vnc, apple remote desktop control not working

Since upgrading to Mojave I am unable to remotely control my computer using either VNC or Apple Remote Desktop. I have been using these tools with the same network setup for years in prior OS versions. I can connect, but only (apparently) in observe mode-- I have no mouse control, clicks do nothing etc. I have tried turning the sharing settings Off and On on the host, I have tried enabling only VNC or ony enabling remote managment, but nothing works.


In searches I have found some reports of the need to specifically enable screen sharing, but i seems that by turning this setting off and on I would have accomplished that, but still doesn't work.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), macOS Mojave (10.14)

Posted on Oct 28, 2018 7:09 AM

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24 replies

Dec 23, 2018 6:02 AM in response to dcpdx

I did two more things, one of which (or both) solved my problem (at least, for now).


  1. I removed /usr/local/remotedesktop. This is a directory from an older ARD install and it is a pkg that sets remote desktop client settings in some way. Looking inside these were old settings (for ARD 3.8.0). Some of my systems have this, others not. I think it is harmless. It has been moved there during migration.
  2. I did a reboot in safe mode (keep shift pressed during boot). That took a long time, but in safe mode I could control the MBP. Then I rebooted again and now I can control in a normal boot as well, so my probleem seems to be solved for now.

Feb 15, 2019 7:51 AM in response to pbredtag

I've been having tons of trouble accessing Mojave from Windows using VNC, due to the new access management. As of today, Mojave seems to have a bug which is documented in other places on the Web where the VNC connection from garden-variety Windows VNC clients (TigerVNC, etc.) will hang, give you a login screen with a spinner that never goes away, or give you a black screen, especially if you've locked the remote screen previously. And there are no current open-source Mac VNC servers anymore that are still maintained. I signed up for a trial of RealVNC, and that works fine, and has the added advantage of setting up an encrypted connection - plus, it also seems that the RealVNC free VNC Connect client actually can reliably access the Apple VNC server. For their own server, you have to follow the instructions they provide here:


https://help.realvnc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016134372-Remote-access-to-macOS-10-14-Mojave-is-view-only-until-access-is-granted-locally-to-the-vncagent-application


but that shouldn't be necessary if you're using the free client to contact the Apple VNC server.

Dec 18, 2018 12:11 PM in response to dcpdx

I have the same problem. Shared control or Absolute control is not possible. I have found a workaround, that might help depending on what your using it for. I use the "Lock computer screen while you control" button. After waiting for 10 to 30 seconds I can control the remote mac. It is very important to remember to unlock before leaving the session. I have not had success with unlock later. A forced restart is the only solution then.

If I disconnect the display from the mac I can control it without this workaround.

Mar 19, 2019 11:40 AM in response to dcpdx

Well, my VNC control is now working!


Today I decided to uninstall Adobe Flash; after doing this, I decided to test the VNC connection and lo and behold it works, observe, control, just like it used to before Mojave.


Now, I can't say for sure that flash was the problem as I had not tested it in several weeks; however I did test it after the last Mac OS minor update and it did NOT work (that was about a month ago). There have been no intentional/significant configuration changes to my system since then that I can think of.

Feb 11, 2019 11:50 PM in response to dacpdx

Could not find it either.

I found this, man pages will give you some more details.

AppleVNCServer(8)        - listens for VNC connections from clients

VNCPrivilegeProxy(8)     - Screen sharing server helper daemon

screensharingd(8)        - listens for VNC connections from clients

/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AppleVNCServer

/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/screensharingd.bundle/Contents/MacOS/screensharingd


In my case it was the graphics card. I swapped it out with a new and now remote works. Have had no problems with 10 other macs that was upgraded from Sierra directly.


Oct 31, 2018 1:50 PM in response to MrHoffman

See my reply below-- safe mode did not work (posted reply signed into a different account)

now looking at console messages, I see:


default13:37:39.184357 -0700screensharingdstart monitoring screen changes
default13:37:39.184537 -0700screensharingdHandleAutoFrameBufferUpdateMessage2 flag 1
default13:37:39.247478 -0700screensharingdGetPixelTranslateFunction srcdepth 32 outsize 16
default13:37:39.473834 -0700screensharingd***HandleChangeSessionVsibilityMessage***
default13:37:39.474272 -0700screensharingdLockScreenIsActive check
default13:37:39.496192 -0700screensharingdCheckLockScreenPIDFile: return 0
default13:37:39.496706 -0700screensharingdShowCurrentSession did nothing - viewer already on console
default13:37:39.665485 -0700screensharingdHandleSetServerScalingMessage - set scaling to 1.000000
default13:37:39.665550 -0700screensharingdviewer->sendResolutionChange set send res change
default13:37:39.665568 -0700screensharingdSFB gViewerConnections[ i ] 5 address 0x10c9cbd10 i = 0
default13:37:39.665584 -0700screensharingdsend res change to viwewer
default13:37:39.665688 -0700screensharingdrebuild active display list cache
default13:37:39.665746 -0700screensharingdSendResolutionChargeToViewer and sendDisplayInfoFlag


at ..665584, the message is a little ambiguous ot me-- it it saying "change to viewer" (as in viewer Vs. Control mode)? or is it saying it's sending a resolution change to the viewer... There are a lot more screensharingd messages, but I don't see anything that looks like it is indicating a problem.

Dec 19, 2018 7:07 AM in response to dcpdx

I have the same problem. I have a number of machines I can control, among which three new ones, one Mac mini 2018, two MacBook Pros TouchBar 2018.


Two of the three work fine with ARD. One MBP does not. I've looked at everything I can think of, firewalls, permissions, networking, etc. I can observe, but not control. The remote MBP says "Assisted Mode".


The only two things that may differ between both MBPs is

  • It had the LG OnScreen Control app installed for a test, but this was removed later
  • It has Citrix installed


I am going to do a test later without Citrix, but after that I'm at a loss.



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vnc, apple remote desktop control not working

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