macOS Catalina native Screensharing app not working

Hi bmc5311,

after various chats and calls with the Apple Support, I solved the problem.

It derives from unknown permissions mess-up, and also technical experts from the Apple support were unable to solve it through canonical permissions fixes.

First thing to try: Do the Apple Screen Sharing works with a different User and Password? If you do not have alternative accounts on your computer, create a new administrator account and try with its credentials. If it works, the problem is exactly the same I had: permissions.

I solved in this way:

1. Be sure to have a backup.
2. Log-in with the alternative account you created before.
3. Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups (not sure if it is the right name of the menu, I don't use English as main language)
4. Delete your previous account, and select the option of keeping the user folder.
5. Check that the user folder has the same name as before: maybe when deleting it would be added something like "deleted user". Rename the folder as it has to be: just the name of the user.
6. Re-create your previous account, with the same name as before. A message saying that a folder already exists will pop-up, and choose to use that folder (I did it one months ago, don't remember exactly what it said).
7. Before to log-in with your new account, right-click on the name and enter in "advanced options" (as stated before, don't know the exact words you may find in English, but it is the only option in the right-click menu), and check that the folder assigned to the user is exactly the folder of your previous account.
8. Done!

After point 4 and before to log-in with your new account, reboot your computer.

Anyway, if with an alternative account you are still not able to make screen sharing work, I cannot ensure you that this solution will work.

Nobody has the same problem? Any solution?

is there any solution to this? It is really frustrating: I travel a lot for work, and some time it is difficult to handle everything via ssh, I need to solve this problem as soon as possible!

I know it sounds crazy, but sincerely after various days of attempts, hours spent on the phone and with the remote connection of the Support Team, deleting the existing account and re-creating one linked to the old user folder... less than 10 minutes and everything started working as usual.

the fact that you’re not able to screen share with a new user imply that it is something on the system level, not user.

have you checked that under system preferences / sharing / screen sharing the option is on for all users, non only those listed? Maybe it is set exclusively for your real user, thus a new one can’t do it. Check also for this, and try again with a new administrator user.

It is really frustrating, I need to find a solution! Why screensharing is not working anymore?

Is anybody able to use screensharing app with Catalina?