Back to my Mac problems under Yosemite

It does seem unlikely that it has anything to do with Safari 8.0.2, it seems like a crazy thing even to me, unless that update also updated other parts of the system that BTMM uses. All I know is that it seems to be working for me at this point, whereas, before, it didn't work at all to remote LANs. But, it could just be coincidental and perhaps Apple has updated the server side code that helps locate remote Macs. (It's always worked for me on the same LAN.) But, there is the issue that the system at work where Safari 8.0.2 hasn't been installed still isn't showing up at all in the Finder. There's probably more to it than just that, but I can't say what.

I'm now convinced it's the Apple servers. Now it just doesn't work at all any longer, no matter what. I can't get it to work even temporarily now with 2 computers on the same LAN, the same switch, in fact. And neither computer experiences any other network problems, nor does any other system on that switch or LAN. BTMM is simply completely broken since Yosemite, and whatever fiddling they are doing on the servers isn't helping.

Sorry for your problems. My BTMM is working OK since the Yosemite 10.10.1 update. It seems even faster than Mavericks when opening large folders, moving files, etc. The only issue I have sometimes is it may take a while (up to 2 minutes) for the BTMM shared Mac to appear in the Sidebar. On one occasion a couple of weeks ago the shared Mac never appeared. I rebooted that Mac when I got to the office, and that fixed it. I got very good telephone support from an Apple senior advisor when BTMM stopped working after Yosemite was first installed. I still had APP on one Mac, so there was no charge, but I think Apple was also giving complimentary support for a limited time to users who were having Yosemite issues. Good luck.

I find that Back to My Mac is a bit hit and miss at the moment.

I'm away from home and I'm trying to access my 2014 Mac Mini without success.

I had it all set up and tested to make sure that it was working fine before I left - which it was.

Now I find that I can only see my Time Capsule but not the Mac Mini.

The fact that I can see the Time Capsule is proof to me that Back To My Mac is setup correctly. l get the feeling that the problem may lie with this new Mac Mini.

I opened a case with Apple Support about this problem just before Christmas. While the Support Engineer was on the phone we could not get it to work. After a couple of days Back to My Mac just started to work without any changes being made. Now it's not working again so I've emailed the Support Engineer in the hope that he can do something from the Apple end to make it work.

I'll keep trying each day to see if anything changes.

I suspect that the hit and miss aspect of this is to do with the sleep modes that the Mac Mini goes into as discussed in this article About Energy Saver sleep and idle modes in Mac OS X - Apple Support. If it is not asleep or in the first stage of then Back to My Mac works. When it is is special sleep mode then it does not work.

That would explain why my testing at home worked (i.e. my Mac Mini was either not sleeping or in the normal sleep mode) whereas now that I am away and my Mac Mini has probably gone into special sleep mode, it does not work.

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

Feedback

Or you can use your Apple ID to register with this site and go the Apple BugReporter. Supposedly you will get an answer if you submit feedback.

Feedback via Apple Developer

It doesn't directly have anything to do with Sleep. Both of the work Macs that I have problems with are set to Never sleep.

However, I did try something today that seemed to affect it immediately. While showing something to someone in the Sharing preferences, it occurred to me that just because the File and Screen Sharing options were checked that didn't necessarily mean that the daemons were running (or running properly). In fact the Error message I get if I try to vnc://<myhost>> is that I should check to make screen sharing is turned on (which, of course, I have done, by looking to make sure the checkbox is checked). So I unchecked them and then rechecked them on both systems, after which, they showed up in each other's Finder windows almost immediately. indicating that (re?)starting the daemons fixed the issue. As of now, they are happily connecting to each other. I'll see if I can connect later from home, as I do put that Mac to sleep when I am not there.

One thing about this is that I mentioned above that it starting working for me after upgrading to Safari 8.0.2. It's possible that something that happened during the Safari 8.0.2 upgrade (either as part of the upgrade or coincidentally) triggered these daemons to (re?)start. Thus making it appear that the update weirdly somehow affected the issue. Does anyone happen to know the process names for these daemons?

Still couldn't see work computers from home after the above, so it's more complicated than that.

I thought my issue was solved, but occasionally my BTMM shared Mac will not appear in the Sidebar. Restarting the shared Mac will always fix it (if someone is in my office to restart the Mac and log my account back on). The problem seems to be the shared Mac. This happens when I connect using BTMM, disconnect, then try to reconnect later. I am going to reopen my case with Support.

It is sad that Apple cannot get a remote desktop to function properly. With outstanding products, they have put forth no effort at all into this feature. Microsoft's Remote Desktop is such a superior product it puts Apple to shame. It consistently works and it's like you're at the remote computer in speed and functionality. Apple has never been able to do this and neither has any third party app. I'm not a Microsoft fan at all, but they got this one right. Screen Share in Mac was pretty reliable until Yosemite. Then it became impossible to rely upon. I have sent numerous bug reports to Apple to their Feedback section since they do not monitor nor respond to these forums. I suggest you do they same. I find I have to use JumpDesk to get into my remote computer. It's reliable and always up. But it's not as fast or nice as Screen Share. But it's overall the best I've found since at least it's reliable. Back to My Mac is alertly designed to be reliable only for a local network. There it works well. But across the Internet, Apple has no interest in making it reliable. At least not at this point. I wish I had not installed Yosemite and stayed with Mavericks.

Cinemagic wrote:

Back to My Mac is alertly designed to be reliable only for a local network. There it works well. But across the Internet, Apple has no interest in making it reliable. At least not at this point. I wish I had not installed Yosemite and stayed with Mavericks.

As far as I am aware Back To My Mac does not come into play over a local network it is only used over the internet. Over a local network you only need to switch on File and Screen Sharing.

I have found that since upgrading to 10.10.3 that as long as I do not allow my Mac Mini to sleep then I can connect to it via BTMM. Once it goes to sleep then after a period of time it drops off the Finder sidebar. Although this is workable Apple still need to do some more work on it to get it 100% right.

Very disappointed this morning to find the even with keeping my Mac Mini from sleeping that I could not make a connection for either file sharing or screen sharing no matter what I did at my end. It was only after toggling BTMM off and on on the Mac Mini that I got a connection. So it worked in excess of 48 hrs but then failed. I could see it in my Finder sidebar with the correct icon displayed, tried toggling BTMM off and on on my MacBook but repeated attempts to connect all failed.

Just updated to 10.10.4 beta on a secondary partition on my Mac Mini.

BTMM still does not wake it once it has been sleeping for a couple of hours.

Scrolled back to a 10.10.1 backup and I can now use my mbp again. Do not upgrade to 10.10.3. Worst update EVER in 30 years of mac using.