macOS has it for free as well. The $80 app adds more enterprise-focused features. See here how to use the built-in screen sharing app: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-and-use-screen-sharing-mh11848/mac
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Apple Alerting Customers to Upcoming Discontinuation of Back to My Mac in macOS Mojave
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The machine can't sleep in order to be accessible and you'll have to setup a script of some kind to automatically accept the Sharing Request from a specific user. It may also be that your company is blocking the port that screen sharing uses.
TeamViewer's feature that lets you view the screen of a remote iOS device is not free, and actually quite expensive. That is the main feature I want!!
cue anger from 90% of users who have never used back to my mac once in their lives.
Screen sharing on Mac, which does the same thing, is also free. RDP doesn't do what BTMM does/did.
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Cool, but that's not what we're talking about here, now is it? We're talking about Back to my Mac. Not Back to my iOS device.
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Nor remotely understand any of these remote technologies.
Correct, I'm just gripping today about it. It's a really useful feature that I wish Apple would implement...
RDP on Windows requires the Pro edition or above, so it is not "free". On top of that, for enterprise features you need to run Windows Server and then buy a RDS CAL license for every user or connecting device, which is ~$100/seat, plus annual maintenance (Software Assurance).
The two aren't really comparable.
Apple Remote Desktop was created years ago for managing large groups of computers, such as a school campus. It allows remote installations and management of applications, locking of remote machines, and lots of other administrative tasks that simply are far and beyond what Microsoft Remote Desktop allows.
The Apple comparison to Microsoft Remote Desktop would be Screen Sharing, which is built-in to macOS and will remain in Mojave. It's a simple remote client like MRD.
Meh. I've been using Screens from Edovia on both iOS and Mac for years without any issues. Just install Screens Connect on your Mac and you're good to go. Much cheaper than ARD!
edovia.com
edovia.com
I'm surprised no one is using the free Google Remote Desktop. Works seamlessly without needing to set up anything complicated.
Back to my Mac never worked that reliably for me. I set up my iMac as a default server on my AirPort Extreme and use VNC or SMB to log in. This works just as well. I was concerned about security, but I guess the login and the connection are both encrypted from what I've read.
Back to my Mac has been made increasingly less useful in the past few years. In fact, I haven't been able to get it to work successfully since probably 2009...
This is very frustrating news. I use Back to my Mac so I can do stuff for my dad on his computer while he is gone on trips. All I had to do was switch to the user account I set up with his iCloud. What’s with Apple getting rid of first party tools? It’s starting to reduce the value of macOS. Any suggestions for alternatives?
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Yeah. That was one of the things that really had a potential but every time i used it it was a major PITA to set up and than very often somehow did not work for me properly. As long as there are better alternatives (even at 80$) Im ok with it.
I really have to have NO choice to use anything google. Sharing my computer access would be the last thing ever...
Screen and file sharing is free and always has been. What is going away is free NAT traversal. Now you'll need to open a port or set up a VPN server (and open its ports). iTeleport Connect is another free NAT traversal for screen sharing.
Mike Richardson
macrumors regular
Who the hell worded this message? It makes it seem as if Back to My Mac is actually going to be *shut down* and no longer work even in the older versions of Mac OS X.
In fact the message is outright presumptious - as if 100% of Mac users upgrade to the new version of the OS the day it comes out. Only idiots do that. I only recently upgraded to 10.13 on my main laptop and that was only because the 10.12 install was royally FUBAR'd.
It actually used to work fine for me a few years ago (BTTM). I used a Power Mac G5 at my office and I had no trouble accessing it from elsewhere using OS X 10.9. I don't have a separate office anymore, but now at home I have fiber and static IPs, so I just assign static IPs to my main devices there for remote access. The office router was not Apple either.
BTTM did work best with an Apple router, before I got fiber I used an AirPort Extreme and it worked nicely.
The way it worked was rather interesting too. It used IPv6 and some kind of secure VPN tunneling.
The only decent free replacement is TeamViewer. Recommending iCloud Drive is bulls_it, whoever thought of that should just slit their wrists.
This is further evidence of the slow decline of Apple since Steve Jobs died.
In fact the message is outright presumptious - as if 100% of Mac users upgrade to the new version of the OS the day it comes out. Only idiots do that. I only recently upgraded to 10.13 on my main laptop and that was only because the 10.12 install was royally FUBAR'd.
It actually used to work fine for me a few years ago (BTTM). I used a Power Mac G5 at my office and I had no trouble accessing it from elsewhere using OS X 10.9. I don't have a separate office anymore, but now at home I have fiber and static IPs, so I just assign static IPs to my main devices there for remote access. The office router was not Apple either.
BTTM did work best with an Apple router, before I got fiber I used an AirPort Extreme and it worked nicely.
The way it worked was rather interesting too. It used IPv6 and some kind of secure VPN tunneling.
The only decent free replacement is TeamViewer. Recommending iCloud Drive is bulls_it, whoever thought of that should just slit their wrists.
This is further evidence of the slow decline of Apple since Steve Jobs died.
Which, BTMM was always a little spotty for me. Now that I have VPN setup through my Mac server at the office (which they are killing the GUI for), I usually get pretty reliable access to my work computers, files and screen sharing. Where BTMM was helpful was when VPN on the server went screwy (usually due to an update) and I would still at least be able to get into my server to fix.
Apple just keeps getting rid of tools.
This to me sums up the problem with todays Apple, they honestly think money is no object for people. Don't get me wrong Apple products have always been expensive but usually from the necessity of making a quality product. Today, QC is down, dongles are on the rise and features are cut, all whilst increasing prices.
The perception is starting to shift for me (not in a binary way), but on a sliding scale, from a company that wanted to delight me, to a company that just wants to extract cash.
Pardon my naivety, but I’m really confused. Does this mean that we can’t share files on a local network or that we can’t screen share on a local network?
My parents always have computer issues. They’re an hour away. Will I be able to screen share with them on a FaceTime audio call on a Mac? This is very confusing.
My parents always have computer issues. They’re an hour away. Will I be able to screen share with them on a FaceTime audio call on a Mac? This is very confusing.