to proceed.
• (51206649)

Deprecations

• macOS frameworks are now thinned for the x86-64 architecture. Apps that execute i386 code now fail with the EBADARCH error code. The remaining stub frameworks are nonfunctional and exist only for compatibility purposes. (51236070)

AirDrop

Known Issues

• AirDrop doesn’t work when a VPN is connected with the includeAllNetworks and excludeLocalNetworks options enabled.
• Workaround: Disconnect the VPN before using AirDrop. (52618489)

AppleEvents

New Features

• To
• enhance security, AppleEvents and AppleScripts that target an app on a
• remote system must authenticate as the same user on the remote system.
• An AppleEvent that targets an app running as a different user receives a
• procNotFound error.
• To allow remote AppleEvents to target apps in any user session, run the following command in Terminal on the server:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AEServer RestrictAccessToUserSession -bool false

• Then disable and reenable Remote Apple Events in System Preferences > Sharing. (5353592)

Well, an example would be "Find my Mac" which based on this article would require AEServer the ability to control the Mac via an Apple Event/Apple Script. AEServer would also be used if you are pushing updates to multiple computers at the same time.

@mwill11416. AEServer is a function initiated by developers is true. However, if you notice it talks about remote access/apple events. An example of this would be "Find my Mac" or if you were going to update a group of computers with an update at the same time. Sometimes purchased software may offer some form of sharing to other computers. Based on what I read these would all be a function of AEServer. BUT... If you haven't enabled "Find My Mac" nor want access to your Mac from another computer/device then just "uncheck" the box next to AEServer. Don't remove it, because you may find doing so impedes some feature you hadn't previously thought of as remote access.

Hope this helps!

I don't remember downloading AEServer but found it under the Accessibility Menu of the Security & Privacy under System Preference. Any explanation of where this came from and could the content on my laptop have been accessed without my knowledge?

I guess AEServer shorts for AppleEventServer, not Microsoft. I also make guess that you can disable it from Security -> Accessibility, to not allow it to control you mini.

Based on release notes though I also guess that if your user on Mac#1 is Jim and on Mac#2 you have Jim and Jane, to remotely from mac#1 to run script commands in Jane's account at Mac#2, you would need to do the trick explained on Mac#2. But as I do not use the feature and have it disabled on all Mac's , I cannot verify.

Im not debating or disbelieve this answer... but if this server has been here for decades then why does it tell me this file or "server" is a file that was created (and compressed...) over a year after this computer was released and then sent to a folder where it remains the only file...

It is a bit paranoid to question this, but I have had one other MacBook (2014- the ex broke it :() and it never did the weird things this one does. It also didn't do it as often. This computer freezes, display pixelizes, files delete on their own, files move on their own and duplicate, also these kinds of files all of a sudden appear after (or sometimes before) these problems occur and they scatter themselves among the computer in folders I cannot see normally or ever access... Its just weird for these necessary, normal, traditional (whatever) files and "servers" to appear well after I first set the computer up. Plus they take up an ungodly amounts of space. My "others" storage is over 10GB...

You do a-lot of guessing!then talk about remote control as though you really do know?

what is it? MS Apple? I worry,

and that response scares me.....

system preferences> security privacy> accessibility. I have followed these steps and deleted aeserver from how can I reinstall? Macbook Pro 13.3 (macos Catalina 10.15.4)

👍🏼 Thanks for posting this.

sorry, I touched helpoful to get more helpful ansrws cz yours did not tell me what it is, what it does and why.