Sonoma Screen Sharing Unstable

Question

Level 1

6 points

Sonoma Screen Sharing Unstable

I am a long-time user of Screen Sharing and Remote Management. My office iMac has been set up to allow remote access via the built in VNC screen sharing features in Mac OS. I use these features daily to remotely work on my office Mac from various job sites, using my MacBook Pro. For years, it has been a reliable and very useful feature. All this changed, however, when I installed Sonoma on my office iMac. It is now plagued by dropped connections. The biggest issue is sudden loss of screen control. I can connect without issues, see the iMac's screen, and work for a few minutes remotely. Then, control of the remote screen dies. Toggling between "shared control" and "observe" does nothing. The only fix is to go into System Preferences on the iMac and toggle Remote Management off and on again. It will work again for maybe a few minutes. Sometimes it works for just a few seconds before locking up again. It doesn't matter if I am connected on the local network, or over the internet.

Has anyone else had similar issues, or found an effective "fix" for this?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.1

Posted on Dec 28, 2023 3:19 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 11, 2024 5:37 PM in response to Mike_907

After I upgraded to Sonoma on my headless Mac mini that I run as a file server, I have been unable to access the machine after restarting it. I needed to install a USB keyboard for the Mac mini and enter the login password at the keyboard before I am able to access the Mac mini using Screen Sharing either from a computer on the local network or over the internet. I have been working with Apple tech support for almost 3 months without a problem resolution.

The problem never existed for previous versions of MacOS.

I sent Apple tech support a 7-minute video documenting the problem. Tech support saw the video and came back with the response "it worked fine for us". They now want me to connect my MacBook Pro via an Ethernet cable so I don't use Wireless. Since my MacBook Pro doesn't have an Ethernet port I've had to order a USB-C to Ethernet adapter which is supposed to come in a couple days.

Unfortunately, I also have a second identical system 1700 miles away from me that I can no longer access remotely after I need to restart it. I need to find someone to type my Login Password to be able to access the Remote machine.

This experience is the most painful one I've had with Apple.

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Answer 2

Jan 31, 2024 5:49 AM in response to Paul Johnson13

I tried to report this issue a few weeks ago on here and they deleted my threads twice. I bought a brand new iMac M3 and it's impossible to work remotely with it. VNC keep freezing after 10 to 30 seconds of use and then unless you physically go sit in front of it to turn off and then on again the Screen Sharing service, then you can no longer connect to the iMac using any VNC clients and I tried a bunch of them and they all do the same, so clearly something is way off in Screen Sharing under macOS Sonoma.

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Answer 3

ABjert

Level 1

12 points

Feb 19, 2024 6:24 AM in response to Mike_907

Remote working with Sonoma has been a nightmare, especially trying to use the Adobe Suite. Whenever I try to move an object in Illustrator my computer loses connection and goes back to the start up screen. Browser windows are all glitchy looking and everything is slow and it looks like my desktop is drunk. Disaster - I hope they fix this soon.

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