Access your Mac remotely: the right method for each case

Controlling one Mac from another in the same house, or pulling up your home Mac from a hotel room, are two different technical problems with different solutions. macOS ships a genuinely good built-in tool for the first. For the second, Apple used to have an answer, discontinued it years ago and hasn’t replaced it, which is the biggest source of confusion in this space.

Which case are you in?

Start with one question: where will you be when you connect?

• Same house, same Wi-Fi or Ethernet: use built-in Screen Sharing. If you only need a command line, Remote Login is lighter.
• Anywhere else: built-in Screen Sharing can’t find your Mac on its own. Go to the from-anywhere options.

Same house, same Wi-Fi: built-in Screen Sharing

If both Macs are on the same local network, wired or wireless, macOS’s built-in Screen Sharing handles this in about two minutes with nothing to install. It has been part of macOS for close to twenty years and remains the simplest route for exactly this case.

Setting it up

On the Mac you want to access (the one that will stay put):

1. Open System Settings > General > Sharing.
2. Turn on Screen Sharing.
3. Choose who can connect: All Users lets anyone with an account on that Mac in, or pick specific users and groups for tighter control.
4. Note the Mac’s name or local address shown in the Sharing pane; you’ll need it from the other side.

Connecting from the other Mac

You have two equally valid routes:

• Through Finder: open a Finder window, find the other Mac’s name under Locations or Network in the sidebar, and click Share Screen.
• Through the Screen Sharing app directly: press Command-Space, type Screen Sharing, open it, and connect using the Mac’s name or address.

You’ll either log in automatically if both Macs share an Apple ID, or be prompted for the target Mac’s username and password. Once connected, you can view and fully control the other Mac’s screen, with quality that adapts automatically to your network conditions by default.

One setting to check: Remote Management and Screen Sharing can’t both be active at once on the same Mac. If Screen Sharing won’t turn on, check whether Remote Management is enabled in the same Sharing pane and turn it off first.

If you can’t connect

• Check that both Macs are on the same network. Guest Wi-Fi networks and some office networks keep devices from seeing each other.
• Confirm that Screen Sharing is on and your account is allowed in System Settings > General > Sharing.
• If the Mac’s name doesn’t appear, connect by address: in Finder choose Go > Connect to Server and type vnc://mac-local-address.
• Check that the macOS firewall, or a third-party one, isn’t blocking incoming connections.
• Make sure the Mac you want to reach is awake. A sleeping Mac often won’t answer.

Just need the Terminal, not the screen?

If what you actually want is command-line access rather than the full graphical screen, Remote Login is lighter and faster:

1. System Settings > General > Sharing, turn on Remote Login instead of (or alongside) Screen Sharing.
2. From the other Mac’s Terminal: ssh username@mac-local-address

This also works on the same local network only, like Screen Sharing, unless you combine it with one of the from-anywhere options below.

From outside your home network

This is where it gets genuinely harder, and it’s worth understanding why before you pick a tool. Built-in Screen Sharing relies on Bonjour to discover the other Mac, and Bonjour does not cross a router. From a coffee shop or hotel Wi-Fi there is nothing on that network for your Mac to find, however correctly you configured Screen Sharing at home.

Your realistic options, in order of how much setup they require:

1. A VPN back to your home network. If your router can run a VPN server, connecting to it first makes your traveling Mac appear to be on your home network again, and ordinary Screen Sharing then works exactly as it does at home. This is the most «correct» solution technically, but router setup varies widely and isn’t trivial for everyone.
2. A mesh VPN service such as Tailscale. These create a private network between your devices wherever each one physically is, without router configuration. Install the client on both Macs and sign in to the same account on each, and they can reach each other directly, including through Screen Sharing, as if on the same LAN.
3. A dedicated remote-access service built specifically to solve this gap, generally needing an account and a client app on both ends, with NAT traversal handled for you. These typically also require Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions on the host Mac, the same permissions any screen-sharing tool needs.
4. Third-party remote-desktop apps like Chrome Remote Desktop, AnyDesk or TeamViewer. These work across platforms and don’t require a VPN, at the cost of running a separate client and, for some, routing your session through the vendor’s own servers rather than connecting directly.

Avoid port forwarding as a DIY solution unless you specifically know what you’re doing. Opening a port directly to Screen Sharing or SSH on your home router exposes that service to the entire internet, not just to you, and is a meaningfully worse security posture than any of the options above.

Why this got harder after Back to My Mac

Apple used to solve exactly this problem natively. Back to My Mac, part of iCloud, let you find and reach your own Mac from anywhere using just your Apple ID, with no router configuration. Apple discontinued it starting with macOS Mojave in 2018 and has not shipped a direct replacement since. If you’ve used a Mac for a long time and remember this being simpler, that memory is accurate; Apple genuinely removed a feature here, and you didn’t forget how it worked.

Keep it secure

Remote access is convenient for you and for anyone who finds a way in. A few habits keep it yours:

• Allow only the users who need access, rather than All Users.
• Use a strong password on every account that can connect.
• Turn Screen Sharing and Remote Login off when you don’t need them.
• Keep macOS and your remote-access apps updated.
• Where a remote-access service offers two-factor authentication, turn it on.

Keep the Mac reachable

Remote access only works if the Mac is on and awake. Before you travel, check that it won’t go to sleep by itself. On a desktop Mac, look in System Settings > Energy; on a laptop, in System Settings > Battery > Options. The options to look for stop automatic sleeping when the display is off, or let the Mac wake for network access. A laptop with its lid closed and no power connected is unlikely to be reachable.

Test before you leave. While you’re still at home, connect from another network, such as your phone’s hotspot, so you find problems while you can still fix them.

Your options, compared

A rule of thumb: if you travel regularly, set up a mesh VPN once and forget it. For a one-off emergency, a remote desktop app is quicker to install. Keep the home VPN for people who are already comfortable with their router.

The short version

• Two Macs on the same Wi-Fi: use built-in Screen Sharing, turned on in System Settings > General > Sharing. Nothing to install.
• Terminal-only access on the same network: Remote Login (SSH) is lighter than full screen sharing.
• From outside your home network, built-in Screen Sharing can’t find your Mac on its own, because it relies on Bonjour, which doesn’t cross a router.
• A mesh VPN like Tailscale is the lowest-effort way to reach your Mac from anywhere without router configuration.
• Never forward Screen Sharing or SSH ports directly to the internet; it’s a real security risk, not just an inconvenience.