Yosemite Messages - How can I fix this: Screen Sharing not working.

Hi,

Since iChat 4 there has been no separate iChat Community.

Each app has a heading in the OS Community that they go with.

So Lion has one for iChat 6.

Mountain Lion has one for Messages 7

Mavericks has one for Messages and iMessages (So called version 8)

Yosemite also has one for Messages (also called version 8).

There is a bit of a known issue regarding Screen Sharing using AIM and Jabber IDs at the present time.

It effects all forms of iChat and Messages from at least Lion (iChat 5.0.3) through Yosemite and it's so called version 8)

All Video and Audio and Screen Sharing are connected by an Apple Server called SNATMAP.

At present is is only managing connection on the same LAN even if you are using AIM or Jabber or Bonjour.

The Hosts here have been made aware.

It pays to use this page http://www.apple.com/feedback/ichat.html

It is the page fro Messages as well as iChat (Although it has not been updated since iChat 5.0.3).

Please put all the details wanted for the lower drop downs in the Free Text area.

8:27 p.m. Tuesday; September 8, 2015

This is really disappointing, for years I have been able to help friends using iChat video chats and screen sharing. Now it seems to be completely broken and despite feedback to Apple there has been no replies from Apple as to whether this is a deliberate policy and whether iChat is going to be deprecated or not.

It seems very much like FaceTime is going to be the replacement, unfortunately unless it is improved to support screen sharing and also some way of indicating status like iChat (Away, Available etc) then it isn't going to be nearly as good as iChat was.

All very depressing.

Hi,

FaceTime is a work around for video and Audio Chats only.

The iMessages account in Yosemite can invoke Screen Sharing to other Yosemite contacts so you can see their screen.

Again, compared to what should work from AIM and Jabber accounts it is effectively a workaround even though it does include a chat along side.

These accounts plus the Bonjour one still works when the connections are on the same LAN.

This is a pic of Yosemite to Leopard (iChat 4.0.9) and Snow Leopard (iChat 5.0.3). The issue is with connection further out in the internet, as it were.

The LAN stuff works as the Invite end is already talking to the SNATMAP server.

Apple never respond to the Feedback (things are either fixed or superseded in future releases). Rarely are things left unfixed in the version the issue appeared in.

However this does seem to be taking a very long time to fix.

8:37 p.m. Wednesday; September 9, 2015

Thanks Ralph for that excellent summary. It is quite maddening that this is taking so long. I spent a whole afternoon trying to get iChat working with a friend who had changed ISP and got a new router which I mistakenly thought just needed some ports forwarded to make iChat work, eventually I advised him to buy an Airport Extreme as they just work, only to find it still didn't work becaues of this Apple SNATMAP server problem presumably.

I fear that iChat is going the way of Aperture, another very sore point.

Incidentally the friend that I was trying to help the other day, became my friend many years ago when we met on this discussion group while we were both using the same make of router and at that time needed to manually set up port forwarding for iChat. We started having video iChats and over the years have stayed in regular contact and have even met one another despite living 400 miles apart. So sometimes Apple's problems do have an upside, every cloud as they say...

Hi,

Similar story here.

I started hanging around the Apple Forums as with iChat 2.1I could not get it to work with the Thomson-Alcatel 510 V4 that I had at the time.

I was one of the then Regular Posters that helped me - strangely through a different site.

Needless to say I learnt lots at the time and hence I spend time here.

One of the Buddies I made at the time I still video chat to now and then.

8:16 p.m. Thursday; September 10, 2015

Hi,

Ok.

I will restate this as I may not have been as clear as I could be.

The Messages app as it is now will do two forms of Video and Audio chat and Screen Sharing.

This does depend on which Account you are using in the app.

iMessages

By default before any set up the Messages app will display two items in the Accounts List (Preferences > Accounts).
One is a place for your iMessage ID which is based on an Apple ID that in turn may or may not be your iCloud ID.

The Second is the Bonjour account which is normally not active (this will find other Bonjour computers set for Messages or iChat and their Bonjour Accounts).

For Video the iMessage account invokes FaceTime as it does for Audio Chats.

That is to say that for connecting to a Contact for Video, starting at the Details item top right of the Chat Window the app will cause the FaceTime app to start.

Since Yosemite (Both Mavericks and Yosemite both refer to the Messages app as "Version 8") you have also been able to Invoke the Screen Sharing app from the Details Drop Down, once the System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing has been enabled on both ends.

