Turn Mac screen sharing on or off
You can use screen sharing to access your Mac while you’re away, solve a problem on someone else’s Mac, or collaborate with others on a project such as a website or presentation.
When screen sharing is enabled on your Mac, your Mac desktop can be viewed from another Mac on your network. While your screen is being shared, the user of the other Mac sees what’s on your screen and can open, move and close files and windows, open apps, and even restart your Mac.
Turn on screen sharing on your Mac
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
If Remote Management is selected, deselect it.
You can’t have both Screen Sharing and Remote Management on at the same time.
Select the Screen Sharing tickbox.
To specify who can share your screen, select one of the following:
All users: Any of your computer’s users can share your screen, except sharing-only users and guest users. If your Mac is connected to a network account server, anyone with an account on that server can share your screen using their network username and password. See Join your Mac to a network account server.
Only these users: Screen sharing is restricted to specific users.
If you selected “Only these users”, click the Add button
at the bottom of the users list, then do one of the following:Select a user from Users & Groups, which includes all the users of your Mac except sharing-only users and guest users.
Select a user from Network Users or Network Groups, which includes users and groups with network server accounts. Network users and members of network groups can use their network name and password to connect to your Mac for screen sharing.
To set additional options for screen sharing, click Computer Settings, then select one or both of the following:
Anyone may request permission to control screen: Before other computer users begin sharing the screen of your Mac, they can ask for permission instead of entering a username and password.
VNC viewers may control screen with password: Other users can share your screen using a VNC viewer app — on iPad or a Windows PC, for example — by entering the password you specify here. If you select this option, you should create a very secure password.
Turn off screen sharing on your Mac
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
Deselect the Screen Sharing tickbox.
For additional remote management capabilities, such as installing and configuring apps, helping remote users and creating detailed reports, you can purchase Apple Remote Desktop from the App Store. Apple Remote Desktop is used to remotely manage Mac computers in a commercial or business environment.
Screen sharing and Apple Remote Desktop screen sharing are compatible with Virtual Network Computing (VNC), an industry standard for controlling computers remotely on a network using TCP/IP.