Apple Remote Desktop - Screen Sharing not working on more than 5 computers

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Level 1

6 points

Apple Remote Desktop - Screen Sharing not working on more than 5 computers

I am running a Mac lab of 25 iMacs, all with OS 10.10.5 and ARD 3.8.5 installed.

I can use ARD to screen share reliably for up to 5 systems. Any more than that, and the Screen Sharing client opens on the student computers, but my screen does not pop up. Sometimes I can get the whole lab to work, and then sometimes the sharing session seems to time out after about 5 minutes and the screen disappears. Again, the client remains open, but my screen goes away.

All of my computers are hardwired on the same LAN network.

Help and advice are appreciated.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), iOS 8.1

Posted on May 5, 2016 6:59 AM

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Answer 1

May 8, 2016 6:47 AM in response to ivoryblue1

Is there anything relevant to this misbehavior found in Console.app logs?

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Answer 2

ivoryblue1 Author

Level 1

6 points

May 10, 2016 9:22 AM in response to MrHoffman

No - I ran the share screen just now in my lab with 23 computers connected, and no errors appear in Console. Anything else I can check?

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Answer 3

May 10, 2016 2:19 PM in response to ivoryblue1

The console on the system running ARD might not show the errors — to confirm, you've checked the Console.app logs on the failing computers, and there are no related errors logged on those (target) systems? If so, there's not much to go on. Maybe some local network error or configuration oddity? Any other functions failing?

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Answer 4

xmddmx

Level 1

101 points

May 11, 2016 11:13 AM in response to ivoryblue1

I'm having similar problems with 3.8.5, and I associate the failures to have something to do with energy saver settings (screensaver kicking in and/or monitor going to sleep?) although in my case I have headless servers in use. See ARD Client 3.8.5 and headless server not reachable

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Answer 5

Sep 21, 2016 11:48 AM in response to ivoryblue1

Been having the same issue for the last year or more. Wondering if you happened to come up with an answer to the problem. Five or six machines usually work but if I try and share with the whole lab...Nothing. Black screen and that's it.

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Answer 6

Sep 24, 2016 8:53 PM in response to Paul Sloan

Hi,

I Used a workaround to overcome the blank screens.

As a FallBack, ( not the perfect solution ), use Screen Sharing app on the students Macs to connect to the Instructor's Mac. Suggest to use Adaptive Quality and Turn Scaling off.

At one site, this was all that worked with Macs connected to a mix ethernet and wifi.

Using Share Screen… from ARD would black-out the screens.

fromRe: Share Screen Failure in Remote Desktop

hth, cheers, dwbrecovery

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