Back to My Mac not Working

Question

Level 1

6 points

Back to My Mac not Working

I have had success using Back to My Mack for years, but recently I have replaced my work desktop with a new iMac Retina 5K and now I cannot get BTMM working TO it, or FROM it to my home iMac / MacBook Air or Mac Mini. (Mac OS is Yosemite 10.10 on all machines)

I can See the shares, but Screen Sharing button is either missing or returns an error "The connection to xxxxxxx has failed..."

Additionally, It may not be related, but I'm noticing that computer names are incrementing so that MacBook Air gets renamed to MacBook Air (2) then (3) then (4)... Is there a way I can prevent this?

Thanks so much for your help!

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Nov 10, 2014 8:30 PM

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Answer 1

judysings

Community Specialist

Nov 12, 2014 12:53 PM in response to stsanford

Hi stsanford,

Welcome to the Support Communities! The article below provides some configuration adjustments that may need to be made for Back to My Mac to work. What router are you using?

OS X Yosemite: Use Back to My Mac

To share services, Back to My Mac requires an AirPort Base Station or AirPort Time Capsule set up for NAT-PMP (NAT Port Mapping Protocol) or a router set up for UPnP (Universal Plug and Play).

OS X Yosemite: If Back to My Mac doesn’t work

I hope this information helps ...

- Judy

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Answer 2

stsanford Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 12, 2014 8:25 PM in response to judysings

Hi Judy,

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I had scoured help and support docs. I have Apple products on each end, and have gone through the documents mentioned. Still not having any success.

Hoping maybe it's something related to the (2), (3) after my computer's name, as I've never seen that happen before.

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Answer 3

stsanford Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 12, 2014 8:42 PM in response to stsanford

I should add that I have the ability to Screen Share my MacBook Air from the iMac Retina at work. I can See my MacMini from work as well, however it says Connection Failed every time I attempt to connect.

The iMac at home doesn't even show on the sidebar of the work iMac. I did use Migration Assistant to copy my user profile and applications, but was careful not to select computer settings for fear that it would duplicate the network settings and names somehow...

I tried disabling BTTM on each computer, then turning it back on, but it doesn't make a difference. I also notice that with the iMac Retina, all connections to the Mini fail with "Connection Failed" even if I click Connect As... It never gives me the ability to connect as...

Thanks for your help,

Scott

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,743 points

Nov 13, 2014 1:39 AM in response to stsanford

Scott,

have a look at this discussion: Shared name of Mac keeps changing

The changed computer names with added (2) and (3) are puzzling to all of us. It seems to be related to Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express cubes, Apple TV, and similar devices shared on a local network.

Be warned - it is a long thread, look for the contributions by Frank Caggiano, who did some tests.

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Answer 5

stsanford Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 17, 2014 5:30 PM in response to léonie

Here's an update...

I have disabled the Wake on WiFi access, with little or no effect...

I have the ability to Screen Share my MacBook Air from the iMac Retina at work. I can see my MacMini from work as well, however it says Connection Failed every time I attempt to connect from either iMac to the other iMac...

The iMac at home doesn't even show on the sidebar of the work iMac. I did use Migration Assistant to copy my user profile and applications, but was careful not to select computer settings for fear that it would duplicate the network settings and names somehow...

I tried disabling BTTM on each computer, then turning it back on, but it doesn't make a difference. I also notice that with the iMac Retina, all connections to the Mini fail with "Connection Failed" even if I click Connect As... It never gives me the ability to connect as

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Answer 6

stsanford Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 17, 2014 6:37 PM in response to stsanford

Just got home and I can see both iMacs and can connect to them successfully, although I cannot see any of the shared resources on the iMac Retina.

Just cannot see either iMac from the other (which is the whole point of this for me).

Very frustrating...

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Answer 7

Mar 31, 2015 8:44 AM in response to stsanford

I had similar problems. this worked for me:

Turn BTMM off on both macs. I then ran Cocktail (maintenance app) on both macs. (i ran the pilot and turned on all the cache-clearing i could in the options).

restarted.

Turned BTMM on for both machines, and now it works. So maybe it was getting messed up with old caches somewhere? who knows, but it fixed it for me.

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