Using this method causes the Messages app to supply all the connection details to the Contact that you would normally enter manually via Finder > Go Menu > Connect to Server and enter VNC:// as the lead part of the address.

So to summarise:-

First Enable this:-

Next start a conversation with an iMessages Contact.

Then use the Details item top right and select the Screen Sharing icon.

AIM, Jabber and Bonjour (As in those account present in iChat before it became Messages)

To Enable you need to set the item in Video Menu.

This is a pic for iChat 4 which does have some references to items no longer present like Record Chat.

As Stated earlier AIM, Jabber and Bonjour connections fro Video and Audio plus Screen Sharing are handled by the app.

Buddy Lists show whether the Buddy can Video or Audio Chat by the icon.

The Icons across the bottom of the Buddy list show the one for Screen Sharing.

You can select the Buddy (as I have here) and either use this icon or the Buddies Menu.

As I said earlier though there is an issue with this method at the moment.

Screen Sharing app

This can be invoked in several ways.

One is to use the Shares in the Finder's Side Bar and then the Screen Share button

Another way is to use the Finder > Go Menu > Connect to Server and enter VNC:// in front of the IP (normally it would be SMB for windows capable shares or AFP for Apple Specific ones)

This can be used over the Internet. The IP has to be the Public one of the other end (the one their Router or Modem gets from their ISP)

The Router then needs to Forward the port that this data is on to the Computer involved. The port is 5900. (same as Apple Remote Desktop as the app is part of that).

Unlike the two methods in the Messages app this will not include an Audio chat "alongside".

NOTES

In System Preferences > iCloud there is no references to the Messages App.

This means that you cannot set the iMessages account from here.

However in Messages you can use your Apple as a Valid AIM screen Name due to a 15 year deal Apple did with AIM to allow Apple Issued email IDs to be valid Screen Names.

This applies to the Apple IDs that end in @mac.com, @me.com if linked to iCloud and to @iCloud.com one themselves.

This does mean that you can enter your Apple ID in two places in the the App which does render the phrase "iCloud Account" not particularly useful.

The same is true of an Apple ID if it happens to be your Google ID or a Yahoo one.

If like me you have an Apple ID that was linked to MobileMe or to iCloud very early on when you got an @me.com ID as well you can use the @me.com and @icloud or even the @mac.com IDs as separate Screen Names

That is to say my Apple ID which is linked to iCloud has three variants.

I use one for iMessages and have two other set as Screen Names

I hope that makes it clearer.

8:48 p.m. Tuesday; September 15, 2015

Very clear, Ralph, sadly it doesn't fix iChat / Messages. The long distance tech support I've always done with friends and family remains irrevocably broken - for well over a year now - across various versions of OS X and various computers. I think I'm on my third laptop now since iChat first went all to h***. Currently on a mid-2014 Retina MacBook Pro / OS X 10.10.5. I've been using iChat since it appeared... my handle is my @mac.com account, so I'm no spring chicken here....

Disappointed to the extreme with some of Apple's decisions in software. iChat fell to pieces, and don't get me started on what they did to iWork....

Hi,

You are right that the iChat functions have slowly and as you say needlessly been reduced in the Messages app to the point where it is almost useless for AIM and Jabber (not that Yahoo was any good either).

The above was not intended to be "a Fix" but more or clarity around the dual functions of some of the actions that are supposed to be still there.

For most, accounting for the changes in Messages 7, Mavericks Version 8 and the Yosemite's version 8 as well, the app has had problems since mid July.

The issue effects both Jabber and AIM Video and Audio Chats (along with Screen Sharing).

The only place these get together on the internet is the Apple SNATMAP Server.

At present there is no fix.

There is no sign that Apple are working to "Solve" the issue either.

7:59 p.m. Friday; September 25, 2015

Have you been able to get any response out of Apple at all, Ralph? As the machines of my family age and are replaced, fewer and fewer people are able to video chat any more...

Hi,

I have posted in a couple of other threads recently where I stated that I thought is was the Yosemite release that saw the return to working properly of the SNATMAP server - but re-reading this thread I can see it can't have been Yosemite. (it must have been at the release of El Capitan).

I have moved on to a beta of Sierra but whilst using El Capitan I was able to Video chat to an AIM Buddy and to a Google one (Jabber).

However Sierra seems to be without Video for AIM, Jabber and Bonjour accounts leaving only the iMessages account's invocation of the Screen Sharing app and FaceTime for Video and Audio Chats.

7:58 pm Thursday; September 1, 2016