How I fixed missing mac from sidebar & Back to My Mac

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Level 1

6 points

How I fixed missing mac from sidebar & Back to My Mac

So I updated to Yosemite, 10.10, and Back to My Mac stopped working for one of them. I scoured the interwebs looking for help and didn't find any so when I stumbled on a solution I figured I would share the steps it took to replicate my success. I also hope someone with more knowledge can weigh in on what's not necessary and what may be a better approach.

So first off I needed to identify the offending computer(s). If you're like me 1 of my 4 linked computers didn't show up in the sidebar. (Oddly enough the day after I fixed one another dropped out so I needed to follow the steps again and got almost identical results.)

In terminal type (or paste): dns-sd -B _afpovertcp._tcp

DATE: ---Tue 21 Oct 2014---

14:25:28.816 ...STARTING...

Timestamp A/R Flags if Domain Service Type Instance Name

14:25:28.819 Add 3 4 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Airport_Extreme

14:25:28.819 Add 3 4 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Mac Mini 1

14:25:28.819 Add 3 4 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Mac Mini 3

14:25:28.819 Add 3 4 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Mac Mini 2

14:25:28.819 Add 3 6 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Mac Mini 3

14:25:28.819 Add 3 6 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Airport_Extreme

14:25:28.819 Add 3 6 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Mac Mini 2

14:25:28.819 Add 2 6 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Mac Mini 1

14:25:29.408 Add 3 **********.members.btmm.icloud.com. _afpovertcp._tcp. Mac Pro Home

14:25:29.408 Add 3 **********.members.btmm.icloud.com. _afpovertcp._tcp. Mac Mini 2

14:25:29.408 Add 2 0 ********.members.btmm.icloud.com. _afpovertcp._tcp. Airport_Extreme

As you can see Mac Mini 1 is not an iCloud member. I triple checked. Tried turning BTMM and Find My Mac on and off to no avail. Sooo I:

•Repair permissions

•Deselect all options in /System Preferences/Sharing

•/System Preferences/iCloud - Sign out and delete all local content

•Restart

•Delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.BackToMyMac.plist

•Delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.FindMyMac.plist

•Delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.FindMyMac.plist.lockfile

•Delete files in: ~Library/Applications Support/Screen Sharing

•Restart

•Wait a few minutes after login to make sure the system has time to settle in. (I have allot of start-up items) Then go to /System Preferences/iCloud Sign back in

•Wait a few minutes

•run “dns-sd -B _afpovertcp._tcp” in command line again. The affected machine should now be listed as an iCloud member.

I had an issue with iCould and needed to sign out of iCloud a second time, reboot, and log back in a third time to get it all to register properly. I’m not sure if this will be the same for everyone or if I was just impatient. This occurred BOTH times. The very next day my Mac Pro Home, which was working just fine hours earlier, dropped out of being registered. I did register Mac Mini 3 this morning and it's possible that another registered computer caused a conflict but that's just me guessing.

My home router is still not registering and I'm not sure why. It's the same router that needs to be restarted periodically to give me access to Screen Sharing so that may need to be wiped and re-configured.

Posted on Oct 22, 2014 5:38 PM

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Answer 1

May 30, 2017 8:13 PM in response to mvasilakis13

Hello,

I have the same problem.

I have 2 computers at home (Fibonacci and basiliano) on a TimeCapsule (Bussola-AC)

and the 1 of my parents (Champlain's iMac) on Airport Extreme (Boussola-N).

I have been using BTMM since the beginning and it work great until recently.

BTMM was even working on 10.10 Beta for a while then it started to fail on and off (more often off than on) then no more.

Here is the result of your command on fibonacci

Timestamp A/R Flags if Domain Service Type Instance Name 17:54:03.276 Add 3 4 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Fibonacci 17:54:03.276 Add 3 4 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Bussola-AC 17:54:03.276 Add 3 4 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. basiliano 17:54:03.276 Add 3 5 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Fibonacci 17:54:03.276 Add 3 5 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Bussola-AC 17:54:03.276 Add 2 5 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. basiliano 17:54:03.924 Add 3 0 *******.members.btmm.icloud.com. _afpovertcp._tcp. Fibonacci 17:54:03.924 Add 2 0 *******.members.btmm.icloud.com. _afpovertcp._tcp. Champlain's iMac

the same command on Champlain's iMac

Timestamp A/R Flags if Domain Service Type Instance Name

18:00:16.699 Add 2 5 local. _afpovertcp._tcp. Champlain's iMac

could you give more information on what we can read in this (Like the 4 and the 5 under if )

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Answer 2

mvasilakis13 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 23, 2014 10:32 AM in response to mvasilakis13

Ok more on the continuing saga.

It seems there is a legitimate bug here. I now have BTMM dropping in and out on both of the original problem machines. Applying the previous 'fix' seems to work to get everything running temporarily. I'm not sure if the issue here has something to do with the Airport Extreme's (ac) but restarting them does seem to bring back the computers on the sidebar. However the original computer giving me an issue,"Mac Mini 1" is again not registered with iCloud when running the "dns-sd -B _afpovertcp._tcp" command. And while Mac Pro Home does seem to connect it does drop out periodically.

Mac Mini 1 is viewable in the side bar from Mac Pro Home but attempting to share screen fails about 3/4 of the time. I experienced something similar when I upgraded to 10.9 but it was subsequently resolved. I do not recall when or how. (may have been an update.)

Also running "dns-sd -B _afpovertcp._tcp" on the afflicted machine now shows no iCloud computers registered at all while the same command on Mac Pro Home shows all computers registered with the exception of Mac Mini 1. Last night before I left work all was working properly.

So my 'fix' only seems to work temporarily. I will keep this thread updated if I am able to get a more stable/reliable fix.

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Answer 3

mvasilakis13 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 23, 2014 12:55 PM in response to Franco Borgo

Looks like Champlain's iMac is not picking up the registry from iCloud. Repair permissions, this may be the case of bad permissions unable to update a file on the iMac. If that doesn't work try the steps I outlined above and see if that helps. Also please post if you come across any other workarounds.

Also consider running OnyX - http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx

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Answer 4

Nov 23, 2014 5:06 PM in response to mvasilakis13

I just did a Repair on Champlain without success :-( reading the log there was nothing special (other than iBooks and Printer)

I repair mine also just in case, nothing there either.

I will try your recepies on Champlain and report here.

I realize that Champlain is still on 10.9, i might update it to see if that help.

i will post here if I found something that work.

Thank you

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Answer 5

0bwolf

Level 1

11 points

Dec 23, 2014 10:32 AM in response to mvasilakis13

Awesome!

I signed out of iCloud, deleted those files, rebooted, and signed back in. Now it works.

Thank you.

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Answer 6

mvasilakis13 Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 23, 2014 11:16 AM in response to 0bwolf

Glad to see it worked for you. It works for me but I still have a computer drop out here and there. I really hope Apple can get it sorted.

When I get some free time I'm going to see if there isn't a way to force a reconnection without having to log out of iCloud and go the delete restart option. Maybe a script to run on each computer that will identify if it's not on the list and take action to reconnect. It'll take some digging.

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