Since updating, my Apple Remote Desktop 3.7 is not working properly.

I'm in the process of downgrading to ARD Admin 3.6.1

I've got the software installed but it won't run due to ARD Client 3.7 being installed.

Anyone know if I can downgrade back to Client 3.6.x?

Thanks

S

Just to add, I have installed ARD Admin 3.6.1 on a 10.8 Mac and have verified that by turning the firewall off on a ARD 3.7 client I can screen share.

I created three UNIX commands run as 'root' from the commands listed above.

Get State

Turn Off

Turn On

After clean installs of ARD Admin I have verified that these work without Remote Login checked on the Client (in my environment anyway) with

A. ARD Admin 3.6.1 and ARD Client 3.7

B. ARD Admin 3.7 and ARD Client 3.7

ARD Admin 3.7 is still buggy and crashes every so often but I can still use it.

I hope this helps.

S

Running OSX 10.8.5 or 10.9 had same problems for me with ARD 3.7.

This worked for me and seems easier than downgrading the OS and all software. (based on other users in this forum)

Opened user account ~Library~Containers~

Found the com.apple.RemoteDesktop folder and dragged it to the desktop.

Restarted Apple Remote, filled out the necessary "I agrees" and regular start up menus. Went into the scan mode and re-create all lists.

Drag to desktop, not the trash. Dragging that folder to the trash first will cause a warning when ARD.

--Broadcasting Teacher,

I did that as stated in an earlier post last week. It worked great for about two days. Now, I can not take control of the Imacs in my lab, or observe. I can send files, messages and chat, but can not control which is a feature I really need. And some of the instances that I had before-- dropping IP addresses and then coming back, has started again. I've been tracking this post since the beginning. I will be trying some of the suggestions from todays posts.

It seems to fix the problem for me each time I do it, but it is only temporary with this method. When I restart ARD I have to rebuild by lists each time.

I will be following this as well looking for a better solution. This does seem to work temporarily for me though and has been the only thing to work for me so far.

Statlerr, thanks for your post. Unfortunately, turning off the local firewall did not help.

I can ssh to my other machines, but ARD will not connect, at all.

I am connecting with apple routers, with ARD 3.7, and Mavericks. I'm dead in the water. No remote connections to my mini, my iMac, and either of my macbooks. The worst part of this is, I am in the middle of a debate in my office to convert everything over to macs from PCs. This remote access failure is not helping me make my case.

WmMStevens wrote:

Statlerr, thanks for your post. Unfortunately, turning off the local firewall did not help.

I can ssh to my other machines, but ARD will not connect, at all.

Just to be absolutely clear here, it's the 'local firewall' on the Mac you are trying to remote into via a SSH or ARD that you turn off, not the local firewall on the ARD Admin Mac.

The ARD Mac firewall can remain on.

I found that I didn't need to be able to SSH into the remote Mac as the sudo'd UNIX command as the 'root' user was able to switch the firewall off and on.

I'm having the same issue.

Upgraded my mahcine to 10.9 and Remote Desktop 3.7 and now i have all sorts of issues.

Machines in Network Scanners are showing up with out of range IP's, Meaning if i set a scanner for a range of 172.18.96.1-254, Some machines in the 172.18.101.xxx range show up.

Machines flicker between IP's and online/offline

When connecting to a machine, it's often different from the one I selected.

Machines that are right next to me are not showing up in ARD, when everything is set exactly the same as anyone else. All my mahcines use a "build" from DeployStudio, and it's worked great for years. no muss, no fuss...

If I create a Scanner to add in a specific IP, I can watch it display properly for about 2 seconds, then just change to a different user's machine and IP address for no reason..

I have tried:

Deleting the .plist file

Deleting all my Scanners, and then clearing out of the machiens in "All Computers" and re-creating the Scanners.

Local Firewalls are OFF on all my machines.

There is no Proxy Server.

It's an Active Directory Environment.

It's worked perfect for the last 5 years or so.

I'd try trashing the whole thing, but I have a bunch of Command Templates and Installers I would hate to lose, but if that's the only way, then so be it..

If someone can confirm that that's the only way to fix it.

I don't know but I'm in the same boat as you. This is rediculous! ARD was working flawless for 3 years up to 3.6.2. Now its a trainwreck! All my machines NOT mavericks. 10.8.4 MBP and MBA's. Client and admin 3.7.

This is a mess.

Oh and an edit. We do NOT have the firewall on at all. So the turning the firewall off, connecting, then turning it back on doesn't apply here. Shame on me for updating clients and admin. Definitely a learning experience. Seems plenty of us have this issue. Hopefully there is an ARD update very soon!

Do not delete your plists or anything that won't solve the problem.

This is clearly an issue with DNS and, to a lesser extent, but related, DHCP.

Again if you look in at the raw plist file for Remote Desktop, you'll see a <hostnames> array and you'll see your computers are getting the wrong hostnames assigned to them - sometimes Computer A will have the hostname for B and vice versa - and thus the random flickering of the computers in the list (if A is online and B is not for example.)

If you are careful, you can hand edit the com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist file in Preferences (ARD Admin 3.7 is sandboxed, so you need to be working inside ~/Library/Containers NOT ~/Library). But that takes very careful editing and lots of searching. And it's short term.

