Why do i have two "Open Sharing Binocular Icons" displayed on the top of my MacBook Pro Screen ( 1 Bold and 1 Light Grey)

It must be from some software that you installed, so tell us: what program are these binocular icons from? What menu do you get if you click the active (black) binoculars - that will probably explain it.

AFAICT these binoculars are not from any Apple program.

Hi patc2110,

I had the same I just went into system preferences, sharing and un ticked remote management and it has gone.

Also I took the opportunity to manage my content caching to optimise my internet data usage

About content caching on Mac - Apple Support

I hope this helps

Got to confess that first impression after reading your words was laughing but really shocked me out after seen your level and points. Aren't sure if you're using Mac iOS Sierra or High Sierra...

This icon is or at least supposed to be the sign of remote desktop option being checked on and ready to use.

As you can read here it's been few years since this thing appeared first time: Remote Desktop - Apple

Also OS Sierra allows it too: macOS Sierra: Use File Sharing to share files

I just encountered this today on a brand new macbook air. I turned it on and imported users from an OSX 10.11.6 image then updated the Air to 10.13.4 (from 10.13.3) then bound it to Active Directory in our domain. I've never seen the pair of binoculars before and I've bound a lot of macs to AD here and this is not the first 10.13.x mac either. It occurs under all 4 users (2 different admins, a default non admin profile and an AD user) so it's being automatically added for every user from the system level. Note also that during the AD setup I was given an error message I've never seen before indicating that "a SecureToken was needed by an administrator" to continue. While I looked that up the error vanished and login proceeded without issue. Weirdness.

No VPN is setup on the system or under any user. We use Apple Remote Desktop so we have it setup, so the black binocular icon should be there. But the grayed out is unknown. When clicking on either both show the same menu items. It could be something new (and dumb) and unexplained by Apple (no shock there), possibly a duplication of services for which I'm going to check startup items and several other system sub folder for or something else. But it is Apple's icon not a 3rd party. The question is if its a bug or a microsoftian like 'feature'. So far this is the only thread I've found on the net about this.

Note: You CAN hold down the command key and drag the grayed out icon out of the menu tray making it go away -for now. I haven't restarted to see if the change remains after logging back in.

So far a search finds no duplication of ARDagent, RemoteDesktop.menu or plists.

I'll write our Apple engineer and see if he has any idea.

Hi patc2110,

Got the same issue in both High Sierra 10.13.4 iMac late 2009 and MacBook Pro mid 2012 and honestly has been few days driving me mad about and having file sharing connection problems.

Solution I found only for few minutes: Uncheck all sharing options and restart. When I checked them again and restart computer both icons appeared once again too.

This is what I've been trying:

- iMac, unchecking all sharing options kept showing the light grey icon. The bold one only appears or disappears when 'Remote login' option is checked/unchecked. The grey icon stays.

- MBP, unchecking all sharing options both icons kept on the bar until restart. After restart, back checking 'Remote login' is the only option (check/uncheck) that makes appearing or disappearing the icon. Which I guess is how it should work.

Not the only issue here recently:

When this seems to be solved, sharing iMac screen to MBP takes over 1 minute to showup login window and another 2 minutes 'connecting...' window after typing user and password until having screen shared.

Opposite way, when sharing MBP's screen to iMac it takes only 1-2 seconds to connect.

This icon is shown when your screen is being shared. So works well.

Now file sharing between my computers still being a bit of a headache as I can access to my MBP files from iMac but not on the other way round. (Yesterday was just the opposite!)

Cannot say and do anything else but being frustrated because all was working fine until last iOS update to both computers.

A little less attitude and more respect for those who volunteer here to help users with problems. Luis was asking questions trying to elicit more information from you as to what you were using. I do the same often in areas I'm not proficient in. Your attitude is way out of line.

I have the exact same problem.

It's on highsierra (10.13.3 and 10.13.4) when I use the kickstart command to set VNC up. Is it the same for you?

As it happens, I have never used Apple Remote Desktop, because I never needed to.

I most certainly don't know everything :-)

Then why the heck you add such fake comments having people lose their time with your nonsense words?

PLEASE: Someone from the community delete these posts and help with the real problem.

Thanks!

So you never made any mistakes? Good for you.

I am out.

AFAICT = As far as I can tell. That's not definitive. We're all here trying to help in whatever way, limited in some areas, we can.

I'm so sorry to read that Old Toad, Yes I may exceed, and probably went to rude but believe me when you read this having a real issue sharing files and trying to work with a remote desktop thing really breaks your balls when someone says: 'AFAICT these binoculars are not from any Apple program'.

Wow! No ofence but this is real Apple thing man. Is like you need to know at least what you are talking about a bit more than I do when asking and saying that so sure. Of course I'm not an expert because having these issues and you proably not because that wasn't a real lucky post, but at least I'm trying to learn and findout what in this case trying to get help where I cannot find it myself.

That's why I thought these questions asked before where out of the point and to finish it: 'I have never used Apple Remote Desktop, because I never needed to'. Let's saydoesn't help much eighter.

Anyway, not in that rude attitude anymore so peace and again, sorry if that hurt someone's feelings. All the best.