M1 Screen sharing still broken?

It's now late May 2021 and Apple distributed the Big Sur 11.4 update yesterday. I was hoping that this update addressed the Screen Sharing problem with the M1 Macs. We have a new M1 iMac and you still cannot initiate a screen sharing session TO this iMac if the Firewall is on ( file and screen sharing allowed ) in the System Preferences panel. If you turn off Firewall on the M1 iMac, you can initiate a screen sharing session TO it. You can turn on the Firewall on the M1 while the screen sharing session is active, but if you end the session and try to re-initiate another screen sharing session TO the M1 iMac, it will fail to connect.


This can only be a bug I feel pretty sure.

Posted on May 26, 2021 11:40 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 26, 2021 2:03 PM

On the serving Mac, select System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing. Do this first.


On the M1 iMac, there is some configuration work to be done.

  1. Drag and drop the /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Screen Sharing.app to your Dock
  2. In System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall panel.
    1. Click Firewall Options…
    2. Deselect Block all incoming connections (if this is enabled, screen sharing will not work)
      1. Click the [+] button and navigate in the Finder to the above Screen Sharing.app, select it, and click Add
      2. You should see a green incoming connection (this is VNC port 5900).
    3. Leave all other checkboxes selected
    4. Quit System Preferences
  3. Click on the Screen Sharing application in the Dock
    1. Enter the host.local name and connect
  4. When you are done, you can either shut down the remote Mac via its File menu, or just close the connection, and quit Screen Sharing.


What this looks like in practice on my 2020 M1 mini running macOS 11.4 receiving a screen sharing session from a 2014 Mac Book Air running macOS 11.4:


The firewall settings on my M1 mini (ignore the iTunes or FaceTime settings):



And what that MacBook Air screen looks like served onto my M1 mini 32 inch LG display via Screen Sharing:


Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 26, 2021 2:03 PM in response to boxerman77

On the serving Mac, select System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing. Do this first.


On the M1 iMac, there is some configuration work to be done.

  1. Drag and drop the /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Screen Sharing.app to your Dock
  2. In System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall panel.
    1. Click Firewall Options…
    2. Deselect Block all incoming connections (if this is enabled, screen sharing will not work)
      1. Click the [+] button and navigate in the Finder to the above Screen Sharing.app, select it, and click Add
      2. You should see a green incoming connection (this is VNC port 5900).
    3. Leave all other checkboxes selected
    4. Quit System Preferences
  3. Click on the Screen Sharing application in the Dock
    1. Enter the host.local name and connect
  4. When you are done, you can either shut down the remote Mac via its File menu, or just close the connection, and quit Screen Sharing.


What this looks like in practice on my 2020 M1 mini running macOS 11.4 receiving a screen sharing session from a 2014 Mac Book Air running macOS 11.4:


The firewall settings on my M1 mini (ignore the iTunes or FaceTime settings):



And what that MacBook Air screen looks like served onto my M1 mini 32 inch LG display via Screen Sharing:


This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

M1 Screen sharing still broken?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.