In fact, there is no long term fix other than Apple releasing 3.7.1

Another short term fix. With ARD Admin running, go to All Computers and delete any computer that is causing you trouble. Quit ARD. Reopen ARD. Go to the scanner and find the computer that you just deleted, now try to observe it which will cause it to authenticate. Before authenticating... verify that the DNS name ARD is showing in the authentication window matches the computer you're trying to add. If it does not, what computer that DNS name references, find it in your All Computers list and delete it too. Quit ARD, try to add those two computers again. Repeat as needed until DNS names match computer names when reauthenticating

This is the ONLY reliable way I've found to get things working- it's seriously annoying, but it works. Until DNS names get mixed up again. <sigh>

I'm aslo suffering great in this train wreck. Every day I play the ARD Hit Frog Game (http://vimeo.com/50822375)

It's even worse than what you understand from reading this thread. I've nailed every computer to static and put DNS records to every single one but they still jump around and change IP adress with each other, or change between available/unknown etc. One DNS name can be on three computers with different IP:s at the same time and it's totally random. If you remove, change or set an IP instead the wrong DNS entry is back there within a minute in most cases. Good luck hunting the frogs down. Restart the application doesn't help like it could in the past.

I'm also a consultant like ZakAttack451 and I've got the same figures of clients and locations. Many clients has the same subnet so I've always had problem that computers get mixed up because the identification is from IP instead of MAC adress. I can live with that but not that computers get mixed up or jump around on the same network for no reason. Often I connect with VPN and have got used to remove computers in the all computer list but it's of no use anymore. Since I can't setup admin accounts at most locations I get into extra trouble as I can't find the password used because ARD doesn't use the keychain. Totally agree on having to reconfigure the 100 or so scripts is something I don't want to do because editing templates is a pain.

On one computer you might scan and find and also be able to control one client which is impossible to even scan and list from another ARD admin. It's behaving as if there is a physical or logical roundtrip in your network and the MAC adress is absolutely of no concern in ARD anymore. If you are on VPN with your computer all of a sudden the computer next to you which is not on VPN are reported to have an IP in the VPN network.

Admins must be the worst of all people in Apples point of view and the way they treat them has always been their blunder.

I really hope to see the MAC adress of more use in the future and also to be able to nest the WiFi MAC adress into the same bookmark for when people take off from their seat.

irob_swe

From an earlier post from me, I had talked to an Apple Tech guy- three weeks ago, and he did not have an answer, and said he was going to check with the engineers. They are aware of the problem. I received a follow up email rating the tech guy and in the comments area- I posted a link to this discussion and did the all "caps" thing pleading with them to track this discussion and solve this issue.

Fingers crossed. I have 34 computers in my lab and it is a great inconvenience. I can only imagine what companies, and other institutions with mass quanities of macs to control have to deal with.

In a large network you have OD and admin accounts tied so that's easy - just start over - select the computers and with the same account add the bunch in a lot. Come back with a new cup of coffee and you can start working.

The problem is far worse for consultants who tender many clients with different passwords and often enter via VPN. I have 500 computers, most with different accounts and passwords. Often they are in the same IP range as each other so keeping the computers apart in ARD is essensial... There is no way for me to read out the password I set years ago since the keychain is not populated so if I would delete the prefs it would totally be the end of VPN support. I would also need the end user to be present at location to do just about anything. With ARD I can do anything by sending UNIX-command, specially checking the root user but ending up with the GUI at location I can't even open the paddock and set the clock. It's a train wreck for sure!

Here is a script I've written that I normally send to clients so I have their SN and model identifier upfront in ARD. Perhaps that might help some to at least know what computer they select and address. I guess you have to try what identifier you use in your network amongst the hostnames. Just put the command between the inch-letters and make sure to put the correct grave accent. Copy/Paste the one I have in the other variables if you are not used to bash scripting.

Naturally, you can also explore other possibilities like grep'ing for IP address if you have a static och MAC-adress locked network.

#!/bin/bash # DESCRIPTION: # Script to set the computer info in the ARD agent # REQUIREMENTS: # Must be run as root # AUTHOR: # robert@kvicktajm.se # Examples if you want to set hostname at spare slot - check first to find what you use as identifiers in your network: # scutil --get HostName # scutil --get LocalHostName # scutil --get ComputerName # networksetup -getcomputername # hostname # Note: A variable="" leave what's already set in agent so use variable=" " to *clear* a field I1="" # Spare I2="`scutil --get HostName`" I3="`echo $(system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep "Model Identifier" | awk -F': ' '{print $2}')`" I4="`echo $(system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep "Serial Number" | awk -F': ' '{print $2}')`" # You can also use: # I3="`echo $(sysctl hw.model | awk '{ print $2}')`" /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -configure -computerinfo -set1 -1 "$I1" -set2 -2 "$I2" -set3 -3 "$I3" -set4 -4 "$I4" #EOF

I just found another interesting thing. I've thought I've solved this problem so many times over just to be slapped in the face minutes later but at least it helped me at the location I just tapped into: select a computer and show info. Put both radio buttons to connect to virtual displays under ”Control & Observe”. I cross my fingers this stick but I suspect it's a sandbox problem.