Sierra sharing desktop

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Sierra sharing desktop

I have a headless 2010 Mac Mini that I use as my home media server, and have found that now that I have set it up, I cannot share the desktop.

I have disconnected the Mac Mini & hooked it up to my TV with a bluetooth keyboard & mouse, and everything worked as expected, but when I restart without the TV & bluetooth keyboard/mouse, what happens is a problem.

I connect using my MacBook Pro, and the screen loads up, but a vertical strip of the right ¼ or so of the MacMini's desktop shows up at the left side of the screen. The remote screen will not accept mouse clicks, keyboard strokes, anything.

Can I re-install el capitan on that machine? That worked fine.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), Home Machine

Posted on Sep 26, 2016 3:50 PM

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Answer 1

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Phil Giltner Author

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35 points

Sep 27, 2016 6:12 PM in response to Phil Giltner

Now I see that if I attach a monitor to my Mini, then I can share the screen just fine from a remote machine. Guessing that there's some problem in that you need to be driving a monitor before you can correctly send a facsimile of the monitor to an observer.

Hope this gets fixed!

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Answer 2

Oct 19, 2016 9:31 PM in response to Phil Giltner

I have the same problem. It's the same one from macOS Sierra problems with Screen Sharing which was accidentally marked resolved.

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Answer 3

Oct 24, 2016 11:50 PM in response to Phil Giltner

10.12.1 is out. Still not fixed for me.

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Answer 4

Phil Giltner Author

Level 1

35 points

Oct 27, 2016 2:51 AM in response to Phil Giltner

Bought an HDMI Display Emulator on Amazon for $15. Plugged it in. Not only is the problem solved, it is far far more responsive than before. If I had only known!

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Answer 5

Oct 27, 2016 2:00 PM in response to Phil Giltner

Great tip, thank you. FWIW the $29 one (fit-Headless GS) appears to offer higher resolution, and at better refresh rates than their slightly cheaper 4K model. Just ordered one.

Following up w/ Apple support in the meantime.

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Answer 6

n748

Level 1

34 points

Oct 29, 2016 3:39 AM in response to Condimentasm

The dongle solution will not work for me as my mid2010 mac mini is a home server and is connected to a projector via HDMI, which is only on when we watch a movie.

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Answer 7

Oct 29, 2016 7:45 AM in response to n748

Phil Giltner wrote:

Bought an HDMI Display Emulator on Amazon for $15. Plugged it in. Not only is the problem solved, it is far far more responsive than before. If I had only known!

Like responsiveness problem that has been around forever, I actually worry that this will never get software fix. 2010 is the oldest of its kind that is still supported. Will this still be supported next summer when 10.13 is out? It's also not the popular kind. Newest hardware is released on 2014.

I haven't tried this, but there is another kind of dongle: http://www.tristanbettany.com/fixed-slow-screen-sharing-in-osx-vnc-performance-i ssues

Just dongle it.

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Answer 8

Dec 14, 2016 12:00 AM in response to margjakob

10.12.2 is out. Still not fixed for me.

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